And then there were three....

Disaster (a.k.a. the dog) strikes! Let him out yesterday morning and found this when I went back out to let him in:

The Galena has been entirely destroyed:

I have replanted the rhizome but I don't have high hopes. It wasn't doing nearly as well as the others but I'm still sad to see it go. Now, I didn't see the dog do this so it's always possible he was set up by some particularly industrious squirrels. I also haven't entirely ruled out the cats as I didn't seem them together during this time either (they are nearly identical litter mates) and they are generally very shady characters.

Not something I wanted after having been away for over a week. On the bright side, the others have been very busy growing. The Willamette and Cascade are growing into and around each other:

I have separated them for now but that will not last very long. The Columbus is also doing pretty well:

I will need to come up with an arbour solution soon, the heights I have measured for them are more like lengths right now. I'm thinking that tomato cages like I used last year will give me a little breathing room. They will also protect them from excavating animals to some extent.

We have lift off

We've had a fair bit of rain and drizzle recently. Hasn't been great for doing things outdoors but it has been great for the hops. They are all looking very healthy right now. Here's the Willamette:

 

The Cascade:

The Galena, which is still very close to the ground:

And the Columbus:

I've even been inspired to start measuring their height, as you should be able to see in the top right hand corner.

Something else that became obvious to me this afternoon is that now that the other trees nearby are starting to leaf out my hops are going to be getting less direct sunlight, particularly in the afternoon:

This may look lovely and picturesque but I can't help but think about my hops getting less light. I'll just have to content myself with what they'll get in the morning.

Hop growing - you're doing it wrong.

This is not the first time I've caught our cat trying to hatch my Columbus hops, just the first time I got a picture of it:

Think I might have to have a word with him about how plants grow. Some more discouragement may be necessary. Fortunately, it seems that the plants are quite resilient and have bounced back from their cat-pressing.

Ger off my laaand!

Seems that someone or something has decided to start digging up my hop bed:

Not impressed! Not sure what's responsible at this point. I'm hoping it's squirrels at this point but difficult to tell. If it's cats then it becomes a lot ickier. That's the Willamette you can see there which seems to have escaped unharmed.

On a brighter note the Columbus has produced yet another shoot:

You can just see the new shoot at the top of the photo.

Maybe not such a good excuse after all

So it seems that the Columbus has not been the only rhizome investing in other shoots. The Galena recently had three more shoots appear above ground:

They're just about visible here, honest. The first shoot is leafing out nicely so I'm hoping for some acceleration in growth now. 

The Columbus is also is also leafing out:

Two out of the four shoots have open leaves now with the other two close behind.

The Willamette on the other hand is sticking to its eggs in one basket strategy:

This is consistent with what I saw last year in Houston. It was some time until I saw a second shoot appear from that Willamette. It did end up being the tallest of the hops I had there, though perhaps not the most productive in terms of cones. It did produce the largest cone of the bunch (pictured in the photo I'm using for my background).

The Cascade seems to be pursuing the same strategy but is lagging behind a little:

Leaves are clearly not as open as the Willamette but I'm hoping it ends up being just as successful as the Willamette was last year.

Overall, it's looking very promising right now, particularly when you consider that they have been in the ground for less than two weeks.

Late, but with a good excuse.

So the Columbus may have been the last of the four rhizomes to appear above the soil. Seems that the reason for this was mostly likely because it was growing three shoots simultanteously:

The third shoot to the right is still looking a little pale. With any luck they will all continue to grow and produce healthy growth. It remains to be seen which strategy (one shoot at a time versus three) will be more productive.

What a difference a day makes.

The shoot from the Cascade rhizome was looking a little pale yesterday, presumably because it had only just poked its head above the soil. Here is the same shoot 24 hours later:

As you can see it has a lot more colour and is generally looking healthier.

On another bright note, here is the first sign of the Columbus rhizome:

Just like the Cascade, it's looking a little pale. I'm sure this will perk up now it's seen the light.