Corn in the backyard 2011, harvest!

September 8

Growing degree days since planting = 2931
Historical average since planting = 2608

Harvest started on September 7 and finished the next day, and appeared to be a bit more challenging than normal.  Farmer Wagenbach identified stalk rot in sections of the field and chose to harvest quickly before more stalks fell over (which is evidently called "lodging" in farmer-speak).  I didn't actually see the corn go in the ground in the spring, but I believe there were 121 days between planting and the first day of harvest.

No report on the yield yet, but you can see plenty of pretty yellow kernels flowing into the combine hopper in this photo.  The weather cooperated nicely for harvest, although now that the field behind our house is done, I'd like to see a good bit of rain.

The season ended sooner than I expected this year, so I apologize to all those that were looking forward to a few more corn posts.  I guess we'll just have to busy ourselves with something else until next spring.

Corn in the backyard 2011, week 16

September 4

Last week growing degree days = 198
Historical average growing degree days = 152

Growing degree days since planting = 2868
Historical average since planting = 2508

A few days back near 100°F meant plenty of GDUs and good drying weather for most of our area.  If it hadn't reached black layer before this week, this corn is surely there now. 

Here's a look at the stalks and ears we've been watching,  Lots of dried plant matter in this photo.

I found an ear whose husk had peeled away to reveal all these lovely kernels.  I think this ear is a good indication that despite the hot weather at pollination, there aren't many kernels that did not develop.  That's the good news.

The bad news came with a bit of rain on Saturday.  As the front moved through, the winds leading the rain were strong enough to knock over some significant sections of stalks.  That darker brown area in the middle of the photo contains many damaged stalks that may prove difficult for the combine to pick up at harvest.  We'll pray that Farmer Wagenbach is successful in gathering all the grain in the field, so his yield doesn't suffer.  Who said growing corn wasn't exciting?

Hops harvest

You probably noticed in the last hops post that I'm cautiously plodding through my first try at growing this crop.  Harvest has been proceeding just as tentatively as every other part of this experience.

I'm drying the cones in a very simple-technology manner by spreading them on a window screen that has been stapled to a crude wooden frame.  That rack is a few feet off the floor in the upper level of our barn, an area that is typically warmer than outside, especially on hot, sunny days like the ones we've had lately.  The picture above shows the first small batch of Cascade cones freshly picked and slightly dry off the bine.

So far the cones have dried to a very dry and papery state in three days or less.  The image above shows the second batch just before I moved them off the drying screen for bagging.  Even though we've got plenty of Cascade cones to harvest, they are so lightweight that a full gallon weighs well under a pound.  I'll have to get the scale out some day soon and make an official weighing.

In an attempt to keep the lupulin fresh until it's time to use it, the cones are placed in Ziploc bags with the excess air squeezed out, and stored in the freezer.  My expectations for the harvest have changed dramatically since the cones first began appearing in July.  There are MANY more cones than I anticipated, and plenty in various stages of ripeness still on the bine.  Unless something unforeseen happens to them, the two Cascade bines should produce several gallons of cones.

The Willamette bines, on the other hand, appear to be finished after producing less than a quart between all four bines.  Perhaps with a bit of loving care on the rhizomes this fall and next spring, we may see better results next year.  As it is, I'm plenty busy with the two Cascade bines, and would probably be overwhelmed if the Willamette were as productive.  Feel free to stop by if you'd like to see the plants and process first-hand: tours are easy to schedule, and if you're good, I may even give you the opportunity to harvest a few hundred cones.

Corn in the backyard 2011, week 15

 August 28

Last week growing degree days = 177
Historical average growing degree days = 162

Growing degree days since planting = 2670
Historical average since planting = 2356

Another slightly-warmer-than-normal week, and since we haven't seen much rain, the corn is forced to dig its roots down deep for whatever moisture might be hiding in the soil.  We're now only a few days away from reaching the black layer stage when the kernels stop growing and start drying out.

You can't see it in this photo, but several ears in the field are displaying nice kernels all the way to the end of the ear.  I believe that's a good sign that pollination was effective despite the heat at the time.  You'll notice further drying of the husks and stalks, and at least one morning glory visible in the top photo.  Not many weeks left until harvest!

How do you know when your hops are ripe?

That's the question I've been Googling lately.  Having never grown hops before, I'm a bit nervous about harvesting at the right time.  Fortunately, there's a lot of information on the internet, and some of it appears to be helpful.  If nothing else, here are some shots of our Cascade hops this week.

I promised last time to include a ruler in a photo, and as you can see above, the largest hops are just under two inches long.  The cones seem to open up as they ripen, which seems to coincide with good lupulin production in the cone.

This is the most-heavily-laden bine, with what I think is a pretty good crop.

One of the tricks of determining ripeness is to break the cone open to observe and smell the lupulin inside.  Can you see the yellow powdery substance near where each leaf attaches at the center of the cone?  That's lupulin, or what we're trying to obtain from these hops.

The aroma of the lupulin was very strong when I held the cone close to my nose.  Each member of my family described the smell differently, describing it as pine, lemon, box elder bug, mint and generic green plant.  Internet sources call for a spicy, citrus and pine smell, so I think we're pretty close right now.

This is the same cone after drying indoors for two days, and photographed with the macro zoom feature on my camera.  I don't recall if the lupulin changed much over the two days, but zoomed in like this, it appears more crystalline than powdery.

This image was taken with the camera shooting into the eyepiece of our stereo microscope set at 30x magnification.  The lupulin is definitely there, and appears even more crystalline at this magnification.  Most of the cones were not as ripe as the cone pictured here, but harvest appears to be just around the corner.