NC Hops Growers Meeting-Nov.2!

Over 30 people responded to our Doodle poll for a hops grower meeting and we have selected the date that most people are available.

 

The Hops Grower Meeting will be Friday, November 2 at 1:00 PM.  We will meet at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center in Mills River.  Here are directions: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/fletcher/directions2.html. 

If you are unable to attend this meeting in person, you can call in.  I have set up a conference call with freeconference.com.  That means the long-distance charges will be yours.  Dial 1-218-936-4141 and enter participant access code: 9627077.  You will be able to enter and exit as you please during the meeting.

If you can’t come in person or call in but would like to participate, please try to send someone else from your operation. If that doesn’t work either and you want to have input, please send me your comments and suggestions.

The purpose of this meeting is to 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.  This will be an informal, facilitated sharing meeting. There will not be any formal presentations like at a conference. I will have a laptop and projector set up, so if you want to show any pictures from your hop yard, please bring them on a flashdrive.  The meeting will run as long as the momentum is there.  I expect that to be around 4:00 or 4:30.

FYI, I did just receive an entire bale of coir twine, 2600 strings, 21 feet, 100# weight.  That’s enough to last me about 13 years at the rate I use it, so we might want to have a discussion about how to make the best use of it.

Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions. This meeting is for you!

Also, please help spread the word about this meeting. I don’t have the email addresses for everyone who answered the Doodle poll!

(Once again I apologize for any multiple notices because I will send this out via several lists and platforms)

 Jeanine

We are nearing the end of one of our hops research grants and we would like to get some feedback about whether we are making a meaningful contribution to the knowledge base about growing hops in the Southeast. We have a hops website (http://nchops.soil.ncsu.edu/ ), post about hops on our blog (http://ncalternativecropsandorganics.blogspot.com/search/label/hops ), post some of our Powerpoints (http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/fletcher/programs/herbs/crops/hops/2012%20Hops%20Field%20Day%20Presentation_Raleigh_July.pdf), and give presentations at numerous conferences and workshops in the Southeast. If you are growing hops or interested in growing hops, we’d like to know if the information we are providing is helpful to you. We will also be producing a hops production leaflet this winter.

We know you are busy, so if you could just answer these three questions with “yes” or “no”, we would very much appreciate it. If you have just discovered us, please review the information we've provided before answering.

Please respond in the comment section below, or if you would like your name added to our hops email list, please send your responses in an email to Jeanine_Davis@ncsu.edu.

1. Do you know more about growing hops now then you did two years ago?

2. Are you more knowledgeable about hop varieties now then you were two years ago?

3. Is there more information available to you about growing hops then there was two years ago?

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


Thank you, Jeanine Davis and Kelly Gaskill

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

Looking for Co-presenter on Organic Hops Production

2012 harvest at the Research Station in Mills River

I will be giving a presentation on organic hops production at the Sustainable Agriculture Conference in Greenville, SC on Sunday, October 28th. Last year, Scott King and I covered the basics of organic hops production. This year I will focus on what is working for growers and what the big challenges are. I am hoping a number of organic hop growers are planning to be at the conference already and will attend and share their experiences during this session. You are welcome to send me photos ahead of time that I can incorporate into a Powerpoint presentation. 

I ALSO HAVE AN OFFER TO MAKE; IF THERE IS AN EXPERIENCED ORGANIC HOPS GROWER THAT WOULD LIKE TO BE A CO-PRESENTER WITH ME, I CAN OFFER A FREE CONFERENCE REGISTRATION IN RETURN FOR HELPING ME DEVELOP AND GIVE THIS PRESENTATION. You would have to cover your own lodging (not particularly cheap in Greenville) and travel. Check out conference details on the website. I can only offer this to one person, so tell me about your interest in doing this and about your organic hops growing experience!

Here is the link to the Conference Information (PS, this is one of my most favorite conferences to attend every year!).  Please email me at Jeanine_Davis@ncsu.edu if you are interested.

Post by Jeanine Davis, Associate Professor & Extension Specialist, Department of Horticultural Science, NC State University, 455 Research Drive, Mills River, NC 28759. 

Monster Vines Planted By Hop'n Blueberry Farm Produce Record Crop

Cascade bines at Highland Brewery

Highland Brewery in Asheville ask me if I would plant and manage some hops in front of the brewery this year.  I agreed to do so and got to work organizing the planting beds for their landscaper.  They got it all prepared by March and I ordered up some cascades and some zues rhizomes. 

The plants struggled early in the season, part of the problem was that we received a bad batch of rhizomes that were shipped out.  I pulled most of them out and replaced them with rhizomes with my Hop'n Blueberry rhizomes.  I spent several days watching the growth and adding some secret ingredients that I have learned over the years.

Then the spurt began, after the last prune in May.  It was non-stop growth.  Almost unnatural.  The soil and additives seemed to all kick in at once. 

Zues vines are monsters

After looking these monsters over, I decided it was time for harvest.  I didn't know how many hops I was looking at on their vines.  I knew for sure it was over two pounds, and thought it could be more.  Highlands wanted to make a "wet hop" beer, but are not completely set up for it, so they decided on an end of boil aroma saturation.

We decided to add hops form the Hop'n Blueberry for the bulk and and then to add the rest of the amount from Highlands hop vines, at least I thought.  Cascades were the only variety picked.  Tasting Room Manager, Grant DaSantos, and master brewer John Lyda, came over to the farm Wednesday afternoon to help me harvest.

Grant DaSantos shows off 5 lbs of HnB's hops including a 3 incher

We harvested five pounds from my ancient four-year old cascades in the grueling hot afternoon sun and celebrated with a few of Highlands famous bottles of brew. That ended Wednesday's work. 

The following day, Grant and a small crew proceeded to harvest cascade cones from 3 vines.  That's when the phone call came in from Grant.  I had requested that Grant weigh the hops from each vine separately.  "You won't believe this", he started off.
"We got seven pounds off of the first vine!" 

Yep, I have never heard of this kind of output from any bine planted in WNC.  In fact, our standards have only been around 12 oz. per bine.  Wow, I am still wondering if the scales are right, but, even the smallest looking bines were still producing two pounds apiece, and they also looked spectacular.

More to come!!

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

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