#07 Hydroponic Hops

Modern take on hop growing...

We’ve had a small hiatus from our blog recently but we’ve been extremely busy in the background with lots of exciting developments. We started 2022 exploring new ways of growing our own hops. 

Following our first year of growing hops outdoors, in the unpredictable British weather, we decided to explore other growing methods. The first idea that came to mind was growing them indoors, in a controlled environment, out of changing weather conditions and free of pests! With our current indoor space restrictions (hop plants take up a lot of room and can grow up to 8 metres high!), we only have space to grow one plant. Does this mean we are still looking at one harvest a year, which is the case when growing traditionally in soil? This is when hydroponic systems came to mind! 

At this point we had little knowledge of growing hydroponically, is it even possible to grow hops using just water and no soil? The first port of call was to do lots of research! We were inspired by a UK hydroponic hop company, Dark Farm based in Wales, which made our vision seem more promising! So we started reading into the details of how a hydroponic hop system could work, including “DIY Hydroponic Gardens” by Tyler Baras and “Hydroponics for Beginners” by Nick Jones, studying different systems and their advantages. 

We settled on a Dutch Bucket System which has been proven to be more suitable for climbing perennial plants, with its draining system there are less chances for water stagnation that could cause root rot. With our chosen system in hand we set off to a few local hydroponic shops around Nottingham in search of supplies and advice

Basic essentials we needed for a 25L Dutch Bucket system:

• 50 litre storage box with lid 

• 2 x 25 litre storage box

• Base bucket overflow outlet (90 degree toilet overflow)

• Aquatic Air Pump 

• Air Stone

• Submersible Pump

• 13mm 2 Way Dripper Manifold 

• 13mm diameter tube (Approx. 900mm - varies depending on the overall distance from pump to outlet) 

• 2 x Drip Feed Dripper Stake   

• 4mm diameter tube (Approx. 10cm x 2 connecting Main Dripper to 2 x Drip Feed Dripper Stake)

• PH Pen

• Truncheon  

• PH up & down solution

• 2 part nutrient solution

Dutch Bucket System

We then had to build a frame to support the Dutch Bucket over the reservoir so a few additional bits were required:

• 2 no. 190mm x 400mm 

• 1 no. 190mm x 470mm 

•  4 no. Angle Brackets

• 2 no. Flat Corner Brackets

We chose a Cascade rhizome from Essentially Hops for our system and also bought the same rhizome to grow outdoors so we could compare their growth. We have set the nutrient solution to 1.5 EC and PH to 6.0 for optimum growth.

The plant took a few weeks to establish in its new environment, having been used to growing in soil! The rhizome started growing new shoots straight away and quickly grew up and over the timber goalpost frame we built to support the bine (hops grow ‘bines’, not vines). The plant grew to 4m initially over 4 months while it acclimatised to it’s new environment. We then cut back to the root crown to force-hibernate the plant to mimic winter conditions which will produce a stronger plant next time round. Let’s see how we do in the next round!

Hop growing after 7 weeks..through winter!