Hop shoots go wild!

It’s good news in the hop garden – Estate Manager Matthew is over halfway through stringing.  

Now the wind has died down, it is a far more pleasant occupation!  But there is still about 3 weeks’ more work to go.

The Hoppers were on hand last week to assist in releasing the aphids into the garden.  These tiny aphids are the “good guys” and will predate on the even smaller red spider mites – the “bad guys” - who damage the hop plants.  With a small number of aphids were carefully released onto each of the 6,500 hop plants by the Hoppers, this is nature’s organic way of helping us to look after the hop plants.

The spell of sunny weather has given the hop plants a new lease of life and they are rapidly putting out shoots. So the Hoppers will be eager to start twiddling – the job of winding the hop shoots around the strings – and are set to start straight after the early May Bank Holiday.

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