Spring is here and it's the perfect time to plant your Hop Rhizomes. Although you won't get much yield out of them the first year, you can still pair what you grow with some hop pellets and give your home brew a little extra freshness. Hop Rhizomes can be found at your local home brew shop or you can get them shipped online from a Hop supplier. Either way, they most likely came from Oregon or Washington which is where the majority of the hop supply comes from in the US. I actually ordered mine online from the
Thyme Garden (based out of Oregon).
So what the heck is a Hop Rhizome? It's just the root cutting from an already established hop vine. As you can see from the pictures I am planting four different varieties: Cascade, Zeus, Centinnel and Williamette. Cascade is very popular among hop growers because it has a high yield and usually fairs well in most climates. For brewing, it will have a floral, minty/spicy element and it can be used for bittering and/or aromatic purposes. I originally wanted to plant Chinook rhizomes (
inspired by Stone Brewery's crop), but the Thyme garden was sold out.
They said that Zeus would be a great substitute and he assured me that it should do ok in my growing conditions (we'll see!). Zeus hops are normally used for aroma (usually Pale Ales). The second pair I planted was Centinnel and Williamette. Both are to be used as a bittering and/or aromatic hop. Centinnel is a lot of times used for Stouts (which is my wife's favorite type of beer).
So I received my Hop Rhizomes in the mail, stuck them in the fridge (keeps them fresh) and over the weekend I prepared my little hop garden. My wife and I moved here last October and since it was a short sale, the last owner...let's just say he trashed the back yard.So we have had our hands full.
The first thing I had to do was dig up the soil and remove any rocks/debris that was in the area. I added three huge bags of gardening soil and mixed the two together. Now I have a nice, clean, solid foundation to plant my hops. Hops need adequate sunlight (6-8 hrs a day), good drainage, regular watering (especially the first year) and blockage from the wind.
Since Temecula can sometimes get nasty winds, I decided to plant near our wall.
Hops can reach up to 30 ft in height if you give them the right environment. In my case, I do not want my hops to grow that high. So what I did was planted a 7 foot tent pole trellis ( right in the middle of the hops).
I am going to attach four galvanized ring bolts through the top of the pole to secure the guy lines. I will then tie the guy lines to the ring bolt and tape the ends with waterproof tape. The other ends of the guy lines will be tied directly to the stakes and driven into the ground. I will then train each of the hops up the guy lines which should give me approximately 13 ft to grow the hop vines. Hop Rhizomes should be planted horizontally, the the white shoots pointing up and the rootlets leading down and to the sides. They are also supposed to be planted on a hill (for proper drainage).
So I dug a small trench about 6 inches deep in the top of the hill, placed the rhizome in it and covered it over with about 2 inches of soil. Now as you can see, the Cascade Rhizome they gave me already had a bit of growth to it, so you can see the vine already popping out of the soil. I planted each of the Rhizomes about 3 ft from each other and about 3 ft from the pole. This will give the roots plenty of room so they won't get mixed up with the other varieties.
Now, it's just a waiting game until we get to enjoy some fresh hops! I will update on the progress.
-Cheers
Any Questions? Comments?
It's always exciting to see your hard work pay off. After only planting my hops three weeks ago, 2 of the 4 hop trees have surfaced -the Cascade and the Zeus. It doesn't surprise me that the Cascade has made the quickest progress. Everything I read says that the Cascade has high yield in this Southern California climate. It also gets the most sun out of the four I planted. It also surprises me that the Zeus is off to such a great start because it has the least amount of sun our of the four I planted. 
As for the Centennial and Willamette, it looks like I planted them a little too deep. I dug both of them up to see if I could find any shoots. Sure enough, the Centennial was trying to surface, and the Willamette was planted way too deep. It still looks good, just not getting enough heat/sun, so I just cut the hill I had in about half. Hopefully we'll see some surfacing here in the next month.
As far as watering goes, we've been getting rain about once or twice a week lately so I've only watered maybe four times over the last three weeks. As it gets hotter, I will have to tend to them much more often. I plan on getting a drip system eventually which will save me time, water, and money! Be sure to not water directly on the plant because the sun can burn the leaves.
Next thing I will do is buy some stakes and guy line to start training my hops up the trellis. I'm hoping by fall that I can have some healthy hop plants that I can maybe pick off for the year to dry and use in some brew. However, most of my expectations lay in next year when the hops will be in their second year and should produce enough to brew some 5 gallon batches. Also, check out our peach tree -it's starting to bloom as well. I'm thinking a Peach Pale Ale would be pretty tasty come summer time! 
