SOB

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Well stated. I do want to add that if they have no buds then just put them in the ground and the buds that start will find their way up. I am a believer of planting them horizontally if there are no buds. If there are buds plant them the way the buds are pointing...as already stated.

Last year my wife called my hops my "babies" because I would come home from work, grab a beer, check the hops, then kiss her and say hello. This year it's even worst as I'm starting me veggies from seeds so I need to check on those as well before saying hello.

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"So we were slammin' beers in the church parking lot..."

"I'm much too young to feel this damn old"

HopBlooded

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It's not necessary to trim back to reduce the number of shoots. We will prune them to retard growth in the spring because we don't want them getting going too early. Once you train the shoots you want to the string, apical dominance takes over and the majority of the growth energy of the plant will go to those shoots climbing the string, until there is nothing left to climb.

Retrofit

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I started veg from seeds this year as well. It never occured to me I could check them before I kiss the wife. I gotta do that!

ChshreCat

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Don't have anything to add other than to say this was a great question. One of those that seem simple and kind of silly at first, but then when you think about them they're a good head-scratcher.

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B-Hoppy

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i've read the forum for a year or so but this is my first post. i'm not a hop farmer but have a degree in agronomy (ohio st. 1982 or sometime around there) and acquired my first wild hops while working in upstate ny in 1985, about the same time i switched from fruit wines to homebrewing beer. a few years later, a fellow in madison county gave me some roots which he said were cuttings from plants utilized in the first commercial hop yard in upstate ny back in the 1800's. one was called canadian redvine which i had never heard of. 1993, dave from freshops invited me out to oregon to attend the OBF and check out his operation. he didn't know anything about redvines and suggested i head down to the hop farm at OSU and speak with dr. al haunold. al told me they were, at one time, one of the major varieties grown in the pnw but were rogued out and replaced by a new variety. he grew a few of the roots i donated and confirmed (oil analysis) that they in fact were redvines.
these are one of the most vigorously invasive varieties i have have ever dealt with, not that having grown 20 or so varieties makes me an expert. the problem of planting a rhizome horizontally is that the ring of buds on the rhizome, when viewed from above a vertically oriented root, radiate out like the spokes from a bicycle wheel. when that root is layed on it's side (horizontally), some of the new shoots will pop right out of the ground while others will meander downward through the soil until they realize something is wrong (hops are not real smart organisms) and then begin to turn upwards toward the daylight. in the process, they may grow a few feet (yards) underground before they poke through the ground. now, the entire length of the new rhizome (the underground part that is now a few feet long) has rings of buds at intervals along it's entire length that will continue this cycle year after year potentially coming up further and further away from the main crown. if you were a hop farmer, cultivating thousands of hills on a yearly basis, imagine the mess you would have to deal with when spring pruning comes around. a hop farmer would want to plant his roots vertically. if you were someone who propagates rhizomes for a living, horizontally may be a better option for you as you would promote additional rhizome growth throughout the growing season for next year's harvest.
sorry about being so long winded but some topics, depending on how they are worded, need either additional information or some type of clarification as to the exact point that's trying to be made. politicians are masters at this technique. so i don't think there is any right or wrong way to plant them, it all has to do with your personal situation. i just find that the yearly maintenance is much easier for me by vertical orientation.

ThreeDogsNE

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I faced this question last year, and was curious, so I randomized. FWIW, of the nine rhizomes I planted last year, I had better survival from the ones I planted horizontally. I think I treated them the same otherwise. Not sufficient numbers for statistical significance, I fear.

Retrofit

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I found the answer very interesting and relevant if your going pro. I've planted horizontally last year and mix of vertically and horizontally this year. I guess if I was anything but an amateur, I would care about how I control and cut my rhizomes. I appreciate the insight you offered.

SOB

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B-Hoppy...I enjoyed your post and insight. I think it is very important for us that do not want our hops spreading everywhere too quickly to know the difference in planting. I planted mine in containers last year and planted then horizontally. This year I will be placing the containers in the ground and some new rhizomes in the ground as well. There are two things that have convinced me to plant my rhizomes this year vertically. One, your post and the though of the roots spreading underground more when planted horizontally. And two (which I think is more important) is that my rhizomes have many buds\shoots growing vertically (in parallel) with the rhizome.

Obviously there is no right or wrong answer...

__________________
"So we were slammin' beers in the church parking lot..."

"I'm much too young to feel this damn old"

B-Hoppy

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SOB

even though some rhizomes don't look like they have buds, they do. some are just very small and hard to see especially very early in the spring. you and the others new to growing hops will learn a lot during the first few years as the plants mature and continue to increase in size. many varieties will have to have HUNDREDS of excess shoots removed once they are well established so they don't create a vegetative nightmare difficult to manage. keep on hoppin'

Tlylebrew

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Very intersting read. I read it because I was thinking it was a silly question at first. This was just because the instructions that came with my Rhizomes today told me to plant them horizontal. I may have to re-think that.

Like so many things in brewing, one person says to do it this way, another will tell you just the oppposite. So confusing!! :-) but I love it.