One of the more common complimentary hobbies that consume the free time of homebrewers is gardening. Perhaps the most popular gardening-related activity is growing hops. Many hop varieties grow quite well in most parts of the United States. I may do a post fully devoted to growing hops in the future, but there is plenty of information available on the subject here and elsewhere. This post will specifically address my experience of digging up and splitting my 3-year-old hops.
I planted the hops seen below in the Spring of 2011, so this is the beginning of their 3rd year. In general, the hop plant is an extremely invasive species that will takeover an entire area if allowed to grow freely. Therefore, it is recommended that the hop crown (seen below) be divided up every 3rd year or so. As you can see below, this Chinook hop crown is quite substantial (approx. 1.5 ft diameter). But it started from a rhizome (underground stem) approximately 6-8 inches long. This is also how the majority of hop plants are propogated, from the cuttings of the crowns. Treated correctly, each cutting will grow into its own hop plant. I grow 6 hop varietals: Chinook, Sterling, Northern Brewer, Pride of Ringwood, Nugget, and Fuggle. After cutting down the crowns and replanting, I collected several grocery bags full of rhizomes to be replanted by interested homebrew club members. Get them while they last!
More rhizomes.
Sacks of rhizomes in the beer fridge. They're hiding my lagering Pilsner (notice the airlock).
Hopefully my hop garden will do some catching up with yours this year. Last year's Braugarten was very impressive. My Centennial is already looking good.
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