3 or 1?

so i just put my first hop plant in the ground yesterday. my dad and i bought a 5 year rhyzome (kinda), and were able to get 4 full plants out of it. i'm letting the 3 small plants establish a root system in our greenhouse, but i decided to plant the 5 year because it was quickly outgrowing it's pot in the greenhouse.

now, we erected a pole that's about 16 feet, 3 feet in ground, 13 feet out. what WE did was run 3 pieces of twine/rope from the top of the pole to stakes in the ground, thinking that 3 lines for the 5 year plant to climb would be better than just one (they're about 18 inches apart. we also tied them into one main piece of rope and hooked it at chest level for easy access for harvesting (thanks t-bag!).

now from what i've read, you're supposed to clip all but the three strongest vines, and harvest from those. we're planning on training each vine to a different rope.

i'm curious if there's any reason we shouldn't be doing that? i would think the hops would flourish more so than just 1 rope, and so does my dad (a horticulturist). but i thought i'd toss a post in here just to get some opinions on the subject.

thanks in advance!
-Kelly

Commercial growers commonly use two twines and put two bines on each. You didn't say what hop the 5-year plant is, but some hops have 3 foot sidearms, so you'll end up with a hop blanket. Not a bad thing.

thanks! they're cascade.

If this is the first year for the planting, one vine is about all the root system will support. It doesn't matter that it's a "five year" rhizome because the well establish root system was disturbed when it was dug up and replanted.

Tom

Not true, Figbash. A large root can support extensive secondary root growth and bine growth at the same time.

Figbash said:

If this is the first year for the planting, one vine is about all the root system will support. It doesn't matter that it's a "five year" rhizome because the well establish root system was disturbed when it was dug up and replanted.

Tom

Click to expand...

I transplanted a large Mt. Hood crown last year - split into three plants. Ran about 6 bines from each plant. Got over a pound of dried hops from those three plants. I think that large rhizomes or crown sections can support multiple bines without any problems.