Greetings from the UVM Extension NW Crops and Soils team!
It’s that time of the year again. Our hop plants are officially up at the Borderview Research Farm in Alburgh, VT. If you haven’t already, now might be a good time to start compiling a list of supplies, as they will become useful during early May in this area. The supply list below is generalized, and every item may not be necessary for your specific operation.
Early Season Hops supply list:
- Fertilizers/Pesticides/Fungicides
- Hop clips and rope for training the bines
- Irrigation equipment
- Weeding supplies- for rota-tilling/mulching/hand-weeding/steam-weeding
- Equipment to aid in crowning
On another note, we will be crowning our plants this year for the first time. We didn’t crown the first few growing seasons, in order to allow our plants to grow to their full potential. However, now that our plants are established in their third year, we believe crowning will be a useful preventative measure against early season downy mildew. Crowning will take place later this week, and will involve cutting the top half inch off each bine. A more in-depth video and article of the work is soon to follow.
Please do not hesitate in contacting us with any hops-related questions or comments!
Cheers!