Author Topic: I've made a hotbed (or should it be hop-bed)  (Read 4250 times)

squeezyjohn

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,022
  • Oxfordshire - Sandy loam on top of clay
I've made a hotbed (or should it be hop-bed)
« on: March 28, 2014, 22:18:46 »
On getting hold of a velux skylight being chucked out of a rented house in Oxford - I decided to build a cold-frame which it could go on and then decided it might be fun to try a hotbed for the first time.

However on getting it built and a pit excavated - I realised that my supply of fresh stable manure is not available this year.  After a little reading I decided to experiment with spent hops that are left for anyone to take away from outside our local micro-brewery ready bagged up instead of the traditional manure as a heating element for the hot bed.  Apparently hops can produce some good heat.

I piled the hops in to the frame and poured on some urine (stored up over the winter at the plot for use as plant feed and compost activator), mixed it up with some not so fresh manure and then left to see if it would produce some heat ... after a week it was really quite hot.  So I trampled it down to get it a bit more stable ... covered with a mix of sifted compost and soil about 6 inches deep and now I have a fully functioning hotbed.

I don't know how long it's heat will last - but it's keeping a good 20 degrees soil temperature even while hail and sleet comes down and I have sown pumpkins, tromba d'albegna squash and carrots in it.

Goes to show what hops can do!

digmore

  • Half Acre
  • ***
  • Posts: 220
Re: I've made a hotbed (or should it be hop-bed)
« Reply #1 on: March 29, 2014, 07:33:51 »
Well done Squeeze, 10 out of 10 for adaptation.

Digmore.  :wave:

pumkinlover

  • Guest
Re: I've made a hotbed (or should it be hop-bed)
« Reply #2 on: March 29, 2014, 07:52:08 »
Thanks for this, making a hot-bed is on my "round tuit" list

laurieuk

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,039
  • now retired
    • laurie mansers  garden hints
Re: I've made a hotbed (or should it be hop-bed)
« Reply #3 on: April 04, 2014, 10:08:41 »
Did not know you could still get spent hops for free, we used to hire a lorry and a man and then pay the local brewery about 10 shillings and have as much as you could move in a day, then someone decided to sell it as Hop Manure. Mind you I am talking back in the 40's :BangHead:

Pescador

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 953
Re: I've made a hotbed (or should it be hop-bed)
« Reply #4 on: April 06, 2014, 07:34:14 »
I'm lucky enough to have an agreement with the local micro-brewery. They bag-up all their spent hops and barley, and I collect it once a week for my compost heaps.
It gets mixes with household waste and loads of shredded paper and heats up beautifully.
This compost then gets used to grow the produce that I turn into chutney that gets sold down at their pub!
Like us on Facebook. Paul's Preserves and Pickles.
Miskin, Pontyclun. S. Wales.
Every pickle helps!

squeezyjohn

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,022
  • Oxfordshire - Sandy loam on top of clay
Re: I've made a hotbed (or should it be hop-bed)
« Reply #5 on: April 06, 2014, 10:17:46 »
I suppose I am fortunate enough to live close to another friendly micro brewery.  The smell in the car after transporting it can be quite intoxicating!

squeezyjohn

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,022
  • Oxfordshire - Sandy loam on top of clay
Re: I've made a hotbed (or should it be hop-bed)
« Reply #6 on: July 14, 2014, 20:55:00 »
Well 4 months down the line and I can't even see the hotbed anymore!

I had a nice batch of baby carrots out of it early before the ones in the ground got going and now the tromba d'albegna squash are so rampant they have spilled out of it in every direction and up the support I put in for them.  We've had them as courgettes for at least 3 weeks already and they're threatening to make some pretty spectacular big ones for winter too  :icon_cheers:

It seems that the tromba squash just love all those spent hops in there ... I was worried that there wouldn't be enough nutrients in there for them but there's no sign of them slowing down at all.  What a beast of a plant!

clumsy

  • Half Acre
  • ***
  • Posts: 129
Re: I've made a hotbed (or should it be hop-bed)
« Reply #7 on: October 29, 2014, 21:16:37 »
Great information. Instead of a coldframe can I make the hotbed in a greenhouse for early planting of tomatoes and chillies?

squeezyjohn

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,022
  • Oxfordshire - Sandy loam on top of clay
Re: I've made a hotbed (or should it be hop-bed)
« Reply #8 on: October 29, 2014, 21:30:42 »
I can't see why it wouldn't work ... but with hotbeds you've got to prepare them at the correct time as they only really keep heating for between 1 and 2 months ... after that they go back to being a regular bed with lots of manure (or hops) in them.  So if you start it too early ... frost can still be a risk by the time they're losing their heating capability.

clumsy

  • Half Acre
  • ***
  • Posts: 129
Re: I've made a hotbed (or should it be hop-bed)
« Reply #9 on: October 30, 2014, 14:35:44 »
I was thinking of about middle of march to plant small chilli  and tomato plants in the greenhouse. I was thinking if I kept there feet warm they would hopefully grow lot quicker and fruit earlier.

squeezyjohn

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,022
  • Oxfordshire - Sandy loam on top of clay
Re: I've made a hotbed (or should it be hop-bed)
« Reply #10 on: October 30, 2014, 18:00:31 »
Good idea!  You need to build your hotbed at the end of February then so that it has started to heat up by mid March.

cestrian

  • Half Acre
  • ***
  • Posts: 175
Re: I've made a hotbed (or should it be hop-bed)
« Reply #11 on: March 15, 2015, 23:52:49 »
How deep does the layer of manure (or hops) need to be on a hotbed?

squeezyjohn

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,022
  • Oxfordshire - Sandy loam on top of clay
Re: I've made a hotbed (or should it be hop-bed)
« Reply #12 on: March 16, 2015, 09:03:57 »
Ideally at least a couple of feet from what I've read.  The deeper it is then the longer the heat lasts.

ACE

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 7,424
Re: I've made a hotbed (or should it be hop-bed)
« Reply #13 on: May 21, 2015, 16:10:11 »
I was thinking of getting some spent hops for mulching the fruit cage when I build it. I was under the impression that there was no goodness in it. Only suitable for mulch and digging into heavy ground to lighten it. Who else is growing in it? I can get it free so if it is good for growing I'll get some extra for spreading.

squeezyjohn

  • Hectare
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,022
  • Oxfordshire - Sandy loam on top of clay
Re: I've made a hotbed (or should it be hop-bed)
« Reply #14 on: May 21, 2015, 17:00:16 »
I mixed my hops with a little fresh horse manure to help get the heat going.  I'm pretty sure that when it's composted down it ends up exactly the same as leaf mould in terms of fertility ... it's definitely not a replacement for manure in terms of nitrogen for the ground.

I use it as a mulch and it's great to keep the weeds down and the moisture in ... the increase in worm population under hop mulch is very much a visible phenomenon.  The advantage it has over leaf mould is that it's been boiled so any seeds it may have contained won't germinate.

The beery smell goes within a week or so.

 

anything
SimplePortal 2.3.5 © 2008-2012, SimplePortal