Here's my interpretation of a hop garden. I need insight: did I do good? Will my hops explode? What if I have to go the bathroom ... who will watch my hops to see if they're growing while I'm gone?
The portion to the left is 6 feet square, with hops all spaced about 3.5 feet apart. One rhizome per mound. 2 Cascades to the left, 2 Nugget in the middle, and 2 Goldings on the right. Our soil is very rocky and clay-laden. I dug out about 6 inches deep for the whole garden, drug a pick ax through the soil to loosen it further, layed out several bags of top soil and compost, then covered liberally with mulch. Each mound, prior to planting, was dug out further an additional few inches, filled with a 2:1 mixture of miracle grow flower soil to shagnum with a little bit of wood ash mixed in from our natural wood grill. Mounds were about 8-12 inches high before adding the mulch around them. The central pole is 18 feet from ground to top and I used sisal rope. That particular area gets quality sun pretty much all day.
I'd say you're good for Year 1. I assume you plan on another support at the other end for later.
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Um, there's a lot of trees in that picture, are you sure the hops will get adequate light? And that stick as your center pole seems awful skinny for the weight all of those hops are going to have. Also looks like it will pull to the right due to the extra 2 lines on that side. I'd get a ladder and strign up another line off the left side to balance the tension. Last thing is I read it's a no-no to have different species of hops so close together. I don't know if female-only plants can somehow interbreed (doesn't sound likely), but from my reading they always say to only have a single species when using a pole or teepee design.
Looks good though, I wish I had your space!
EDIT: Here's an excerpt from freshops.com:
"In a home garden, the main concern is just to get the vines off the ground and possible to keep different varieties from getting tangled up with each other. Plant mixed varieties at least 5 ft. apart. Identical varieties can be as close as 3 ft. if you don't have much room."
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The center pole is actually a fresh cedar about 7 inches in diameter cemented 2 feet into the ground. We've used a lot of cedar for various outdoor projects and it is definately very resistent to decay; I suspect it will last for at least 2-3 years in a vertical position. We have several lying in horizontal positions in moist areas that have currently held up to over 6 years of weathering.
I wouldn't suspect putting multiple varieties this close will have any adverse growing effects. My suspision is that websites suggest 5 feet for intervarietal planting as to prevent runners from intermingling and harvests becoming mixed. This will not be a problem since I will be out everyday babying my hops.
As for light, the area gets PLENTY of light. The picture was from my second story window into the adjacent woods. There is atleast 8 hours/day of unfiltered sunlight.
EDIT:
I forgot to mention...these went into the ground this past tuesday afternoon (04/08/08), and they're already sprouting (04/11/08).
The center pole is actually a fresh cedar about 7 inches in diameter cemented 2 feet into the ground. We've used a lot of cedar for various outdoor projects and it is definately very resistent to decay; I suspect it will last for at least 2-3 years in a vertical position. We have several lying in horizontal positions in moist areas that have currently held up to over 6 years of weathering.
I wouldn't suspect putting multiple varieties this close will have any adverse growing effects. My suspision is that websites suggest 5 feet for intervarietal planting as to prevent runners from intermingling and harvests becoming mixed. This will not be a problem since I will be out everyday babying my hops.
As for light, the area gets PLENTY of light. The picture was from my second story window into the adjacent woods. There is atleast 8 hours/day of unfiltered sunlight.
EDIT:
I forgot to mention...these went into the ground this past tuesday afternoon (04/08/08), and they're already sprouting (04/11/08).
Oh OK, in the pic it did not look that large.
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