Potatoes in spent hops & Trial results

[JMCKG]

Have a continual supply of spent hops from local brewery. Used as mulch and to help fill new high raised beds.
I grow my potatoes in buckets with bought compost & council compost, feed etc. Was wondering if I could mix in some of the hops with the compost to save on compost? Would get the hops this year and store till next March/April.

[chris_m]

Hops and potatoes? Would that make some form of poteen?

[JMCKG]

Have spoken to another allotmenteer who has been using a mixture of spent hops, council compost, home compost, manure & shredded newspaper for the last couple of years with great success.

[bikermike]

Have spoken to another allotmenteer who has been using a mixture of spent hops, council compost, home compost, manure & shredded newspaper for the last couple of years with great success.

In all fairness, with that lot, I'd expect the very stones to sprout...

I can't see any reason why they wouldn't work, but all the above proves is that it doesn't actively harm plants.

What state are hops in? I'd be a bit worried about attracting rats. Would you be better off adding it to your compost heap over the storage time?

[JMCKG]

In all fairness, with that lot, I'd expect the very stones to sprout...

I can't see any reason why they wouldn't work, but all the above proves is that it doesn't actively harm plants.

What state are hops in? I'd be a bit worried about attracting rats. Would you be better off adding it to your compost heap over the storage time?

Should have said the guy uses the above but sometimes not all at the same time depending what is available at the time. No measuring just throws stuff in. I will be more accurate and do a few trials this year.
The hops come soaking wet straight from the brewery. I store them in large plastic barrels with holes in the bottom over winter to dry them out. This should make it easier to mix with the other ingredients, I will use hops only plus feed in a container or two just to see what happens.

[muck lover]

I would be really interested how your spuds grow In that mix. I’m trying some containers of early potatoes using leafmould and blood fish and bone,maybe with a couple of handfuls of Marshalls vegetable compost. The stuff is stinking out my polytunnel so I think there’s a fair bit of muck in it. So far the best (only edible) potatoes I have ever grown were volunteers which grew in a grass clipping/leafmould mulch in a path.

[JMCKG]

First results are great. Two large pots were failures, 1 with hops only plus some feed and 1 with a mixture of hops, manure, compost. Could be just unlucky with these two. All other 30 odd doing great. Have also used in my tomatoes and peppers all seem ok.

[Derbydal]

I meant to had this to your first post ! when you get your next lot of hops save the residue that runs off for Slug Beer traps !atb Dal.

[JMCKG]

My Spent Hops trials

I posted before about using spent hops in my potatoe buckets, I also used them elsewhere. The results were;
1. Potatoes in buckets. Good crop did not see any difference with previous years using all compost. I just mixed up the hops with riddled council compost or bought compost or manure - whatever was available at the time.
2. I used spent hops in the bottom of my pepper & tomato pots to save on compost. Used Morrison’s flower pots with 6 inches in bottoms. No problems.
3. Also used as a mulch on top of tomato pots. No problems.
4. Used hops to fill large rectangular plastic troughs for carrots. Hops with 1.5 inches of compost on top. That was the length of the carrots. Failure.
5. Celery 2 inches of compost/manure on top of hops. No problems.
6. Onions same as for celery. No problems.
7. Beetroot same as celery & onions. No problems.

There was some hops spread over my beds of cauliflower and Calabrese, but not enough to judge.

One problem is that getting the hops fresh they dry out and the tomato plants sink! Not a problem with potatoes as they continue to grow, just add more. Have started to store for next year so giving them a good bit of time to dry out.

[Grumpy Gardener]

My son's a brewer and for many years I have used between 60 and 70 brewer's grain sacks a year on my 2 X 280 sq.m plots.
I mainly use them as a mulch as they contain very little nutrients , if any and they dont compost down on their own very well at all.
I put well rotted manure around my fruit trees, canes and bushes and then put about 4 inches of hops between the bushes and rows. Very few weeds come through and those that do are easily pulled out by hand.
They are superb as a soil conditioner and will leave your soil in a beautiful friable condition.
As a trial this year I filled the valleys in the ridges of half of my potatoes to see if it made a difference to yield. There were less weeds to pull out , the potatoes were easier to dig up but there was very little difference in crop.
As I work on the no dig system they have made my life a great deal easier.
John

[JMCKG]

Just lifted Cauliflower and Calabrese from my raised beds, roots of both reached the spent hops layer. Once again no problem.