HARVESTING THE HOPS
Here comes the harvest!
Hops are pretty amazing. Of course their main claim to fame is as a bittering agent in beer, but the uses go well beyond that. There are several claimed health benefits to drinking tea made from hops, and they can be added to meals as an edible as well. Their relaxing characteristics also cause some to add them to sleep pillows.
Personally, I think that they smell incredible!
HOW HIGH CAN YOU GROW?
Hops plants are known to be prolific growers. My brother who sent the rhizomes down to me has his growing up an old telephone pole that he erected specifically for the purpose of growing hops. I raised a long Cedar log for mine last year, and it looks like the may reach the top this year. Check out these beautiful photos of them growing high into the sky!
Honestly, I did not even harvest them all the way to the top. I'll have to get a ladder soon and get back to work!
THE CONES
These fully developed hops cones are ready for harvest. They smell amazing and pluck off with ease. Smaller cones can be left to continue growing and you can get multiple harvests this way.
Just look at the size of this one!
Monster Truck the Pepper came out to help me, and he was a big help indeed. Not being ones for conventional measuring techniques, we picked a "hat full."
WHAT A PLANT!
Having grown hops for two years now I must say that I really like the plant. Once established, they continue to spread and will return for years to come.
At the end of the growing season, they can be cut back to almost ground level. The rhizomes beneath the earths surface will wait until the following spring to return once again.
Since these plants can grow so long in the summer and still be cut back for the winter, they are a great plant to use for shade. When the plant is trellised and in full foliage, it can block the heat of the sun. By being cut back in the winter, they allow whatever sunlight still comes to shine unhindered. I have a few plans for how to use these hops as we move forward on our and, so we will have to see what happens next year.
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-of-hops-harvesting
Until next time…
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Do they flower before the hops are produced? Cheers mike
The Hops, or hops cones, are the flowers of this plant. Good question! Uploaded your comments at 100%. Just trying to encourage real interaction and commenting here!
Thanks @mikenevitt!
Thank you very much, cheers mike
Love that hops Steemit!
SteemON!
Good job @papa-pepper, upvoted and follow! It looks like a quality hops :) Then do the craft beer?
Gardening has always been my one of the hobbies. I like your contents you produced here on steemit. Good work.
Care to make some beer from them?
I won't be, but my brother does.
Cool! At least he's saving on beer and party budgets.
Tea?? Tea?? Harvesting hops and you talk about tea?? Seriously though, I had no idea you could make tea with them!
First off, I drink so much tea some people call me mr. T. Secondly, the tea is pretty bitter.
The tea is bitter cause it's telling you it should have been beer :)
Could be. smiley face emoji
WOW!! I never saw any such things as hops thanks @papa-pepper for sharing. keep doing the good work!
Thank you for checking it out!
You're welcome :)
Man I'm really enjoying this new upvote power.
Thanks for keeping on brother!
Glad to hear it and thanks for using it here! Lol.
Anytime brother.
It's $3.79 now...I love it!
It's fun to be able to really show some appreciation to great content finally.
No kidding. I'm trying to let mine replenish. I took it down into the 20% range and then kept it in the 30% range for a long time. Soon I will be powerful again!
I got blessed with a lil over 24k in sp delegation
I think hops are related to cannabis too. Cool pics, thanks @papa-pepper!
I would really love to know what you do with these hops man? Do you cook them or only infuse in tea? I've never seen these in Mauritius, It does not grow here i believe!
Thanks mate!
@progressivechef