Indoor Hop plant experiment, where to get rhizones in july/a

[bcotton]

I have been brewing beer for a few years and I want to expand my brewing experience by growing my own hops. The main problem being , i live in an apartment. This old thread from real beer has inspired me to try and grow hops indoors, aeroponically.

http://www.realbeer.com/discussions/sho ... eadid=8063


I am not an experienced grower of anything but I am absorbing all the information google has to offer. I have actually built a system similar to the one xian built in the thread.

yesterday , i started my search for finding the rhizomes to start my experiment and found out that noone has rhizomes this time of year and (from what i read) i shouldnt expect a rhizome from march to still grow.

Apparently, july is the planting season in australia but I am not certain of the legalities of trying to import hop rhizomes.

Does anyone have any suggestions on where/how I can find rhizomes in july/august to begin my 1st growth cycle?


Thanks,
Brian

[bcotton]

Well, i found a guy on ebay selling cascade rhizomes. I would prefer not-cascade but i guess i am just that desperate. I asked him how old they were and he said 7 months.. but that he has kept them in the fridge, they are still firm and he has gotten 4 of 4 attempts to sprout with the latest "test" being as little as a month ago.

I went ahead and ordered them and today i got the 2 rhizomes. I figure it beats waiting til march to start my indoor garden. They came folded in a wet paper towel, packaged inside a ziplock back, inside packing media, inside a small manila envelope.

As described they are firm and in a couple of the knots i see a small light green to clear colored thorn poking out that looks like new growth. So, I have placed them carefully in my aeroponic setup and am hopeful to get a sprout in a few days.


Thanks for the views,
Brian

[Bill Lawrence]

I would suggest that Richard would be a good source for growing things indoors although I don't know if he has any experience with hops specifically.

[bcotton]

Thanks for the recommendation. Unfortunately i dont know richard, but I hope to correct that. My work schedule (2pm-10pm m-f) has kept me from coming to meetings but i will have to drag my lethargic ass out of bed one weekend and make a brew day. I have been meaning to for a long time.

It's been about 23 days. One of the rhizomes died due to multiple complications.. first, I buried him too high in my aeroponic media and she dried out. Then, i got a mold infection in my pod and she didnt survive. The other one has sprouted and done fairly well despite my stupidity and even clumsiness. I recently pinched off the top/growth part of the bine trying to train her through my trellis, but she seems to be sprouting new growth areas from the joints/knots.

I've been taking pictures and am working on setting up a blog to document my experiment. I'll post up when it's together and accept all types of criticisms.

brian

[ssage21]

What would be the best hops variety to grow in the Dallas area? We get fairly hot in the summer and still have a good week of freezing weather every February. From what I've read hops grows best in cooler locations.

[Thors Brother]

I've heard that Cascade grows fairly well in Texas. Magnum and Centennial are sorta OK. I heard Willamette and Northern Brewer are horrible in Texas. All discussions and quick talk. No personal experience here.

[bcotton]

My buddy has been growing a cascade in a half barrel pot. It's a second year and it looks to be doing well. The harvest should be later this month, we will see how many ounces we get.

My indoor experiment has been hindered by my own learning curve. I am just tryingto keep this one alive while I learn so hopefully the next round will go a lot smoother.

[jeffkeeler]

This is my first year to grow hops. I planted Kent Golding, Northern Brewer and Perle. The KG and NB didn't produce much but the Perle did great! I've already harvested 8 oz. and will probably get another 2 oz.

[kingsbrew]

I am no expert on growing hops but from what I understand hops like warm and/or hot days with full sun. However, they also like cool nights. We get the warm/hot days in summer but we don't get the cool nights. That doesn't mean you cannot grow them here as many people have been successful. All I am saying there is a reason the "best" hop growing areas are between the 40th and 50th parallel. I am sure there are hop varieties that are more suitable for growing here than others. The other issue here is our alkaline soil while hops like acidic to "very" slight alkaline.

This article says that you must be between the 30th and 50th parallel.