Jason Warren, left, and Mike Chipman, co-owners of Baldwinsville farm Thursdays Hops, recently spoke to the Baldwinsville Garden Club.
Chipman and Warren have been growing hops for about five years on half an acre of land. Growing hops has been making a come back in New York, but it is not for the faint-hearted. There is a big learning curve. Hops require a lot of water, can get mildew and insect issues and take a few years to mature and start producing much. Giving them the right nutrients so that production is high is also tricky. Hops are vines that grow six to 12 inches a day. They are grown up heavy strings that are attached to 18-foot poles.
Growing the vines that produce hops is only half the battle for Chipman and Warren. There is harvesting the hops after working their full time jobs elsewhere. The harvest can take them a full week even with help from their families. They seem to love what they are doing and hope that in the coming year they will have a more robust harvest that might even turn a profit.
