Hop Growing Thread 2012!

my chinook trellis ia 12 feet tall. and my other two are 10 feet. which isn’t nearly tall enough for my chinook plant. but, when they reach the top they just bundle up, and i get a lot of cones up there.

i’m sure its not ideal. but some people just grow along fences.

How important is it to give hops a full 15+ feet?

[quote=“S.Scoggin”]my chinook trellis ia 12 feet tall. and my other two are 10 feet. which isn’t nearly tall enough for my chinook plant. but, when they reach the top they just bundle up, and i get a lot of cones up there.

i’m sure its not ideal. but some people just grow along fences.

How important is it to give hops a full 15+ feet?[/quote]
My poles are 16ft and my Mt Hood and Horizon both outgrew their poles this year.

Since my hop beds are along the outside of the fence that surrounds my garden, this year I have trained a few bines to grow on the fence as well. I’ve had to train them every couple of days, but they are doing well on the fence.

The importance of height is overrated
especially in the home garden.

Pinnah,

Maybe you can help me with a question that I was just going to post (Since height is over rated in the home garden). I am curious as to the experience of those who grow hops in pots or shorter trellis structures. I went very conservative on my trellis height this year as I planted first year hops… I am already planning a taller structure for next year. One of my plants has already reached the top of this trellis (80 inches). The other three are about a foot tall. What do you do when the plant out grows the trellis? Do you prune or just let it go? I also have the ablity to train the plant horizontally on a fence (which was my initial thought)… I would LOVE to hear some input as hops are a new garden plant for me!

Thanks,

Rifester (a.k.a. Mark)

[quote=“Rifester”]Pinnah,

Maybe you can help me with a question that I was just going to post (Since height is over rated in the home garden). I am curious as to the experience of those who grow hops in pots or shorter trellis structures. ,snip. What do you do when the plant out grows the trellis? Do you prune or just let it go? I also have the ablity to train the plant horizontally on a fence (which was my initial thought)… I would LOVE to hear some input as hops are a new garden plant for me!

Thanks,

Rifester (a.k.a. Mark)[/quote]

Hey Mark,

you might find some of my thoughts in this post
http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=71023&p=739390&hilit=rail#p739390
interesting.

I suppose I rail against the need for tall home hop production for a number of factors.

  1. no need
  2. hard to access/manage
  3. potential to look tacky in the home garden
  4. one time harvest
    5 obsession with idea that height=good vigor.
    6… home production does not have to be at commercial levels :wink:

Cheers from just pinnah

I don’t have any experience with it personally, but I have heard of a method of growing hops in a pot where you can keep the height to a pre-determined level. You train your hops up a line that is tied off to a stake at a height of your choosing (maybe 10ft or so). When the bine nears the top of the line you untie the line at the top and pay more line out. You can then coil the excess line (with hops bine attached) on the ground at the base of the pot. Keep doing this as needed to keep the bine growing without overgrowing your pot.

chinook and mt. hood here in PA. That was on Saturday. The Mt. Hood’s now at the fence in my backyard. Pumped!

This is what I’ve been doing with my lines this year since my first-year plants quickly reached the top of the 12ft poll. The only reason I care about them reaching the top is that I have 1 central pole for 4 different varieties and I’m concerned they will get intertwined to where I can’t tell them apart. LOL

It’s not ideal, but seems to be working so far. I have no idea how or if it will effect the harvest.

I planted Cascades, Columbus, Centennial, and a mystery hop this year. They’re doing pretty well, except my dad came and mowed the lawn, and managed to mow down my Centennials. Very unhappy about that. Even after expressly telling him where to stay away from, since I was growing hops.

Did you have them mulched in? Growing up strings or a trellis? If so, they would be hard to miss. :roll:

Hello, this is my first year growing hops and i bought a nugget rhizome planted it in mid march. It is now 8 ft tall and i just found another shoot sprouting out 1 foot from where i planted it… Is this a new rhizome coming from the original rhizome? Any suggestions on what i do with it?

What I’ve done in the past with rogue shoots, especially if they’re from 1st year plants, is to place a 3 to 4ft bamboo stake or just a small stick in the ground where the shoot is coming out and angle that stick or stake back to your main twine. That way the bine has something to crawl up and it will make it’s way back to where it came from.

You could always just wait for it to be long enough to pull back and attach it to your twine. Either way works for me.

just pluck it from the ground. it will not get big enough to produce and will suck valuable nutrients from the ground.

just pluck it from the ground. it will not get big enough to produce and will suck valuable nutrients from the ground.[/quote]

I thought about that, but since this is a first year growth plant i don’t care much about it giving me any hops. What i wanted to know what is there any way to let it grow bigger where it will actually begin to be dependent on its own roots if i cut it off an plant it somewhere else. I slightly dug it up to see how long the underground part of the root was and it realized that it had the even smaller roots spreading into the soil 4 inches of actual above ground shoot and 8 inches of root. So is it possible if i cut it as close as i can to the original hop rhizome and then to grow it like another hop rhizome somewhere else?

Did you have them mulched in? Growing up strings or a trellis? If so, they would be hard to miss. :roll: [/quote]
I think Pops is suggesting YOU mow the lawn… lol

[quote
I thought about that, but since this is a first year growth plant i don’t care much about it giving me any hops. What i wanted to know what is there any way to let it grow bigger where it will actually begin to be dependent on its own roots if i cut it off an plant it somewhere else. I slightly dug it up to see how long the underground part of the root was and it realized that it had the even smaller roots spreading into the soil 4 inches of actual above ground shoot and 8 inches of root. So is it possible if i cut it as close as i can to the original hop rhizome and then to grow it like another hop rhizome somewhere else?[/quote]

It’s very possible and very easy to do what you are suggesting. You can do it at this time, but your chances of success will be almost 100% if you wait until the vines have died back this Fall to cut and replant it. At this point, the plant is trying to do a number of things (establish roots, grow leaves to help it produce food to feed the crown) under high Summer temps… After the vines die back the primary thing that’s going on is root growth. and generally the weather is more conducive to make cuttings and replant at this time. Much less stress on the plants. Give it a go, there will be many more cuttings to make in the future. Hop On!

Damned rabbits … one of my first year nuggets was obliterated by a rabbit(s) … and my other one was gnawed on. Time to get some chicken wire out.

More like, time to bust out the pellet rifle or 22LR and make some rabbit stew with a brown ale.

Anyone controlling spider mites with predatory mites? I seem to have a spider mite problem and have tried insectidal soap, neem oil, and pyrethrin based sprays.

Haven’t had any problems with mine yet. Apparently, according to the net for a non chemical treatment, people are just using a strong water blast to the leaves to continually knock them off which seems to work for some. I assume you’d do this at least once a day although I don’t know how I feel about this treatment when it could introduce more issues with the leaves being wet all the time.

I also have seen this recipe for a home made spray. Understand that the original author is not using this on hop plants.

Cut&Paste from the interwebs:

[b][i]GP TEA recipe:
3 cloves of garlic
2 habanero peppers

Place the garlic and peppers n a blender and add about 2 cups of water. blend until the peppers and garlic are thouroghly crushed and pulverized. If necessary add water to keep the mix liquid. After this, strain the liquid to remove the solids. Add enough water to this liquid to make 1 gallon of concentrate. Of this concentrate, use 1/4 cup per gallon of water in your sprayer.

I have heard that this mix is not good for some beneficial bugs, but I have seen no definitive proof of this ( ihave looked in many organic gardening books). Maybe somene else out here can help with this. It will definitely take care of thrips, mites, and aphids, and some ants (spray it on the mound and they sure move in a hurry)[/i][/b]

I will probably start with this recipe if and when I begin to have problems.
Good luck and may many mites fall at your feet.