hops - week 8

the experiment continues:
Mt. Hood - planted in ground May 2008
3 bines / 8.5' in length
notes: growth is really slow now

Cascade - planted in outdoor container 12 April 2009
3+ bines / 6' in length
notes: still growing well.
side shoots are getting to be 0.5'+ long

Nugget - planted in indoor container 13 April 2009
1 bine / 10' in length
notes: growing like crazy - estimated 3.5' in one week
about to touch the ceiling - need to figure out where to go from there

Commuter Report Card

In an effort to hold myself accountable in 2009, I decided to post my "commuter report card" for days biked to work. Basically this report showed the days I commuted by bike (blue), non-commutable days such as weekends, holidays and out-of-town days (gray) and slacker days (white). Although I'm sure I have plenty of excuses to account for the "slacker days" (weather, errands, needed car for work...) - I will make none here, although december sucked for many reasons.

I updated it as I went and this is the final tally.

Monthly Stats
Jan- 6 days, 68 miles, avg. 1.5 days / week or 30% of the time
Feb- 10 days, 114 miles, avg. 2.5 days / week or 50% of the time
Mar- 6 days, 68 miles, avg. 1.4 days / week or 27% of the time
Apr- 11 days, 125 miles, avg. 2.5 days / week or 50% of the time
May- 11 days, 125 miles, avg. 3.4 days / week or 69% of the time
Jun- 12 days, 137 miles, avg. 3.5 days / week or 71% of the time

Jul- 20 days, 217 miles, avg. 4.5 days / week or 91% of the time

Aug- 18 days, 205 miles, avg. 4.5 days / week or 90% of the time

Sep- 11 days, 125 miles, avg. 3.1 days / week or 61% of the time

Oct- 16 days, 182 miles, avg. 4.2 days / week or 84% of the time

Nov- 12 days, 137 miles, avg. 3.2 days / week or 63% of the time

Dec- 1 day, 11 miles, avg. 0.3 days / week or 7% of the time

Weekly Stats
Mon- 52%
Tues- 60%
Wed- 56%
Thur- 53%
Fri- 69%

Total- 134 days, 1528 miles, avg. 2.9 days / week or 58% of the time

UPDATED: 31 December

hops - week 7 continued....

Some additional notes and pictures from week 7:

The Mt.Hood hops have started to worry me. Given its strong start I had high hopes for this plant, but a ??virus?? has really started to slow it down. Basically a ~sixth of the leaves developed this patterned brown coloration, then started curling down and dying off. The virus seems to have slowed of late, with no new dead leaves. New growth continues at a slow rate, and no significant side branching has occured.

The Cascade hops started the slowest, but have really started taking off. While this one is getting some decent length, it's the amount of side growth that is really impressive (which is where I think the cones grow). This picture doesn't capture it well, but each of the 3 main bines have multiple shoots coming out the sides with almost fully developed leaves.

The Nugget hops have been kicking ass lately with noticible growth over the course of a day. The middle leaves are 4" to 6" across and we've started an office pool for the date when the plant will reach the ceiling. Several side shoots have shown up and just started developing leaves. It seemed odd that only 1 bine ever took off, but my guess is that early on it wasn't getting enough sunlight.

A cautionary picture from the nugget hops. The miracle grow potting soil I bought came complete with little flys. They generally stay close to the soil, but have replicated in the hundreds. The fly traps seem to be doing a good job, but there are still some buzzing around.

hops - week 7

the experiment continues:
Mt. Hood - planted in ground May 2008
3 bines / 6'-8' in length
notes: slowed down but still growing strong.

Cascade - planted in outdoor container 12 April 2009
3+ bines / 3' - 4' in length
notes: growing like crazy.
had to add second rope to trelis
all 3 plants just started getting buds for side shoots, however the cascade is already getting bushy

Nugget - planted in indoor container 13 April 2009

1 bine / 6.5' in length
notes: growing like crazy now that it gets more direct sunlight.

the average new leaf size has at least doubled.