second year planting

Im moving my second year crown into a larger planter as i put too many rhizomes in too little of a planter with not enough soil. My main question is once the crown starts shooting up the sprouts how do i chooses which ones are good ones to keep growing and which ones to cut??

thickness or growth rate??

tia

Grow like a bad weed don't they? There may be others on here with more expertise, but I've grown 4 different types beginning 4 years ago, and took a mean shovel to them to spread them out and replant last fall. Initially I've let it go with no trimming, but now I plan on sticking with the thickest one once the longest reaches a foot or so, maybe laying down some plastic and spiking a shovel around each crown to about a 1-1.5 foot radius to slow their spread. I threw out a lot of hops last year because I couldn't pull them apart--Cascade, Nugget, Centennial and Mt. Hood. Be sure the varieties have plenty of space between them, i.e. several feet, otherwise they will find each other and you'll have this beautiful vine wall with no separation.

Thejiro said:

Im moving my second year crown into a larger planter as i put too many rhizomes in too little of a planter with not enough soil. My main question is once the crown starts shooting up the sprouts how do i chooses which ones are good ones to keep growing and which ones to cut??

thickness or growth rate??

tia

Click to expand...

If you are asking which shoots to trim and which to train up string, there are several thoughts on that. I personally dont trim any, however i dont care about an even harvest. Most say trim all 1st growth back, then pick a few out of the regrowth to train. I dont think it really matters what criteria you use to pick. In the end I think all will even out(more or less).

Yea im asking about which shoots to cut. Im trying to figure out a good growing method for my location and as i stated earlier i made a few mistakes that caused me a bit of grief last year.

The whole "trim" thing revolves around whether the first shoots emerged so early that a late freeze might set them back - in that case, trim. Otherwise, pick out the 4,6,or 8 bines that will be your primary bines and trim out the late emerging ones.
Sometimes the first couple bines come out so fast that they are rank - they have hollow stems that can crack off in bad weather before they have a chance to harden off. Hope this helps decide which way to go in your area.

Ok now i understand. Thanks so much for the info it really helps out a lot.