Field Notes: Hops, May 2026

00:01:07 Speaker: Welcome to the Cutting Edge podcast. my name is Jerry Clark. I’m a regional educator with Chippewa Dunn in Eau Claire counties. And joining me as a co-host today is Ann Kowenstrot, Ann you want to introduce yourself. Sure. Thanks, Jerry. My name is Anne Kowenstrot, and I’m a diversified vegetable and emerging crops educator with UW extension. And I’m in the southeast part of the state in Kenosha and Racine counties. Great. today we’re going to talk about, the hop growing season. On our first session here, we’d be visiting with Randy Ernest of Fine bine farm Randy, works with his wife, Peggy on this. I’ve known Peggy and Randy a long time, working in hops over the years. So, we just want to visit today, Randy, a little bit about how the growing season looks. Get a little background of your farm again. I think you were on one of our podcasts early. This has probably been five or six years ago when we started these podcasts. I think you were probably one of our guests back then. I believe it may have been in twenty twenty or twenty twenty one. it was during Covid. Nice. Yeah. And let’s just mention that this is going to kind of be a monthly, notes from the field that we’re going to do with, Randy here at Fine Vine Farms to, kind of get a sense of, what hops farming looks like throughout the growing season. So they’ll be short and sweet and hopefully packed with a lot of good information. Okay. So yeah, Randy, you want to just give us a little quick background of, your operation, the enterprise there that you and Peggy have going. we started growing hops in twenty eleven is when we really started to plant and get things rolling. we’ve kind of grown over the years. We’re at about four and a half to five acres right now. It kind of goes up and down a little bit as we take some varieties out and replace them with other ones. So we say, about four and a half acres, which works out to maybe around three thousand plants that we have in. so, fairly, established on what we have for most of it. we have about ten varieties of hops that we do grow. part of that is to kind of spread out the harvest, into longer seasons. And then also some of the brewers we work with are looking for different types of hops. So we kind of mix it up a bit and, kind of go with the flow of what the Brewers want done. why hops? Why hops? Why we built our house on our where we’re at a little over twenty years ago now, I guess. And we had the field, the land and leased most of the field out to a dairy farmer who was taking corn and hay off of it, and we wanted to grow something of our own. So we started to do a little research into different things and opportunities, and connected up with a group that was bringing hops back into Wisconsin. Hops had been very big in Wisconsin prior to prohibition, but just prior to prohibition. And then after prohibition, they moved out west, mostly to avoid some of the disease that we have in a more humid and wetter climate than they have out in Washington and Oregon, Idaho, where they grow in a very dry conditions out there. So they don’t have as much trouble with the mildews and things of that nature. So, that’s how I mean, there was a group bringing hops back in. We got interested, really researched it for about a year before we started to put in, our trellis system and the plants planted in twenty eleven had a small harvest in twenty twelve. And in twenty thirteen, things really kind of got rolling and we added our processing facility and harvester and most of our equipment. Then in twenty thirteen. So with the ten varieties, Randy, when you switch them out, is that mainly due to demand of the brewers or just the the life span of that specific rhizome. The plant health is just deteriorated. It’s pretty much always been, for what the brewers are using. we’ve switched out. We’ve put some stuff in that. After time, the Brewers, it just proved out that the Brewers weren’t interested in it or weren’t very interested in it. So we take them back out and try something else that we think the Brewers will be interested. We’ve found that our best luck is to stay with some of the more traditional hop varieties that brewers are familiar with, been using for years, decades. Some of them, and, you know, so we’ve had good luck with that. And many of those are actually, uh, Going down in acreage out west. there’s still a demand for them though. So we’ve had fairly good luck kind of using that as our plan on what to put in. previously we had done a little bit more with varieties that were new to brewers. And if they’re not familiar with them, it can be difficult to get them to really kind of switch to them. We have had a little bit where we took out that, the variety wasn’t growing well for us, wasn’t growing well in Wisconsin. And so we’ve taken some out for that reason, but it’s not often. And as far as, variety reaching like the rhizomes and the plant kind of reaching the end of its useful life or growing. We haven’t run into too much of that. We’ve got some varieties that have really been planted. and we’ve kept up with them since twenty eleven. some people do run into a little bit more than that, that the plants are less productive and maybe there are some of them we should investigate a little bit more well, are they as productive as they should be? But we’ve been comfortable with what we’ve been getting. so we’ve kind of stuck with them and that’s probably a better return on investment. The longer they’re in there, you can continue to, you don’t have to replant and do all that I guess. Yeah, certainly. And, those are the ones that are older. We got fairly lucky that a couple of the varieties we put in right off the bat have stayed, very popular for us that, and we sell out of them every year. So yeah, it makes it pretty hard to justify removing any of those as we go. So what are a couple of those varieties, Randy, that maybe the, the market just didn’t want them. And then maybe a couple that you found that yeah, this is what the market really wants. so a couple varieties that we put in and we thought were going to be big hits, but we really didn’t have much luck on selling them is some of the newer ones that the USDA developed the varieties. Vista would be one of them that we had put in and we love growing it. It grows very well in Wisconsin. The yield is nice. I’ve brewed a little bit with it and had other beers that had it in it. And, it makes a very nice beer. It’s got good aromas and scents to it and flavor, but it just never really took off. So that’s one of them we’ve taken out. triumph is another one that we thought was going to be very popular and work well for brewers. Again, it was another one. We just loved growing. It liked, you know, the beer we got from it, but it just never really took off with the Brewers. So as far as other ones that we’ve run into that have been very popular with brewers. and again, that’s where I’m kind of looking at some of those varieties that have been around a while. Willamette, we’ve always done well with mount hoods have always been popular. we’ve been real lucky as far as on Magnum, has been popular. We always sell out of those. so it’s some of those varieties that have done well for us. kind of going with that. Now we’ve decided to try growing a holler towel as well. So now you’re talking about a hop variety that comes out of Germany originally. It’s been very popular. And we’ve talked with numerous brewers that yeah, we would we would use some of that or they do use some of it already. it will be a little bit interesting because it is a variety that has not grown traditionally very well in Wisconsin, and it might be a little tougher variety to establish, but we’ve had some experience with tougher varieties to establish. Anyway, the Willamette fall into that. We grow Goldings which, are also notorious for difficult to grow. And we’ve just, every year we just kind of fight with them and see what they’re going to throw at us this year. As far as something new, we’ve had a couple of really good years on them, and we’re hoping for another good year this year, but sometimes it’s just a struggle on some of those varieties to figure out what makes them happy. I think I just want to go back just a second because when we did your introduction, you’re in the Stevens Point area, right? Randy in that really sandy soils or, just describe your location again. Okay. Yeah. So we’re located, I would say, let’s see, I guess northeast of Stevens Point, southeast of Wausau, kind of in between we’re located near Rosholt Bevent area. being out in the country, not really in either one of them, but so yes, as far as the sandy soil, we have a sandy loam. people think about Stevens Point plover, they think about the golden sands area that is. prior to living here, we did live down in the plover area. And yes, that is truly sand down there. But we’re a sandy loam, but we’re still quite sandy, and we didn’t realise quite how sandy we were until we were working with the UW extensions and doing some research. And it’s like, yeah, actually we were the sandiest soil that the extension was working with. So it’s fairly well drained though, which works well for hops. it doesn’t drain too fast that we struggle to keep it irrigated. But hops like to say dry. They like to keep their feet dry. So it’s good that we don’t have water standing out in the hops if we get a lot of rain, which last month proved out well for us when we had over five inches in less than a week, well, actually five inches in two days. So, it drained away. Well they didn’t, we didn’t end up with standing water. We were out into the field. It worked out well for us that way. So the sand and a sandy loam works well for the hops. Very nice. are you a part of a co-op or do you sell directly to brewers? Both. we’re actually part of a couple of co-ops. There are two, hot co-ops in Wisconsin. we’ve been a member of Wisconsin Hops and Barley Co-op. That was one of the groups I mentioned that when we got started, that was talking about bringing hops back into Wisconsin. So we’ve been a member with them since we really started back getting into this back in twenty eleven. a year or two later, we joined the Wisconsin Hop Exchange and we’re very active with the Wisconsin Hop Exchange. Now. We sell hops through both of those, the Wisconsin Hops and barley co-op is kind of more of a Brewers co-op. We have Brewer members. A lot of the decisions in the board and stuff on that co-op is Brewers and it’s led pretty much by the Brewers. Wisconsin Hop Exchange is a growers co-op. the board members are all growers. There’s no actual brewer members on that co-op. So and then it’s a little bit different structure between the two. So we are members of both. And I’m actually on the board with Wisconsin Hops Exchange. So, become much more active with them in recent years. Then we do also do some sales directly to brewers as well. We’re, one of the few facilities or Farms that have their own palletizing and processing facility. So Randy, what activities going on right now is the, is the emergence look good? And how does the, uh, the, the yard look at this point? So just under a week ago, we finished hanging all of the strings for the hops to climb up. we spend generally two, three weeks. This year was just over a couple of weeks. And I don’t say I don’t mean constant out there stringing. We out there stringing, when I don’t have something for work and it’s not raining and the wind isn’t too crazy, which this year the wind has been just terrible. when you’re hanging eighteen, twenty foot strings and chasing them around in the wind, it gets a little difficult. So we’ve got all of the training done, the field cleaned up before that, all prepped. The hops are emerging now. some of the hops are maybe in that ten inch to twelve inch length right now for us. And we follow, you know, we’re one of the northern growers in Wisconsin. There are people farther north. and so you see different effects with the climate throughout Wisconsin. Actually, what we see is Western Wisconsin tends to run a little bit warmer than us as well. some of the varieties, yeah, as saying are probably ten to twelve inches. We’ve got other varieties that are maybe an inch tall yet, and it’s been a little slow these last couple of weeks. I watched growing degree days. I actually have spreadsheet and track it And we were kind of running ahead and of other years for growing degree days. And the timing was about, you know, good for when the growing degree days were we didn’t have them in February. Like we get some years when they don’t do us any good at all, then. So, but this last week or two is kind of slowed things down. again this morning we hit twenty seven degrees here and last week we had some twenty three degree, temperatures, which we’ve done. Fortunately, it doesn’t look like there’s been any kill by the cold temperatures. Usually down to twenty seven degrees is not a problem. those twenty three degrees were actually kind of surprised that there wasn’t more of a problem. I think if the hops had been bigger, we would have had problems with that. So I’m kind of watching the forecast. It’s supposed to be cool yet again. This week, we’re certainly dropping down. By the end of this week, we’re going to be back to that average for growing degree days for the year, if not even a little below average. So things change quickly. But then I think next week, with things warm up, we’re going to see some rapid growth. And soon we’ll be at that point where we’re out there training the plants around the springs, getting them up. So and that training is going to start faster than we realize. Yeah. I’m thinking like, what will happen in the next month. And so that training will start happening within the next month. Well, the training will start happening hopefully, maybe within the next week to two weeks, we’ll start training. and we’ll, certainly try to have the training done by June. also we’re kind of running into that time frame now where we’d like to see that starting to, you know, more of the training going southern Wisconsin. or I shouldn’t say southern necessarily, but south of us, maybe more in Western Wisconsin. I have a feeling some of them are going to be training, if not this week or weekend next week, they’ll be at a point they’ll probably be able to start doing some training down in the Madison area. I have a feeling they’re probably about ready to do some training there already. with the training? Randy that’s kind of unique with hops, you have to wrap it a certain direction. Correct. If listeners don’t know, much about hops, they grow a certain direction, correct around the string. yes, they will wrap clockwise around the string. And, contrary to what a lot of people think, no, they don’t wrap the other direction in the southern hemisphere. they still wrap clockwise, I guess. But yeah, so we get them started wrapping around the string. And that’s why they’re called binds on like a grapevine that, grabs on and has, not sure on the right term tentacles there. That kind of grab on hop binds wrap around the string as they climb up the string, and they can wrap pretty tight onto the string as well. Once you get them trained up, they’ll do pretty good to stay and just keep going up that string. until they and the strings are about eighteen foot or the cables are about eighteen foot and they’ll climb up those, to eighteen foot, you know, by the beginning of July, by the fourth of July, we like to see them cable high. Wow. so as a newbie that doesn’t know much about hops, what if you wrap it the wrong way? What happens? Well, basically It may just kind of correct itself and start climbing or wrapping the right way. Generally, what you will see though is they’ll get loose and more or less fall off. But if they can detect or sense something to wrap around and actually, depending on the variety, it can vary a little bit, but certainly some of them, they will wrap around anything they kind of detect, which also means if you don’t get out there fast enough training them, they like to wrap around each other. And so then you may, if you’re a little late getting out there, you will have to almost unwrap them depending on how things go. Sometimes, okay, they’ll be wrapped together, but they’re climbing in the right direction. So you just wrap them together around the string and let them go. But yeah, they will wrap around everything. They will wrap around the irrigation and each other, and sometimes they’ll wrap around the pole so you can have a mess then. Yeah, I imagine so Randy, you have one plant, but then how many binds do you try to train up the string at at any one time? Our goal or target is really to have three plants, vines on a string. Um and we’ll have well so it’d be three vines, um on a string. And we generally have two strings per plant. Mhm. What we generally see happen is, you know, you try to be diligent and clean up and keep the other, suckers and stuff from going up and joining them as well. But quite often you have a few extra sectors and things that climb as well. So you’ll end up with maybe four or five occasionally on a string that, well, they never got taken back off. And is it of great value to go take them back off? Well, no, they’re climbing. They’re doing well. We’ll leave them. Let them go. I don’t know if having more vines on the string. I don’t know that you actually gain much more yield because okay, you’re just working the plant a little harder, but, uh, it certainly makes for a nice full plant. So. That’s interesting. in the next month before we talk again next, what are, you know, what kind of challenges are you anticipating? Weather. well, challenges will be just, looking at the weather and hopefully getting good weather where we can get out there and train, as far as tasks and things coming up in the next, probably within the next week, I will be out there doing the first, fungicide spray. Basically, when more of them are in that six inch range, kind of have that six to twelve inch range of plant types to get out there and put down the first, fungicide treatment for downy mildew, fighting and working with the downy mildew. Is really a preventive type of all you can do is work to prevent it. Because if you see it and you’ve already got it, well, then it’s too late. So we really have our plans and stuff in place as far as for the spraying program, and then we watch the weather to see how wet things get. yeah, we’ll be out there doing that and the training and those are kind of the two things coming up. Once the training is done, it becomes most of our, task in the field does become spraying and preventative from that aspect. Once they get a little heavy, on the vines, we’ll do a little more cleanup and stuff just so that we don’t have too many plants and keep the bases kind of clear. So we get airflow, which helps with the disease. So those are kind of the things coming up in the near future. And then, you mentioned, the disease things, any other pest management, weeds and, early season weed control, anything like that that you have to deal with. Well, before the plants come up, at the end of March, we will do a pre-emergent spray for weeds, which does have a little bit of a knock down and stuff to them there is a good chance and actually this year I’m sure I will do a grass treatment. Well, I do the first fungicide spray. seems like we’re getting a little bit more pressure from grasses in the last couple of years than we thought we were getting them pretty well under control and cleaned out of the field. So but then, yeah, as we’re going, there’ll be continuous kind of working with, weed control. What we run into to some degree is okay, other than the grass, it’s tough to really spray anything until the plants are six feet or taller. Because what we would put on may very well kill the hop as well. Until the hop gets big enough that you’re not affecting that the tip of it. But yes, then coming up later in the summer, there will be insect spraying. And for insects, we can scout and watch. And you know, most of the treatment and working, you know, to protect against them is um based on scouting. If we start to see insect pressure, we have to watch for leafhoppers and spider mites to make sure we don’t have issues with them. And then eyes scouting and watching for any other insect or thing that might be new jumping in there as well. So yeah, sounds great. Sounds like you got a IPM integrated pest management program where you know, what, what you got out there and how to handle it and handle it when it’s, when it’s there versus, you know, using a product that you really don’t need for an insect that’s not even there or a pest right. And that that could actually create more problems, than it helps spraying for something that’s not there. for starters, you can have resistance problems. The other thing you might run into is too much spraying. It’s kind of interesting. You spray for one insect and it might actually eliminating that and maybe some of the other stuff that gets eliminated with it with that insecticide can cause other problems. for instance, you can trigger spider mites by spraying other insects because you’re taking away their competition or a beneficial insect possibly that helps keep them down. So you really have to watch that. just spraying to spray is never a good situation. Good rule to live by, for sure. I’m excited to hear what’s going on in a month. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Randy. It was sure nice to meet you. And, uh, we’ll see you in a month. Yeah. Nice meeting you and talking with you. I look forward to talking again. All right. Thanks, Randy.

JASON FISCHBACH 49:00
Brought to you by the University of Wisconsin Madison Division of Extension.

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