Second Official Hops Update of 2007

Here it is April 6th, Good Friday, and it's currently 31F at 9:00AM! I thought this was supposed to be spring, Oh that's right I'm still in Ohio. We should actually feel fortunate to have a spring this year. It was up in the 80's last weekend and we took advantage of that.

We not only got out to see that the hops were coming up, but we also planted some creeping phlox. Let's just hope that they both survive the current backlash into winter!

I'm not sure if the photos can show scale well enough for you to see how tall the hops are already, but hey are actually up to my waist when I stand next to them. An excellent start for the season! Unfortunately Lightnin had to work today, so I didn't have her available to model next to the vines to give a better sense of scale.





I did want to try to get this close-up to show the frost that is on the leaves of the vines that sprouted up away from the rest of the main plant. This poor unfortunate may not pull through, but I can only hope that there is enough good growth on the main plants to survive the heavy freeze we're going to get again tonight.




I think the photo below shows the height of the vines a little better.














Well, like I mentioned we're in for a cold one tonight. We're expected to get down to 18F, setting yet another record for cold. We beat the old record of 23F last night by dipping down to 20F. On top of the cold we're also expected to get a dusting of snow. If that happens I'll try to get some photos of the hops against the white fluffy background.

I haven't checked on the Phlox yet to see how it's doing, but if the hops can make it through this I'll be happy!