Grow hops in the garden or on the balcony
Hops are ideal ornamental plants for sunny and shady locations. The fast-growing climber plants green balconies and provides good privacy in the garden during the gardening season.
also read
- Growing hops - how to grow hops in the garden
- The rapid growth of hops in the garden
- Growing hops as a climbing plant in the garden
To plant hops, you need enough space and a trellis. The plants reach heights of up to seven meters and the roots also spread widely. To avoid trouble, you should not plant hops too close to neighboring properties.
But hops can also be grown on house walls, because unlike ivy, the climbing plant does not leave any permanent marks on the masonry.
The right location for hops
Hops prefer a sunny or partially shaded one. You can also easily grow the plant on a north wall or grow it in a tub on a north balcony. However, the prerequisite is that the space is bright. If you want to harvest fruits, the location should be as sunny as possible.
- Sunny to shady location
- Trellis
- nutritious, nitrogenous soil
- Substrate slightly moist
- The earth must not dry out
- Avoid waterlogging at all costs
Growing female or male plants?
Only female plants are available in stores. If you want to grow hops yourself from seeds you have harvested yourself, you will only find out what sex the plant is when it flowers.
If you want to grow the hops yourself for brewing beer or for obtaining the healing fruits, you need female plants. Only in these does lupulline, the most important ingredient of hops for beer, mature.
Growing male plants is prohibited in areas where hops are grown for brewing beer. It is therefore better to buy hops to grow yourself from a specialist nursery.
Propagate hops yourself
Hops can be grown from seeds, but you don't know whether they will produce male or female plants. Therefore hops should only be propagated vegetatively, i.e. using cuttings.
When is hops ready for harvest?
The hop umbel is ready for harvest when the yellow lupulline has formed inside. This is usually the case in August or September. Unfortunately, it is not possible to see from the outside whether a hop umbel is ripe. Unfortunately, all that remains is to open an umbel and look.
Hibernate hops properly
Hops are hardy. The plant is drawn in over winter and sprouts again in spring. Before winter, cut the hops down to 50 to 70 centimeters. In the spring before budding, cut the old shoots completely.
Tips
Hop tendrils wind around the climbing aids in a clockwise direction. You have to help out. Make sure that you loop the tendrils around the bars only to the right, otherwise growth will be slowed down.
