NZ home grown hops

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Permalink Reply by Chris on January 15, 2015 at 9:04am

From my understanding (watching videos etc)

First year is rapid growth (height wise, requires alot of fertilization)

"Harvest:
You will not get any flowers in the first year as the plant is establishing the rootstock. The hops are ready for picking in mid-March to late May. The hop cone will turn from a moist silky feel to being dry and papery. When the edges begin to turn brown they are ready to be picked. They will ripen at various stages."

Second year is a decent yield; then ever year after is better. (assuming feeding watering etc is done properly)

If it is growing where you want it to grow, wait for next year and then post photos :D

check out this

http://www.seedaholic.com/humulus-lupulus-hops.html for more info

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Permalink Reply by Robbie on January 15, 2015 at 9:07am

Great, thanks Chris.

I have been reading as much material as I can but finding any information directly about New Zealand has been difficult, which is sort of doesn't make sense as we have an established industry here... 

thanks again!

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Permalink Reply by Chris on January 15, 2015 at 9:40am

An established commercial industry; NZ Hops Ltd don't want people growing their own hops (not because of profit; although that could be) because they don't want contamination and diseases to effect the quality of the hops made.

Therefore we don't really have a culture of homegrown hops and cultivation.

just my view :)

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Permalink Reply by Peter Church on January 15, 2015 at 10:04am

I did get enough off my first year danscade cutting for a liberal late hop addition in a brew  last year so just keep up the water and fert and see what happens, cones at harvest filled a 5litre bucket from memory, didn't weigh much though

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Permalink Reply by Robbie on January 15, 2015 at 10:06am

Did you bother drying them or do a wet hop?

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Permalink Reply by Peter Church on January 15, 2015 at 10:11am

we have a dehydrator so I dried them 

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Permalink Reply by Peter Church on January 15, 2015 at 9:09pm

Looking foward to this years version, got my pale ale dialled in more now, didn't get the hop hit I hoped for at the time but put more effort into water treatme t and better ph monitoring now so should get the home grown hops standing out a bit more this year

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Permalink Reply by Nathan on January 15, 2015 at 10:15am

What sort of fert and water schedule should be used........I have just left mine to there own devices so far, They are growing high but only very flimsy single shoots with no signs of flowers etc

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Permalink Reply by Chris on January 15, 2015 at 11:25am

For reference later

Bufalo hop fertiliser guide

http://buffalo.uwex.edu/files/2011/01/fertilizer-guide.pdf

Growing hops small scale

http://www.crannogales.com/HopsManual.pdf

Bio security NZ (seed import etc)

http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/files/regs/imports/plants/high-value...

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Permalink Reply by Robbie on January 15, 2015 at 11:36am

A bit of lunch time reading there, thanks Chris

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Permalink Reply by Robbie on January 28, 2015 at 8:22am

Just got back from my holiday to be welcomed by a bunch of these bad boy flowers!

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Permalink Reply by Ollie Goulden on February 11, 2015 at 3:20pm

my second year hops are growing really well. any suggestions for recipes to use "mystery German" would be great 

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