Thanks for the question and the responses. I'm new at this with second year Cascades that grew and produced well the first year. This year the sucker started out with a vengeance and now has at least 3 main bines covered with much larger cones than last year. I was under the impression that hops were a late summer harvest. I was inspecting last night and the cones looked and smelled ready and I have a pale ale that is ready for dry hopping now. I came here today to ask the same question, but since it has been answered I'll follow up with another: In the 4 weeks the main bines have not grow any higher, but a tremendous number of secondary bines are making their way to 6 ft. After I do the first harvest, should I cut the primary bines and let the secondary do their thing or leave the first bines in place? I did not know if this would allow more nutrients to flow to the new ones. Thanks!
Oh, the early growth must be related to the fact that the NC did not have a hard freeze after late Feb early Mar, and April and May have made our spring the warmest on record by far. We had near 80-90 deg temps for nearly a week in early Apr when the climatological last freeze is around mid Apr.