Transplanting?

I planted 6 crowns this spring and they're doing great. About a month after planting I bought the house across the street and I'm now in the process of fixing and moving. I still own the house where the hops are planted and will be renting it out soon. Should I think about a fall transplant or just wait until Spring 2013?

As long as they're so conveniently located I'd wait until Spring...

Cheers!

After they die back and go 'dormant', they'll never know what happens when/where they wake up next Spring. If done next Spring, they'll have to spend some energy developing some new roots once the soil temps. warm up to become established and then take off. Being that they're 'dormant', a Fall transplant will allow the rooting to take place while the soil is still warm enough to initiate root growth and they can spend more energy growing shoots rather than roots next Spring. Maybe this makes sense, maybe not, it's worked for me over the years so I'm sticking to it!

Thanks!

FWIW i had a cascade and willamette in big pots this year. Harvested around end of August, and knew full well they'd be going permanent next year. SO like said above, instead of stressing the plant in spring i decided to transplant days after harvest, this way they can establish a good root system again in the ground over fall/winter. BTW i moved them 25 yards, stuck them in the ground, watered really well and mulched. 2 days later i cut the bines back to only about 4-5ft. So far so good.

transplant them now and they will be fine next spring

I just bought some cascade plants for real cheap (a dozen for $15), wondering if I should put any in the ground, or keep them in their current containers, or transplant them into pots and keep them indoors till spring. I am wondering if they will stay green under a grow lamp, or if they will go dormant regardless, or if they will just croak all together. Any knowledge about fall transplanting out there?

Doongie said:

I just bought some cascade plants for real cheap (a dozen for $15), wondering if I should put any in the ground, or keep them in their current containers, or transplant them into pots and keep them indoors till spring. I am wondering if they will stay green under a grow lamp, or if they will go dormant regardless, or if they will just croak all together. Any knowledge about fall transplanting out there?

Click to expand...

I had poor luck with growing some under lights through the winter a few years ago. I might have killed them with too much attention, though. Remember that these plants are still basically weeds at heart. Give them some ground, sunshine, and a little water, and stand back. I would get them in the ground as soon as possible, to give them what time is left to get started taking root in their new home.

ThreeDogsNE said:

I had poor luck with growing some under lights through the winter a few years ago. I might have killed them with too much attention, though. Remember that these plants are still basically weeds at heart. Give them some ground, sunshine, and a little water, and stand back. I would get them in the ground as soon as possible, to give them what time is left to get started taking root in their new home.

Click to expand...

That's sorta what I'm thinking. Throw a few in the ground, keep a few in the house. We had a freeze last night, but the weather coming for the next 10 days looks warmer, so maybe they will have enough time to establish a bit.
Did the ones you kept inside die totally, or were they just dormant and you were able to plant them in the spring?

It's not so much the air temperature you're concerned with at this point. Even though the frosts and freezes are close by, the warmth that the Earth has absorbed for the last 4 month or so will take at least two months to give up. During these two months (give or take) is when a lot of the 'magic' happens. The crown, being an underground portion of the plant, will naturally continue to form roots during this down-time up to the point when the soil freezes, which is exactly why it's an opportune time to transplant perennial plants like this. Come Spring, the reverse situation is in place in that the soil is now very cold and will take a certain amount of time to warm up to a temperature that root growth will again be initiated (don't know exactly what that temp is but that's how plants generally perform). The main reason most plantings are done in the Spring is that that's the time when Spring pruning of existing yards is done, thus the majority of rhizomes are available at this time. I always thought this way until a situation forced me to have to dig up a crown one Fall. I buried it in a shallow grave for the Winter and when I recovered it the following Spring, I was completely amazed at the amount of unexpected root growth that had occurred over those few months, not really expecting it to have survived in the first place. It's your call.

Doongie said:

Did the ones you kept inside die totally, or were they just dormant and you were able to plant them in the spring?

Click to expand...

As I recall, I had some die under the lights, and then put some outside in hopes that they would go dormant and survive for next Spring. I beleive one Nugget survived. It's been a couple of years and a bunch of plants ago. I have since planted other rhizomes, as well as live plants from Great Lakes. I think the live plants have done better, especially the first year. I've not lost one of those, and I can't say that for the rhizomes. One that my dogs dug up once, and trampled later, still survived! However, by the third year I can't tell them apart from the rhizomes that survived.