hop growing ?'s

scubajim · 12-02-2008, 08:14 PM

Ok i'm goin to try to grow some hops this year and i have a few questions. I live in sacramento so it gets pretty warm here during the summer anyone have any suggestions on which hops do good in this sort of climate? Also how do hops do growning horizontally? does it affect growth? i have power lines in the backyard so i want to steer clear of those. and any tips you can give a new grower will be greatly appreciated, thanks, james

Eves · 12-02-2008, 08:33 PM

I haven't grown any hops just yet (planning on this spring) but I was originally planning on horizontal growth so I did some research on it. Basically it can be done but I guess the bines have a natural desire to go up and growing sideways isn't ideal for them. I think I read (not sure if this is true) that hops tend to grow more flowers at the top of the bine and when you grow horizontally you don't really have a top. So if true this would mean that you wouldn't get as much production out of them as vertically grown hops. Plus there is that whole thing about having to go out and manually wrap the bines around the twine when growing horizontally. Since I don't think any commercial hop farmers grow horizontal I doubt they grow as well as vertical hops.

Avoid powerlines and you already know. But I also heard its best to remove anything that would encourage birds to sit above the hops. So as to avoid their...poop.

EvilTOJ · 12-03-2008, 01:02 PM

You can grow pretty much any hops in your climate. Hops don't like to grow sideways, they like to go up. You can train them to go sideways but Eves is right, you'll be out there every day training them sideways manually. They can grow up to a foot a day. Seriously. I seen it with my own eyes, man! They'll bear cones just fine if they grow sideways, it doesn't matter if they go up or to the side.