Most sequels aren't as good as the original. There are, of course, a couple exceptions. Aliens, the 1986 sequel, was at least as good as the original 1979 movie, Alien. With that in mind, I'll try to make this blog entry at least as interesting as the first "Beer Gardening" entry. The previous one dealt with me watching the (barley) grass grow, so I think I've got a good shot here.

My hops are doing well. The Mt. Hood and Cascade plants have both grown to around four feet (1.2 m) tall, and the others are right behind them. The Mt. Hood and Cascade are in the best position to catch the most sun, which probably explains most of the difference in growth. I trellised the hops by sinking hook and eyes into the side of my house, right up near the roof line. I ran two lines down from each hook and eye and, when possible, trained two shoots to each line. (A couple of the rhizomes only sent up a few shoots, so I may plant some pole beans to run up the few empty lines.)

The hops I have growing in containers are also coming along well, although I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them next year. They get better sun than the one's planted at the side of the house, but I haven't found a good way to trellis them in their location. I have found a few mediocre ways.

The barley and wheat are coming along nicely. In both crops, there are a few leaves extending from the central stalk and the plants are about 12 in. (30 cm) tall. There may also be a tiller on some of the plants. (A tiller is a stalk other than the central stalk. In barley, one seed may produce a plant that forms more than one seed head -- one at the end of the central stalk and others at the end of tillers.)

Here are a couple random facts about barley:

Barley is the fourth most widely grown crop in the world. Most of it is used as animal feed.

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) and it's wild progenitorHordeum spontaneumare both diploid and can freely interbreed. The biggest difference in the two species (some sources call them subspecies) is that the rachis holds the seeds together in modern barley, even after maturity. In wild barley, the rachis shatters when the plant is mature, scattering the seeds. (The rachis is basically the structure surrounding the seeds in the spike.)

I'll have more Beer Gardening blog entries as the season progresses, but I also hope to brew something soon.