PVC is a interesting idea.
Wind would be my only concern and making sure it was "solid" enough.
If you put it in a coffee can of cement with a joint at the base of the coffee can it would be able to be taken apart fairly easy.
What would be a good distance from pole to pole? 5-8ft?
My thoughts for the wind was going to be just simple nylon rope anchors staked for stability. Not a complex operation. Good for us people without our own home (apartment dwellers).
The easiest is to use an existing structure that is south facing to hang the grow lines off of. If you can't do that, you'll get into poles. Hops want to climb at LEAST 15 feet and PVC is really flimsy at those lengths.
FYI, white PVC is not UV stable and will become brittle. Depending on exposure, I've seen it become brittle enough to crack with your hand in as little as a couple of years. US Plastics recommends, "For UV resistance of PVC pipe and fittings, paint with a white water based latex paint." I've also heard that the gray PVC pipe, commonly used for electrical conduits is UV resistant. If you could find that in large enough diameters, that should work pretty well.
Personally, when I do my hop yard I'm planning on just cutting down a bunch of 20' tall scrub pines, delimbing and turning those into poles. I know they will rot, but they're plentiful, free and grow quickly here in Georgia. Also, when I auger the holes in the ground, I'm going to line with a piece of PVC pipe so that replacement will be as easy as pulling one out and sticking a new one in. I figure to be stable that I'll need to bury at least 4 feet of the poles in the ground.
Last edited by keelanfish; 02-02-2010 at 04:16 PM.
I used treated 4x4's with a geobarrier wrapped around the pole section below grade and about 6 Inches into the concrete footing (3 foot buried in soil).
Choice of poles is usually based on what you can get cheap and how long you want it to last. Green treated (arsenic free) won't be a problem, but be careful of old telephone poles or anything coated in creosote.
Are you planning on a pole per plant and letting the bine climb up the pole or are the poles just there to hold the twine for the plant to go up? A foot separation between twine is enough to keep the plants from jumping over as long as the poles are tall enough. I would suspect the same if you are setting a pole per bine.
Choice of poles is usually based on what you can get cheap and how long you want it to last. Green treated (arsenic free) won't be a problem, but be careful of old telephone poles or anything coated in creosote.
Are you planning on a pole per plant and letting the bine climb up the pole or are the poles just there to hold the twine for the plant to go up? A foot separation between twine is enough to keep the plants from jumping over as long as the poles are tall enough. I would suspect the same if you are setting a pole per bine.
I was going to do poles with wire or twine connected to the two poles.
Have the plant at one end of the pole and have it grow up one pole down the wire to the other pole.
Just didnt know how much distance from one pole to the other.
If i can get away with a 1 pole per hop plant, by space wise i could grow instead of 3-4 grow like 8.
Hop Poles
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