Time to Grow

We headed out to the farm Tuesday to start cutting back bines that were not as strong as the ones already climbing the sisal cord. It was hard to cut back all of the green leaves, but after about the third plant, we got over our sadness and got it done. It took four of us, but we managed to hang the rest of the string on two rows, weed a bit, and cut back all plants.
Everytime we think a task is going to be easier than the last, we are unpleastanly mistaken. The plants have only been growing a few weeks and they were already over taking the grass and their hop neighbors. We had to figure out which bines were attached to the sisal and which ones were growing out in the grass. Plus, the plant has very, very tiny prickers, and is sticky, so everytime you touched them, it would scrape your skin just enough to leave really itchy red marks.
I’m sure we ended up cutting some of the plants at the ground that were already making its way up the cord. We will find out when we started seeing brown bines.
Here is a pic of the plants before we cut them back:

Here’s a shot of them after we cleaned them all up:

Here is the result when handling the plants without gloves or long sleeves:

Progress so far in pictures:

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They’re Aliiiiiive

First picture of the little guys.

First sprouts of the year!

Here are more pictures from the farm. All of the rope is rotted, so that needs to be replaced, some of the wires came loose, but they just have to be tightened. The drip irrigation has seen better days but hopefully it still works. Odd thing though, many of the rhizomes have broken the surface and are chillin’. But the rhizomes are hearty and healthy. To battle the weed problem, we are going to try wood chips instead of straw. This may help control it.

One of many rhizomes that breached the surface.

Hope we can just throw dirt over them.

Hops farm at sunset

It Begins

It’s January, 2010, and our rhizomes will reach their one year mark in May. The idea was great – organic hops grown right here in New Jersey. But it was late in the season. It would be difficult, but we would try. And that we did. We purchased the rhizomes, 260 of them, 7 different varieties. We needed a support system. Cedar Posts. Fortunately we were able to barter with neighbors. Then we started digging. And then we hit the shale. After many hours of back-breaking work, 3-foot holes were dug. 15 foot cedar poles were placed and secured. Wires were run. Holes were dug for the rhizomes. Fertilized with organic bone meal, covered with straw. Hop plants didn’t give us a chance to finish securing twine. Then life took over…and the hops took over the field…and we missed our harvest opportunity. We were able to get a good amount of Cascade (which are vacuum-sealed, sitting patiently in our freezer, any takers?), but for the varieties that needed special attention, they came and went.
Now it’s the end of January, and we are about to start it all up again, promising this time, to get the most out of our hard work. So it begins:

-Visit the field and see what the winter season has brought
-Secure wires that have come loose
-Purchase twine that will withhold the elements and weight of the plants
-Once the weather breaks, plow and fertilize (organically of course)
-Check drip irrigation system, make any repairs
-Hang up the twine and secure
-Continue with weeding, and fertilizing
-Watch the hops grow!

Now that we have experienced all of this, we know what to expect and cannot wait to see the fruits of our labor.

New Pics

That’s all folks.

We successfully grew organic hops in 2009. Just not enough to make a profit off of it. Seems like we waited too long to harvest. This season was trial and error for us, now we know what to expect for next year. And this time around, it won’t be so backbreaking. We were able to collect enough Cascade for our own brewing pleasure. Perhaps that will be our “winter project” because apparently every season needs a project…happy brewing!

More Pictures

These pictures were taken on July 23. I documented the different things I found while these suckers are growing. If anyone has any insight on to why some of these things are happening, please share!

Burnt Leaves

I found some of the leaves were burning from the outside in. 

And then I found some vines that just burned all the way to the top (thinking these vines met there match with a weedwacker).

Burnt Vines

I’m assuming these leaves were munched on by critters…the next picture may be culprit!

Something was hungry

Perhaps it was this little guy!

Tiny culprit

And even though discovering these things was discouraging, I came across this wonderful row of Hops:

Cascade Hops

Another Cascade

There seems to be problems dowloading the rest of the pictures. If you go to the link in my blogroll called “Progression of Hops”, it will take you to Photobucket where you can view the rest of the photos. Below is a picture taken right before I left, as you can see, a lot of the rows have either taken their time to grow or haven’t grown at all. I have no idea when we need to start picking the hops and I have no idea when to start cutting them down to the crown. Again, if anyone has advice or ideas, send them my way!

Look how green!

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Our Progress So Far…Pictures

It’s been a long time…

There hasn’t been much going on in the organic hops world…I need to get myself over there to weed. I started one row already, takes a long time. Maybe I can recruit some people to help when they come up from NC….wink wink…
I also need to find out how the tomatoes and peppers are doing,  I am trying to grow some on my balcony, but they don’t seem to be taking yet, plus there are crazy bugs all over them…it’s pretty gross.

Wires installed

We finally started getting the wire up that will support the cord when the plants grow. The hops need vertical support as well as horizontal support. I believe the boys finished the wire structure on Friday. We will then be able to start coaching the plants to grow up.

Garden at Sunset

We.Have.Hops.

Well we have the start of hops…This weekend turned out to be beautiful. The boys arrived back from AC alive with no arrests (that we know of). Us girls had an awesome time in Philly, and an awesome time at the zoo!!! Yesterday I headed out to Cross Country Nursery to pick up some pepper plants. This was my first time buying vegetable plants at a greenhouse. It was quite an experience. They give you this 50 page book with all of the varieties that they grow…along with a chart of how each can be used (stir-fry, stuffing, ornamental etc). I felt like I had entered into another dimension. Every plant looked EXACTLY the same, yet they were all different. Plus, the greenhouse did not have any sort of order and they didn’t have much left. So I chose what I thought would be good and went on my way. I bought 12 plants and it only cost me $23.00. Not too bad. 
I ended up getting a variety of sweet peppers, a hot pepper (Ring of Fire) (and of course couldn’t get the song out of my head all day), some basil, cilantro and a tomatillo plant called Dr. Wiche’s Yellow.

Dr. Wyche's Yellow

I headed up to the farm to check on the hops progress. Wow, are they progressing! Rapidly. Wire and rope need to be installed immediately.

Not exactly where we marked it

This guy is about a foot tall

It was very exciting to see our hard work was paying off. We will need a good couple of hours to weed and throw down more straw. Perhaps this week if the weather cooperates.
I was able to get an hour of planting time in at the garden, below are pictures of lettuce, spinach and the new tomato and pepper plants.

This is not my lettuce, but will look like that soon

This is my pathetic lettuce...

This is quite tasty

Tomato & Pepper Plants

Pepper Flower

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