Virtual Ship's Log from Captain Hammer

'Cause I don't have enough to do already

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Hops in Texas


In everything I've read about growing hops they say you need to start in April or May. There should be a Texas amendment to that rule. Most suppliers don't even start shipping them until then. My vine started sprouting in mid-February. Now, I was partly lucky because a near freeze would have sabotaged it were it not for the fact that Austin is always a few degrees warmer than the surrounding areas. But in general we start a lot earlier than the rest of the country, and need this extra time to establish before the heat withers everything.
This year our condo is redoing faulty cantilever balconies, and this means at any time they might have us remove everything that's on them. This would include my hops. So, soon after this picture was taken, I regretfully uprooted the thing to plant at a friend's house. The bits that were left behind continued to grow, so I put them in a smaller, more transportable pot to see what they'll do. So far, so good.

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