"Rupert Bear" wrote in message
...

"Rupert Bear" wrote in message
...

If you are growing hops for the first time, it is a good idea to start
with
several varieties to find out which will do the best in your own back
yard.

Hops need a long day to grow successfully (best achieved south of the
35th
parallel for viable comercial yields), temps are less critical. However,
Hops
have been grown successfully in the south of W.A., in the Adelaide Hills,
Victoria and NSW. There are brewers with successful yet small yielding
crops in Qld. It does not seem to matter about the quality of light so
much
as the length of daylight available. Hops are native to many parts of the
world and different varieties have been found growing anywhere from
desert
locations to 7000 ft. elevations.

I have an experiment underway which seem to indicate that a small energy
saving lamp in the blue spectrum (highest Kelvin temperature) left on
over
night shining on the base leaves may be enough to extend the daylight in
higher lattitudes to produce flowers (cones) or greater yields. Will try
to
set up better experiment (with controls) with grower in Queensland next
season.

As for which brews, I usually describe the cultivar in as much detail as
possible, with added terms like:

"Predominantly a bittering hop (high alpha hop) but with interesting
aromatic
qualities"
"Very fine or noble aroma hop"
"Dual-purpose hop with a good combination of balanced bittering and
highly
acceptable aroma properties"

Will let you know tommorow what is available, it's to wet at the moment
to
be
digging up rhizomes

Rupert.


Have a Columbus, Golden Cluster, Hersbruker, Tardiff d bourgogne, Pearle,
Tettnanger and Goldings available, if you are interested in purchasing now
contact me for further details: rupertjw AT iinet DOT net DOT au

Or if you prefer to bid at eBay auctions later, I will definitely post a
link
here when the main lot are ready.

Some hop cultivar descriptions he http://tinyurl.com/38n9wt

and hop gardening links: http://www.freshops.com/gardening.html

http://www.crannogales.com/manual%20final.pdf

Rupert.

thank you very much rupert.

dh is currently away for a couple of days - i'll pass on your details & the
other info so he can get in touch asap.

i'm starting to wonder if our days here are long enough - but then again,
perhaps that is not my problem. :-)

thank you again & we'll get in touch,
kylie