- Adam

The first step was selecting and ordering the varieties I would like… after considering what would actually grow here in east San Diego County. A quick Internet search lead me to Cascade, Chinook and  Horizon. The Cascade and Chinook are said to be strong growers in most climate zones. I chose Horizon because they were different and, why not try them. I pre-ordered them From More Beer and waited. They finally came at the end of April, packaged in plastic and already bursting with little white buds.

I planted in early May in half wine barrels. I drilled 1/2″ holes in the bottoms for drainage. I placed two of the barrels so they’d have full sun exposure and another two so they’d have partial sun exposure. Those with full sun exposure got the Cascade and those with partial sun exposure got the Chinook and Horizon. In fact, the Horizon barrel was placed in an area that got a little less sun than the Chinook. I filled the barrels with good soil that I amended with compost and planted two rhizomes in each barrel at about 1-2 inches under the surface with the buds facing up.

The next step was a watering system. I installed a drip system with a line to each barrel and used 2 gallon-per-hour drippers. I initially set them for 15 minutes Monday, Wednesday and Friday. As the bines grew I had to add more drippers, more time and switch to an every other day schedule. I also frequently gave the plants Miracle Grow.

Very soon the green buds appeared and then it was on. Once the leaves appeared, the plant grew incredibly fast. I had to design a trellis that would make harvesting easy and keep the bines from going where they shouldn’t. I decided to go with a pulley system raising four doubled jute lines above each barrel. This can be lowered for harvest and was very inexpensive to build. Location dictated differing top anchors. The Cascade were against the garage so I anchored the pulley to the roof a good 15 feet above the barrels. The Chinook and Horizon were about 4 feet from a chain link fence so I attached a L-shaped pole about 12 feet up and 4 feet out to the fence and hung the pulley above the barrels. I spent a few minutes daily training new growth up the lines. The bine stalks are covered in prickly little hairs that attach themselves to the jute like Velcro. Once they got started, it was just amazing how fast they grew!

In late August the hop cones were ready to harvest. I lowered the bines with the pulley system into a large tub, cut the bines off at the bottom, and sat down to harvest in the shade. What fun it is to harvest hops… and what a great smell! The Cascade yield was 18 ounces and the Chinook was 8 ounces. Sadly the Horizon never really did well enough to produce more than a few cones on stunted bines.

Growing hops was a great experience but when you consider that you can buy 16 oz of hops for about $20, I wouldn’t exactly call it economical. But really, it’s an experience I would recommend.