Wintering hops

Ok all need some advice. I've been home brewing a couple years and finally decided that growing hops sounded cool. I live in Maryland and had a place lined up on a family farm to grow them. I purchased 8 rhizomes late in the growing season, mid May ifI recall. I started them out in gallon pots and they started growing soon there after. Things turned south at the end of June. We left for vacation for a week and had a family member stay and watch the house which included watering my bines. The plan was to plant them when I returned. Well the week I was gone, MD was hit with the derecho, bone dry and 95 to 100 degrees for almost a week. I returned to withered bines, which eventually died off. I moved the pots to the back of my house, where I cut back the dead bines and nursed them all back to health. By this point it was almost August. It was still overly dry here, just like the rest of the country, so I decided to hold off on planting them because I didn't think they would make it. Fall came and with first frost they died again, I cut back the dead bines. I decided to move the pots to my basements about a month ago, I didn't want them to freeze since they were exposed in the pots. So couple days ago I decided to put a little water on them so the roots wouldn't dry out and within 2 days I had 1 foot bines on most of the pots. So now it's mid January and I don't know what to do with them. Should I just cut this growth back. I still think its too cold at night. We have had many nights of sub freezing temps. Should I have watered them in the first place. Someone told me I should remove them from the pots and put them in ziplock bags with a moist towel in the fridge. But I think that is too much shock on the root system. Any thoughts/advice is appreciated.

Sounds like moving them into the relatively warmer basement woke them up from their winter dormancy. If you ziplock them they will mold and die before spring (this is my guess as my rhyzomes did this after 2 weeks in the fridge). Since they have already sprouted, can you buy a grow light and get them going in your basement? I don't imagine stopping them once they've used so much of their energy reserves to make those 1' shoots would be a good idea for the health of the plant. Maybe someone else here has more growing knowledge? Just my 2 cents.

they're fine inside. Mine are there in giant pots. If the bines get too long, cut em more will grow. ocasional water. I'm doing about once a month. We winter a lot of plants inside the garage in the winter. The trick is don't let them dry out completely. Some water helps.

Awesome. Thanks for the advice.