Found this hiding underneath one of the soaker hoses:
Now that all three have produced shoots it will be interesting to see which does the best in terms of growth and/or cone production. Fingers crossed for the weather being nice to them.
Keep the posts coming. I'm curious how well yours will fair in your first year compared to mine. My cascades have been giving me new bines, the tallest is about 12", and I've trimmed the rest. I've read I'm supposed to trim all the primary shoots and wait for secondary, but I haven't read how I'm supposed to tell the difference. I've also read to pick 1-3 of the strongest bines and train them up the twine without reference of trimming back any bines except the for those not being trained.
I really can't wait to see what happens. I'm looking forward to brewing with both the cascades and the magnums, if I can.
The reading I've done implies that cutting back the first shoots to appear is only really to do with timing for commercial growers who want to harvest later in the year when it's cooler. I think for a small scale operation like this where I'm planning on harvesting as things appear I can't see the point.
I have also read that you should concentrate on the 3-4 four strongest bines and cut everything else back. I guess people feel that having a tall thin plant is better for production than having it be more like a bush (short but with more bines). If I had two rhizomes of the same strain I might be tempted to test this. I also suspect it's easier to manage a few bines over many if you have lots of plants. It's also quite appealing to see just how high they'll grow :)
Keep the posts coming. I'm curious how well yours will fair in your first year compared to mine. My cascades have been giving me new bines, the tallest is about 12", and I've trimmed the rest. I've read I'm supposed to trim all the primary shoots and wait for secondary, but I haven't read how I'm supposed to tell the difference. I've also read to pick 1-3 of the strongest bines and train them up the twine without reference of trimming back any bines except the for those not being trained.
ReplyDeleteI really can't wait to see what happens. I'm looking forward to brewing with both the cascades and the magnums, if I can.
The reading I've done implies that cutting back the first shoots to appear is only really to do with timing for commercial growers who want to harvest later in the year when it's cooler. I think for a small scale operation like this where I'm planning on harvesting as things appear I can't see the point.
ReplyDeleteI have also read that you should concentrate on the 3-4 four strongest bines and cut everything else back. I guess people feel that having a tall thin plant is better for production than having it be more like a bush (short but with more bines). If I had two rhizomes of the same strain I might be tempted to test this. I also suspect it's easier to manage a few bines over many if you have lots of plants. It's also quite appealing to see just how high they'll grow :)