My hops are growing!!! Well, some of them anyway.

My rhizomes were planted a little over two months ago and I finally have some results to report  on. The Cascade rhizome has shown the most significant growth of the four different types we planted. We were expecting this to be the case based on research Gary had done before planting and based on what Jerry from the Brew Haus had told me when I bought the rhizomes. As you may recall from my first "Hops" post, after getting them in the ground we covered the sprouts with a bottomless plastic jug to keep rabbits away. Here are a few pictures showing how we did this. When I say "we"... I should specify that this was Gary's great idea and he did it, so there was really nothing "we" about it.

haha, take that you wascally wabbits

After the sprouts got large enough, Gary removed the plastic jugs and put some chicken wire around each plant. We have had one causality though. The Centennial does not appear to have sprouted at all and we are starting to believe we won't see any growth from it. Here are some more pictures of each plant. As you can see, the Cascade plant is well over 4 feet tall now! The Willamette and Nugget are growing, but much slower than the Cascade.

This is the base of the Cascade plant. Note: to the right of the tape measure we actually have another new little sprout started! The Cascade rhizome took off the quickest by far.

Here is a full shot of the Cascade.

So there you have it. Though I wouldn't quite call it a bumper crop, we are making progress. Gary and I are considering digging up one or two of the extra sprouts that have appeared around the base of the Cascade plant and re-planting them where the Centennial was intended to be. I'll let you know how that turns out if we decide to do it. That's all for now, thanks again for reading!