Hanging Hops

The tallest vine is 23"

The historically famous hop growing regions of the world are found around latitude 48, where long summer day-length allows vines to quickly grow upwards of 20' tall. By contrast, Gallup lies around latitude 35, with considerably shorter summer days. Despite this hops can still be grown here. To compensate for the shorter days I've placed my hops in a full sun location and found they grow well even in the summer heat as long as they get tons of water. Second only to very rich and wet soil, I've found the key to having healthy vines is limiting wind damage to the vines and leaves. While frost tolerant, very cold temperatures below 27 degrees, can also hurt early growth.

Rigging up the trellis

After selecting the most vigorous vines to grow to maturity (the others are trimmed and this year I'm experimenting with transplanting the clippings- so far they seem to be taking), they need to be trained around a sturdy, tall, and taught trellis. Professional hop growers use 18' coconut coir twine, known for its strength and rough texture, for the trellis. I just use cotton twine tied to a 13' ponderosa pole. This year I was a week or two late rigging up the trellis, and a strong wind storm seemed to damage most of the leaves on the vines that had already grown to 2' in length. They seem to be recovering well and I hope to have a decent hop harvest in September.

Hops

2010's Chinook Hops (3" tall)

On April 2nd the first of the Chinook hops emerged from their cold, soggy wine barrel home. Planted two years ago, the Chinook (think IPA brews) variety shares half of the barrel with a rhizome of the Centennial (think Pilsner) variety, and both have proved to be one of the most eager and vigorous perennials I've ever planted. I'll supplement the warming thermal mass of rocks ringing the barrel with a blanket on nights that drop below 25; I've also used christmas lights in years past to protect the early emerging shoots. When the chance of frigid cold nights passes, I'll cut all but 2 or 3 of the strongest vines (then about 1-2' long), and encourage them to start climbing the 10' string trellis. Throughout June and July I've seen the vines grow more than 2 inches a day! In more northern climates with longer summer day lengths, hops grow to more than 20' tall. In August they start to set flowers at the top of the vine, and I've usually harvested in early September.

The hop barrel's new growth

Originally, I bought five varieties of hops from Victor's Grape Arbor in Albuquerque (Victor orders hop rhizomes of various varieties for sale each April; $4 each) with the intention of experimenting with which variety would excel in our growing climate. Poorly planned transplants killed off 3 of the varieties the first year, and the Chinook variety has always been the strongest of the remaining two. However, I can't really attribute it's good health to being better adapted to this region, as the Chinook rhizome was also the biggest (and already sprouting) one I bought that year. It's first season it grew over 8' tall and produced a harvest of flowers that filled a gallon zip-lock bag.

2009's slightly disappointing vines

As the price of hops increases every year (there was a world-wide shortage in 2008), I've intended to plant a permanent row of hops (the constantly growing rhizomes much prefer to be in the ground, than trapped in a barrel), but another season seems to have come without me committing another portion of the garden to this vining perennial.

After the initial fermentation, hops stick to the top of the carboy