Creative Potting

I want to plant 2 more hop plants this year to go in a pot indefinitely. Questions:

1) Any creative ideas for a cheap, good looking, good drainage, large potting vessel? I was thinking a whiskey barrel or an old wheelbarrow. Pictures of your creative potting would be appreciated. Side-note: I'm on a Dave Ramsey budget, so I'll be looking for something at yard-sales and such. I'll keep you posted.

2) Should I plant two in one pot? (the same kind of course)

3) I only have two 2-year old Mt. Hood plants in the ground. I'm thinking of planting Cascades. Thoughts?

Cheers,

Ben

Well I have no answers to you, but if you go the whiskey barrell route post pics. I think that would look awesome. I wonder if I can get a couple and do that. SWMBO is not gonna like that i got another idea from here. haha

-Stanley

I'm on the hunt for pretty much the same thing. My latest idea is to take a 5 gallon pail and either drill holes or cut out the bottom. To dress it up, I was going to take wood slats from some pallets here at the office, chop them to the right length (a few inches taller than the buckets). Throw a quick sand/stain on them and find a way to band them around the pails. Maybe I'll band them with rope, three or four times around and tie it off in the back or something.

A friend of mine tried 1/2 barrel setup, planning on being able to move them. But it turns out they were just too heavy and the wood to soft to move. They grew ok though.

Homercidal said:

A friend of mine tried 1/2 barrel setup, planning on being able to move them. But it turns out they were just too heavy and the wood to soft to move. They grew ok though.

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Thanks, that's good to know. I was hoping to be able to move them easily. I guess I should decide if I really need to.

benmoore said:

Thanks, that's good to know. I was hoping to be able to move them easily. I guess I should decide if I really need to.

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I don't think you HAVE to have anything as big as a 1/2 barrel in order to grow them, but after a year or two they will probably start to want to grow out at the roots. I've used a large planters pot, decorative for the wife) for my first year plants and it worked ok until I think a cat peed in it...

Even that was a bit heavy to move around without a dolly.

Homercidal said:

I don't think you HAVE to have anything as big as a 1/2 barrel in order to grow them, but after a year or two they will probably start to want to grow out at the roots. I've used a large planters pot, decorative for the wife) for my first year plants and it worked ok until I think a cat peed in it...

Even that was a bit heavy to move around without a dolly.

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Alright. Yeah, I want to make it look good, first, for the wife. It's going to go in our front yard and I'm going to run the plant horizontal along a picket fence, I think. Not ideal for growth, but the sun is better there. It needs to be somewhat ornamental there.

I already have 2 growing on a arbor in the front. They look pretty good there. The pic is before I planted them. The fence in the background is where I'm considering running my new hops. Maybe some cascades from a guy I know

Cascades are great for American beers. I'm sort of burned out on them right now. I have 3 plants and last year I gave more than half of my harvest away! I'm looking to get different varieties myself, so I can have high alpha bittering hops and maybe something close to a European ale.

I've seen someone else use a fence to run them along and it seems to work ok for him. I bet you could find that thread if you looked.

I've thought about using stock tanks...
http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/planttherapy/galvanized-stock-tanks-as-planters-124689

How much are those things??

One of the smaller ones (2'x2'x4') would probably work and they're under $100. I saw an article where someone mounted wheels on one of them so it could be moved around.