Sunday May 3rd

Mark, Jason , and Don worked Saturday with me , and most of the others came out on Sunday this weekend. Don did a sterling job of weedeating the boundary of the farm so we have clean areas now between the trees and along the fence lines.

Plenty of weeding got done by all the guys , we also hung up the project banner and cleaned out and resorted out the container (thanks Steve). The base of each strongly growing hop plant was also cleaned up , Tony teaching others how to go about this task

Derick, Sam, William and Tony helped me get the back wire up finally over the Chinooks and they then hung ropes while I planted the last of the Rhizomes. Tony was the monkey up the pole this time - thanks.

A positive weekend where we are now on top of all the major tasks of the spring - just a few bines to train and clean the bases on and we are ready for the growing of summer. The soil test again showed low Nitrogen , so will take soil for a proper test to the extension service tomorrow and then fertilize appropriately once we get results back. I did feed all plants with miraclegro this last week - so in short term they should be fine.

The watering computer was also installed and programmed for an hour each day. I will monitor to see if this is enough. The computer can have up to 6 programs so can either do twice a day or lengthen the cycle.

A full stock take tonight showed we have 138 potential plants growing - some are still below surface as only planted in last week. So plenty of harvest work ahead of us.

A good week

Irrigation is complete

Well with a bit of work and help yesterday Mark and I finished the irrigation system. The system has a 1" main PVC feed from the tap fed by the pressured well pump. We have 60 Psi static from the well which is plenty and not an issue with our 2GPH pressure compensated drippers which will work all the way down to 10Psi


1" couplers

The Main line is joined by 4 couplers so that we can do maintenance and also take apart at end of season.

Main Line feeding the circles and back Row

All 2nd year Growing bines as well as new hop plantings have a 2 Gallon per hour dripper


Dripper and new Chinook

some 110 of them, tomorrow will be official stock take to confirm the actual number and planting of the last few Rhizomes left- most from the experimental ones.


Branch off to circle with valve, roll of 3/8" Poly



The circles are each fed by a 3/4 PVC with each one on its own valve, these 3/4 are buried so that the tractors etc can easily move around the hops yard. The dripper line is 3/8 Poly, which we got donated

I am also experimenting with taking green shoots for growing on in the greenhouse this year, to propagate new plants. That way we will start next year with new plants already rooted.

This weekend will be the last full work party , as we will have a lower work load now that watering is fully automated. No pics of the controller , but will add a pic later.