So I suppose that if I am going to write about the hops
I should start at the very beginning....
a very good place to start
I think the hop update will need to be a series of posts
because I don't know if I could possibly post
THAT much information all at once
my husband would never get dinner
that might be bad....
I should start by saying that we are loving the farm more and more each day.
There are two times of day that I love to be there;
In the morning with my coffee going for a walk and doing some weeding before it gets too hot
AND
In the evening around 5 because that is when my handsome husband gets there from work and because he is so busy and working so hard that is my quality time with him :)
Even Stu looks forward to his daily field trips to the farm. I have never seen that dog so happy... All dogs should have a farm to play on.
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Thor- Chris and Amanda's dog trying to beat the heat by "taking a bath".
Stu and Thor love each other. |
So this is where we started...
This spring the boys chose the spot for the hops. This was not the easiest task only because the land has no drainage and we needed a place that the trellis system would be protected from the wind. Once an area was picked they took some time to spray some round up to kill off the wheat that was already growing in the area.
We sprayed round up on a little over an acre.
Then we plowed the land really deep...as deep as the implement would go.
The boys also spread lime on the ground. Lime is used for establishing the correct pH for growing, which is really important for hop growth...it can make or break you. All together it took about one evening to spray and another 2ish evenings to plow
After the land was ready it was time to put in the trellis system that would allow the hops to grow vertically. We put in 90 poles-- 6 poles per row with 15 rows. The trellis took us a weekend to get into place. When the trellis went in we had some help from
Justin's dad and Ed, two really stand up guys. They worked their little tail ends off that weekend. Especially because the auger didn't work. so
everything was dug out with the bucket, shovels, and post hole
diggers.--uggghhh
The trellis is important for a few reasons:
First, it allows us to use a lot of vertical space and get a higher crop yield using less land.---pssh awesome
Second, hops grow FAST! If the conditions are right they will grow 12-15 inches per day meaning the trellis system is the ideal avenue for such a vigorous plant.
The trellis plan that we used is fairly simple and relatively new according to Justin...
I personally have no idea.
The poles we used are 20 foot locust fir poles that were placed about 4 feet into the
ground, Leaving us with a trellis that is about 16 feet tall. Once the
trellis poles were in we had to mound our rows for planting. We did this by using a
tractor and some farm workers to help us out--man can they work fast!
These next couple pictures are a few of my favorite...
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| looking down on the hop yard before planting |
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| view of the farm 16 feet up |
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| mounds for the hops to be planted |
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| Poles..not for dancing???hmmm this might be awkward |
Then the fun part came in...the planting. There are a few different ways to start your hop yard; you can plant hop plants which are already established plants (sort of like when you buy transplant vegetables if you don't have a green house) Or you can plant the rhizomes. Rhizomes are basically a root cutting from the plant and the best way to start your crop. This is what we chose to do and have been pretty successful with an emergence rate of about 80%.
And if you are anything like me you will refer to them as "ribosomes" for the entire first month that you are a "hop farmer" and your husband will selectively correct you but smile and roll his eyes every time you say the word ribosomes.
We planted three different varieties this year: Cascade, Mt. Hood, and Willamette! These three varieties all contribute aroma to beer..not taste
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| Rhizomes before planting... |
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| checking them for mold and sprouts |
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| hop sprout |
Planting has to be done by hand. Rhizomes should only be planted about 1-11/2 inches under soil and we needed to be very careful about our planting practices to ensure that we had even spacing between rows.
It took us about 3 days to plant our 1200 rhizomes and by the middle of the project Amanda and I who were getting a little bit dizzy from being at the farm started doing exercises while we planted-push ups, squats, anything to keep us sane.
We also had some planting help!
They were pretty serious about doing things right
And they kept saying...
"wow, we never thought we would be doing this"
JOIN THE CLUB!
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| Wayne Lemke...who we purchased the land from |
It was a few weeks of REALLY hard work...
Like REALLY hard work.
BUT after it was all planted and mostly together it felt sooooo good, and we were able to take a step back and see another part of our dream really unfold
Which is an amazing feeling.
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| Hop field ALL PLANTED...WAAHHOOOO!!! |
