Henry County has Indiana's largest hops farm for craft brews
Started by Martin and co-owner Ryan Hammer, an old high-school buddy, Crazy Horse is already the state's largest hop farm, and 100 more acres are planned.
[...] Indiana acreage is expanding, thanks largely to rapid growth in the craft brewing industry, which uses the female flowers, called cones, from the hop plant to flavor and stabilize beer.
In addition to the $10,000 to $12,000 per acre that they already have spent on the plants, irrigation and the trellis system, Martin and Hammer plan to invest another $1 million in processing equipment.
The hops need to be picked, dried, baled, placed in cold storage, pelletized and vacuum sealed before being sold to brewers.
Lori Hoagland, an assistant professor of horticulture at Purdue University, calls Crazy Horse a sight to behold.
Crazy Horse served as host recently for a Purdue Extension Hops Field Day to help Indiana farmers identify best management practices for irrigation management, hilling around the base of the plants, stalk testing for nutrients, pruning lower foliage for downy mildew management and insect control.
Studies are being conducted at Purdue's Boiler Hop Yard, but that research farm is entering only its third growing season.
Because it's experimental, we can afford to make mistakes.
Indiana has a very different climate than Washington state's desert-like Yakima Valley, home to more than 70 percent of total U.S. hop acreage and mostly third- or fourth-generation hop-growing families.
"The big difference we have is summer rainfall and humidity," Hoagland told The Star Press.
Because of our nice, warm, wet conditions we have to worry more than the Pacific Northwest about pathogens like downy mildew.
Among other things, he learned that after a heavy rain in July, when the hops are nearing their mature size, his trellis system started to sag.
After graduation, Martin headed to Purdue and double majored in agriculture-business management and entr