Hop Plants 2014

[kingbeefy]

My best plant (nugget) took a beating with some high wind today. Broke 2 of the 3 bines off. Alas.

Well that sucks. People don't think the wind be like it is. But it do.

[badwhale]

I salvaged as much as I could. I needed the 8' ladder to get up there and cut the killed ones. Now, both my nuggets look like first year. Cascade still be like it is.

[badwhale]

Those buggers. The Nugget is growing more bines, and more radials to make up for the lost bines.

The cascade is up and into the gutter.

The chinook is making moderate progress. I still water the dead one in hopes of a miracle.

[badwhale]

[badwhale]

Where am I at...HOLYBALLS way farther than this. I have to post pix. I'll do that very soon.

The second Chinook never came up, but the other did a formidable job for a 1st year. Cascade rocked, and Nugget was also a monster. I think I'll dry hop an upcoming Porter, and give away / vacuum pack the rest.

Came downstairs this morning, and the D/S was cold as hell. It was 67, and cold air blowing around. It felt like Fall (aka Spring for Death)

Harvest is coming!!!

[badwhale]

Just to wrap this up, and to totally change the tone, my hops were HUGE, but a huge failure. I ended up picking them all, and the mostly looked good, but a lot of the tops had a big aphid / ladybug battle going on. What happened, I think, is I took to long to harvest, and they just got infested. We had a really cool (temp) summer here. I don't know if that contributed? Anyway, with the new addition, I had no time to brew any wet hop ales, so I was going to give them to someone, and they never collected, so they all got trashed.

My wife did, however make some cool hop vine wreathes, so it wasn't a total loss.

Will