Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

I plan to have a huge supply of Cascade rhizomes available at the next meeting. Some of you planted some of these years ago. I am planning to move my cascades from my Mom's place to mine so I can do a better job keeping up on them. Please take as many rhizomes as you want as they are free to me and I will throw away what does not get taken away that evening. All you need is some ground that gets sun and something for them to grow up. I use a post with string attached. The picture is from last year when many of the hops had started to brown and were past their prime.

Matt,
I've never seen a hop rizome before. How big are they? I just need to know what kind/size of container to bring.
Thanks,
Randy

A zip lock sandwich bag will be plenty big.

Bring a wheel barrow, they are huge!!! I have a truck so if you need to borrow that it will help, its only a half ton but if you have a 1 ton dually you can usually hold 2 – 3. I’d take a picture for you but you need a wide angle lens.


From: carrisr [mailto:brew-equipment@crbeernuts.org]
Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2010 8:30 PM
To: brew-equipment@crbeernuts.org
Subject: Re: Cascade Rhizomes available at next meeting.


Matt,
I've never seen a hop rizome before. How big are they? I just need to know what kind/size of container to bring.
Thanks,
Randy




Randy Carris
Trouble Brewing

Post generated using Mail2Forum (http://www.mail2forum.com)

They are basically a chunk of root and will be in a wide variety of sizes. You don't need to bring any bags. I have a large supply of grocery store sacks to send them home with you. They are very hearty. I had some sit in my fridge for a couple months one year and when Larry planted them in June/July they still got tall and had some cones.

Mr T wrote:Bring a wheel barrow, they are huge!!! I have a truck so if you need to borrow that it will help, its only a half ton but if you have a 1 ton dually you can usually hold 2 – 3. I’d take a picture for you but you need a wide angle lens.

OK, for the record, I'm not THAT stupid, but nice try!

I just didn't know if they would be in a root ball or bare for example.

Finally dug up my hops last night. I put them in the ground shortly after midnight so I haven't seen them in daylight yet. They are much further along than usual with the warm spring we have had. Many of the bines are already over two feet. I am not sure how well the whole plant will transfer as usually you just plant a rhizome. The picture shows me digging up one of my cascades. This thing was a three inch long chunk of root five years ago. Hope my neighbors didn't think I was digging a hole for a body last night. Crossed my mind as I dumped loads of dirt in the approximately 3'x6' hole at 1 am.

Do you trim back the bines. I recall hearing that you should trim back all but the strongest three or so bines, but I'm not sure if that's true, or if I'm just halucinating again.

I planted some last year (Mt Hood and Willamette that I ordered, pluse one of Matt's cascades.) They were a little wimpy last year, but growing like kudzu this.

Mr T wrote:Bring a wheel barrow, they are huge!!! I have a truck so if you need to borrow that it will help, its only a half ton but if you have a 1 ton dually you can usually hold 2 – 3. I’d take a picture for you but you need a wide angle lens.

See, doesn't seem like such a dumb question now, huh?

You are correct, you only keep two to three bines. Problem in the past has been keeping up on it. When it was in my Mom's garden I didn't get over there enough and eventually a bunch grew all over the place. A big reason to keep it trimmed up is to prevent disease like mildew from taking over which can be promoted by a bunch bines laying around the base. I have never transplanted an entire hop mass like this before so I am going to let it go for now and play it by ear. I figure I will be able to tell pretty soon which bines will survive the transplant. Otherwise, I will start from scratch again with a rhizome. After a year or two of developing the root system, it is amazing how much and how fast they grow. Cool plant even if you don't want to keep the hops.

I will have some copies of a two-page growing hops article from BYO March-April 2008 you can take home with you that cover the basics.

If you can't plant your rhizomes right away don't sweat it. Just keep 'em in the fridge with a moist paper towel until you are ready to plant. They will stay in there for a while just fine.

Also, Chris Burke would like to get a few rhizomes but couldn't make it to the meeting last night. If anyone has some extra give Chris a call at (319) 377-2244.

Final item, you can get a hop analysis for alpha acid %, beta acid%, and Cohumulone % for $24 from http://www.brewlaboratory.com/ which has had positive feedback from a post on Tech Talk. Currently I just use my homegrowns for late additions and dry hopping so haven't worried about these things. Would be cool to know, but you can always learn by experimenting too.