Let's Have a Hops Grower Meeting!

Within the next month we would like to have a hops grower meeting so we can all share our 2012 experiences (good and bad), plan how we can work together in the coming year, get input on the varieties to be included in our next two year research project, and outline our needs for future research and outreach.  The goal is to help grow a healthy North Carolina hops industry!  If you are not yet a grower but interested in becoming one, you might also find this interesting.

I have provided a link to a Doodle poll so we can select the date that most of us can make a meeting in Mills River (my building, right next to the Asheville airport and the Sierra Nevada brewery under construction!).  We can probably link some folks in by conference call, too.  So if you can’t make it in person, write in the comments section on the Doodle poll that you would like to call in (I’ll see what I can arrange-you will incur the long-distance phone charges).  If neither of those work for you, you can send in your comments to me in an email (Jeanine_Davis@ncsu.edu) about the past season and what you would like to see done in the future. We will share those during the meeting and then send a transcript of the meeting to everyone on this list who wants it.

Also, I will be giving a presentation on organic hops production at the Sustainable Agriculture Conference in Greenville, SC on Sunday, October 28. I would love to have some of you in the audience!  Here is info about registration:  http://www.carolinafarmstewards.org/sac/.

Here is the link to the Doodle poll to indicate what dates you are available, or not, for the hops grower meeting

http://www.doodle.com/q747fpdf2757takk

(PS, we apologize if you are getting this multiple times by email, FB, blogs, etc.)

Thanks!  Jeanine Davis and Kelly Gaskill

NCSU Hops Field Day Drew a Big Crowd

On Saturday, July 14th we held the first Hops Research Field Day at the NC State University Lake Wheeler Facility. When Scott King, Rob Austin, and I first started planning this, we didn't know how many people to expect to show up. The crowd exceeded our wildest expectations. It was standing room only and people came from all over including Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky!

Natalie Hampton wrote a great article on the event complete with pictures. Check it out here!

Posted by Jeanine Davis, NC State University

Getting Ready for the 2012 Hop Season

Are you ready for our next growing season? Time to order supplies, take soil samples for testing, and plan any changes you may want to make in your hop yards.

We enjoyed a great workshop last week in Morganton--thank you Appalachian State for sponsoring it, and thanks, Jeanine, for presenting the hop information. It was a great opportunity to hear what others are doing. With that in mind, I hope growers will follow and contribute to this blog. We can all learn by sharing information and experiences.

A question that's been on my mind lately is: what material is best for the lines used for growing the bines. We've used sisal in the past, and while we've not had any problems with breakage, it stretches and shrinks a lot, resulting in a good bit of slack at times. On our windy site, young bines get blown around quite a bit. I know many growers in the Pacific NW use coconut coir. Does it stretch less? Has anyone ever used poly bailing twine? What are your thoughts?

I hope those of you who follow the blog will encourage other growers to do the same, and to join our guild. Good luck -- Here's hoping that the 2012 hop season will be the best yet.

-Rita & John, Blue Ridge Hops