A planting guide from location to harvest

Grow hops in the garden or on the balcony

Hops are ideal ornamental plants for sunny and shady locations. The fast-growing climbing plant is greened Balconies and makes a good one in the garden during the gardening season Privacy screen.

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 traces on the masonry.

The right location for hops

Hops prefer a sunny or partially shaded one. You can also grow the plant on a north wall or grow it in a tub on a north-facing 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 gender the plant is when they flower.

If you want to grow the hops yourself for brewing beer or for obtaining the healing fruits, you need female plants. It is only in these that lupulline, the most important ingredient in hops for beer, ripens.

In areas where hops are grown for brewing, the pulling of male Plants forbidden. 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 do not know whether male or female plants will emerge from them. Therefore, hops should only be vegetative, i.e. via cuttings, increased will.

When is hops ready for harvest?

Ready to harvest is the hops umbel when the yellow lupulline has formed inside. This is usually the case in August or September. From the outside it is unfortunately not possible to see 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 the winter and sprouts again in the spring. Cut the hops down to 50 to 70 centimeters before winter. In the spring before budding, cut back the old shoots completely.