My Hops Plants

The Trellis: Here's a picture of my Cascade hops on July 9, 1999. I know it's not a very good picture, I will get better ones as they progress, really! The bines on the left are second year, the ones on the right are first year bines. The trellis is made of eight foot long 3" PVC pipes. I put two 3" T's at the tops to get the "pi" shape. I screwed 2" drywall screws into predrilled holes to hold the piping together. This will enable me to disassemle the unit for winter storage. I then drilled tiny holes 18" apart and inserted 1" eyehook screws to hold the twine along the length of the top pieces of the trellis. The trellis is strapped to the chain link fence using 12" UV black tie wraps.

The eye hook screws: This is a close up of the top left end of the trellis. You can see the tiny eyehook screw and the twine tied to it. After I am done harvesting the cones, I will simply cut the twine and toss out the bines. I will also leave 4" of stalk to bury under 6" of mulch for the winter.

The ground stakes: This picture is one of the stakes that I pounded into the ground next to the hops bines. I then tied four twines, one each, up to each eye hook on the top of the trellis. I then trained the 4 strongest bines to grow up the twine. I cut any other bines that started once I had chosen my four growth bines. After they got about 5 feet tall, I trimmed all the leaves up to 3 feet. When they reached 8 feet tall I trimmed all the leaves up to 5 feet and kept it there.

The cones so far: Here's some of the little baby cones as of July 12, 1999. There are hundreds of these rascals growing all over the two year old bines. Another month or two and I will be harvesting these guys.

Newest picture of the cones: Here they are again, the same cluster of cones on August 25, 1999. This was taken just before I picked them. Notice how the ends of the leaves on the cones are starting to curl - this is the sign I use to pick them. They also have nice brown little hairs growing out from between the cones' leaves similar to another bud in the same family. There are several hundred of these cones ranging in size from 1" to 4" long and quite plump.

Here's a nice pile of some of the cones: Cascade makes for a nice American Pale Ale so I figured a glass of APA deserves to share the spotlight. Well, half a glass anyway.