Growing Hops

While some of my friends may turn up their noses, I absolutely love a hoppy beer, especially on a hot day.  Here are a few facts about the plant that produces such wonderfully citrusy and bitter flavors:

Hops are perennial plants with climbing stems, called bines, which can grow up to 20 or 30 feet long.  The bines die back each year and re-grow the following year. 

Hops are planted not by seed, but by planting rhizomes (thick underground stems that have roots and shoots growing from it).   Only rhizomes from female plants are used since the hops are harvested for their female cones.   

For decent yields, hops need to be trellised.  Backyard growers can make do with a shorter trellis, a side of a garage or a chimney.  Most hop farmers use an overhead trellis system, which consists of 15-foot-high poles spaced every 5 plants.  The poles are connected by overhead wire cables that run both down and across the rows.  On average, hop farmers have approximately 55 poles per acre. 

Large acreages of hops are mechanically harvested with specialized equipment.  Small acreages are generally hand-harvested by removing individual cones as they mature utilizing a ladder or a cherry picker.  The bines could also be cut, pulled down and harvested all at once.

In 2013, Washington state produced about 80% of the U.S. hop crop.  Across the country, there were 35,244 acres in hops yielding a harvest of 69,343,900 pounds!

Grow Your Own: Want to learn to grow your own hops or brew your own beer?  Join us at  Funk Brewing Company on June 7^th from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. for our Crafting Beer 101 Workshop.  For more information or to register, visit http://www.cvent.com/events/crafting-beer-101/event-summary-760baa251fc147afab34abafbf44a24e.aspx

Sources: http://www.usahops.org/userfiles/image/1388461395_National%20Hop%20Report-NASS%2012-13.pdf

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/CCD/introsheets/hops.pdf

http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/hg_garden_2006-06.pdf

Cool, Clear Water: Irrigation

With lots of young plants in the ground and a few consecutive days of warm, sunny weather the past few weeks, I’ve been making the most of my 3 rain barrels to irrigate my garden.  My irrigation system is a bit archaic – I fill up a watering can and water plant by plant, row by row.  It takes a lot of time and I know there are more sophisticated systems out there (farmers certainly don’t water plants individually).  One day I’ll upgrade, but for now, my water brigade works just fine for my garden.

Most vegetable farmers use drip or trickle irrigation to water their crops.  In a nut shell, drip irrigation consists of a number of hoses transporting water to drip lines, which are thin-walled, perforated polyethylene tubes.  Water is pumped through the lines, which rest along plant roots, and slowly seeps into the ground.  Drip irrigation is an extremely efficient system since water is targeted to the roots and not lost to evaporation.  Farmers can also use this system to apply liquid fertilizers.    The disadvantage is that it takes a considerable amount of initial set up and installation time.  Some farmers, such as sweet corn growers, use traveling gun systems, which consist of a big sprinkler mounted on a wheeled cart.  The cart is then pulled by a cable through the fields.   This type of irrigation makes sense for much larger plots, but a considerable amount of water is lost to evaporation and never makes it to the plant roots, since the water is intercepted by leaves.

So where do farmers source their water? Some farmers may be lucky enough to have a pond or a perennial stream to pump water from.  If they don’t have a water feature on their property, they could use a fire hydrant with permission from their local Water Authority or install a well.  Either of those options could be quite costly, so they’ll need to do the math to balance water costs and harvest profits. 

Save Water in Your Own Yard! If you’d like to build your own rain barrel to water your plants, join Penn State Extension Master Gardeners and Master Watershed Stewards on Wednesday, May 21^st at the Seed Farm in Emmaus.  You can choose between 3 sessions: 5:30 – 6:15 p.m.; 6:15 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.; and 7:00 – 7:45 p.m..  In this workshop, volunteers will guide you through the process of constructing your own, fully functioning rain barrel. The workshop fee of $40 includes a plastic 55-gallon drum and all the necessary parts and assistance to build your own barrel. The workshop also includes a tour of The Seed Farm, an organization that is growing new farmers by providing them with training, equipment, and land which eliminates the top three barriers to farm entry and opens the doors for a new generation of farmers.  To register, visit http://www.cvent.com/events/rain-barrel-workshops/event-summary-457a1fac8ebc4716b8056cb04f5ba325.aspx

Sources:

http://extension.psu.edu/business/start-farming/news/2013/irrigation-for-vegetables

http://extension.psu.edu/plants/plasticulture/technologies/drip-irrigation

http://extension.psu.edu/business/ag-alternatives/horticulture/horticultural-production-options/drip-irrigation-for-vegetable-production

http://www.clemson.edu/irrig/equip/Trav.htm