A New Hop Growing Season Begins

A new hop growing season begins. In this area hop stringing has just started. I love this fresh ‘new-page-in-a-note-book’ feeling, with the accompanying expectation that as a new hop growing season begins, this is it, this year there’ll be a perfect hop crop! Of course we know reality will not be like that! Each season always turns out to be very different to the last one and just when you think you have things sorted, along comes a completely different set of problems to keep everyone on their toes. But just for now we can dream a little, it will all be perfect!

Hop string soaking before being put on wet. If it was put on dry it would stretch when it rained.

hop string soaking

Bines have been cut off and burnt up, winter wire working is complete, allowing this tentative beginning to hop stringing. This job is weather dependent therefore can continue in fits and starts over the next 3 months. Banding follows on as soon as each garden is strung. Below the first strings silhouetted against a wintry sky.

A new hop growing season begins

Stringing at A Bushel of Hops will not get underway until after this year’s new varieties have been planted. The screw pegs will go in as each hop sett is planted, each screw peg is needed to be in place before any string can be put onto that garden.

screw pegs
What makes this crop so exciting is within 6 months these plants will emerge from the bare soil, they will grow to 16 foot and be harvested. Zero to hero!

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