I have em on order. Prepping the area and all. For 1st year plants that I am just getting the rhizomes into the ground this year (in the next week), will I need to worry about pruning? I assume I will still need to get supports up but on a 1st year plant are we talking a full 15’ monster right off the bat or is the 1st years grgowth going to be much reduced as it is building roots?
Thanks,
Barry
My first years(depending on the plant) grew to about 10 feet at the tallest and 5-6 at the shortest. I did no pruning, as first year plants need to establish their root system. Maybe you’ll hit 15 feet but I doubt it, I got no cones from my first year plants, some people do, some don’t.
My first year hops grew 15ft+ in the first year and took off quickly. I wasn’t initially expecting much so I constructed a simple trellis system using electrical conduit because it was cheap and easy to work with. I made the trellis 15 ft talling thinking that it would be plenty tall. I would say by early July all three plants had reached the top of the trellis. I also was not expecting many cones, but ended up with a lot of them. I’m sure there are a lot of factors, but I would plan on supporting them in some way.
Thanks for the input guys, Looks like I better get al least some sort of support up this year and fast. Time to get to building. That tall a pole is going to be interesting to find. I assume there are no issues using treated lumber for the support structure (poles)???
Barry
