Hops: growing, harvesting and storing

Hops are mainly grown for brewing beer. We'll show you what you need to know in order to harvest plenty of hops in your own garden.

The real hop (Humulus lupulus) is a perennial and belongs to the hemp family (Cannabaceae). It originally comes from our temperate latitudes in Central Europe. The climbing plant gives the beer its bitter taste and its antibacterial effect ensures a longer shelf life. Saint Hildegard von Bingen already knew this in the 12th century. But in addition to bitterness, the hops can also help to add a fruity-sweet or woody-spicy note to the beer. In the meantime, a real fan base has formed, which brews beer creations with the most unusual taste from the large number of hop varieties thanks to the wide variety of aromas they contain. We will show you what needs to be considered when cultivating the versatile taste artist hops. Because the hemp plant is quite high-maintenance and has high demands if plenty of the aromatic hop umbels are to be harvested in your own garden.

1. Location

The true hop is a sun worshiper. Therefore, when growing in your own garden, it should also be given a south-facing location. It also needs nutrient-rich soil for its vigorous growth. It is a good idea to work some compost into the soil from time to time.

A nutrient-rich substrate should therefore be used when cultivating in pots. In addition, the location should be neither too dry nor too wet. When choosing a location, it should also be known that the hops form rhizomes. These are underground shoots from which fresh shoots sprout every year. As a result, hops can spread quickly in the bed and are difficult to dislodge from their location. If it is dug up and parts of the rhizome that have been cut off remain in the ground, new plants can still regenerate from these plant parts and sprout again.

2. Propagation

Hops should only be propagated by cuttings. Hops are dioecious, which means that there are either male or female flowers on a plant. For brewingBeer, however, only unfertilized female inflorescences should be used. Unfertilized because they are so richer in the characteristic aroma and easier to process. When propagating by sowing, however, one cannot be sure whether the seeds are intended for females or males - it is very likely that the unwanted sexual mixed culture will occur. It is therefore advisable to propagate the female plants via cuttings if the bitter hop cones are to be used. Young plants are also available in specialist shops, so you can be sure that they are female plants.

3. Water and fertilize

With a daily growth of up to 10 cm per vine of a hop plant, it is not surprising that hops are very hungry and thirsty. The soil must always be kept moist. However, it is important to avoid waterlogging in any case. Especially if the hops are cultivated in pots, you should pay attention to regular and balanced supplementary fertilization with a primarily organic organic fertilizer. Our Plantura organic universal fertilizer is ideally suited.

With increasing length of the hop shoots, the intervals between watering should of course be shortened. In early summer, when the weather is warm and dry, the bed should also be watered daily. Therefore, it is better to choose a larger pot or container to do the thirsty perennial and yourself a favor. It should be fertilized until flowering begins.

4. Hibernation

Hops are perennials. This means that the above-ground parts of the plant die off completely every autumn and thus prevent a frosty death on their own. That's also clever, because the hops use the opportunity to shift the valuable nutrients from the leaves into the underground rhizome. These are valuable reserves that provide the plant with sufficient strength when it buds next spring. Incidentally, the rhizome usually does not suffer even a period of prolonged frost.

5. Cut

Winter pruning is not required for hops. But during growth it is necessary to tie the tendrils, which can be up to 8 m long, to a scaffolding and let them climb upwards. Here, however, only the three to four strongest shoots are selected. All remaining shoots of a rhizome are cut off at ground level.

6. Crop Protection

Aphids often feel very comfortable on hops. However, if you want to drive the rapidly growing small animal population away from your hop plants, you can of course use crop protection. However, more eco-friendly home remedies often prove just as effective for growing in your own backyard. Draining infested plants with nettle liquid manure or irrigation water to which a small splash of washing-up liquid has been added is usually enough to drive away the annoying plant sap suckers. But the hemp plant is also very popular in the mushroom kingdom: many varieties are often afflicted by powdery mildew. Care should be taken to select a variety that is as less susceptible or even resistant as possible for cultivation in your own garden.

7. Harvest

When growing on a small scale in your own garden, the hop cones are plucked from the vines by hand. In commercial cultivation, the vines are cut just above the ground and completely torn from the climbing frame. Special machines then separate the tenons from the shoots. The correct harvest time is from the end of August to mid-September. You can tell when the time has come when the yellow powdery hop resins trickle out of the female hop inflorescences.

8. Storage

After the harvest, the hop cones are dried. This serves to extend the shelf life without having to forfeit a loss of aroma. Drying can take place in a light-protected room. It should be dark to preserve the greenish color of the cones and to protect the valuable ingredients from degradation by light.

However, if the air drying does not go fast enough, this can be remedied in the oven. The cones can be dried at up to 80 °C for one to two hours. Pressed into pellets and sealed airtight, the shelf life and usability of the hop cones can be extended even further.

Even if the growth of hops can take on immense proportions, there are still a few things to consider for successful cultivation in your own garden in order to be able to harvest a bounty of the green gold.

Did you know that there are hundreds of different hop varieties? We introduce you to a few varieties - from bitter to fruity-sweet.