1st Year Hops Garden and Trellis in Georgia

**br1dge** · 05-12-2011, 03:09 AM

A while back I started the wheels turning on my hops garden. This weekend I finally got the trellis finished and the twine up. I planted Cascade, Centennial and Chinook on Easter. 7 Days after planting the Cascade and Centennial poked through the ground. Chinook followed a day or two later. Cascade is currently about 2.5 ft, Centennial about 2 ft and Chinook is lagging at about 1.5 ft. Just recently I had a few small flies hanging around and a few aphids as well. I sprayed them with dish soap and water solution and it seems to be working so far.

Eventually I think I will need to add guy lines but I will deal with that later. I used 4x4x16' PT SYP and buried them about 3.5-4ft deep. Main line is currently two old dog run lines I had laying around. I picked up a turnbuckle to connect the lines. I used 1/2" x 6" Eye bolts and pre-drilled the hole with 7/16" bit. I bought a boat cleat that I will be attaching to the right post soon to tie off my main line. With this setup I will be able to either let the whole main line down for harvesting, detach the twine which is connected with a caribiner or just use the ladder.

nefarious_1_ · 05-12-2011, 02:18 PM

Very nice, similar to my setup. Not all of my plants are doing as well though... I have 3 that I started in pots waiting to be planted once they get bigger and another 2 in the ground. The ones planted in the pots are doing quite well: very healthy and growing nicely. However, the two in-ground came up looking a bit yellow and one has some necrotic patches on the edge of the leaves. I doubt it's a nutrient dificiency this early, possibly root rot from the wet weather we've been having? I'm still working on pin-pointing the issue. I don't want to douse them with fertilizer when they're so small (~1") and not knowing it's a nurtient deficency...
Good luck! Awesome setup!

chickenfarmer · 05-13-2011, 12:19 PM

Nice setup. Gotta figure out something similar...soon!!!

**br1dge** · 05-13-2011, 03:25 PM

Thanks guys!! The weather here in GA has been really great lately for all of our plants. Mid 80's with a storm about 2 days a week. This has made for pretty good growing conditions without too much work. Our "soil" here is pretty much straight clay so before planting I tilled up about 6-12" deep and mixed in some garden soil and compost which seems to have helped. Ill post updates throughout the season!!

BusBozo · 07-29-2011, 02:49 AM

Impressive hop yard. I went with 10' 4X4's set 30" in soil. top wire just over 7'. Most people think it's pole beans from a distance. Anyway, just harvested my Chinook hops today. They were slow this year, and some were lost over winter. Close to 5 gal. bucket drying now. Columbus/Zeus type started out great this spring, but seem to have slowed in the heat. Irrigation would help I'm sure. good luck with your plants.