Hops Trellis (photos)

It is almost finished! I planted Williamette and Cascade rhizomes. All I have to do is attach the 16 foot 6x6 to the base and tilt it up. It is build like a tank, all 6x6 pressure treated lumber and stainless hardware when I could find it. Total height should be about 18 feet.
This design will allow me to raise or lower the lines for my hops as well as access the entire upper post should I ever need to do repairs or upgrades.

Base cemented. Just shy of 3 feet deep. I actually hit an old stone foundation so this is encased in 300 lbs of concrete poured next to 2 feet of solid stone on the one side.


Pivot point for 16 foot 6x6 post. The top post will pivot on this pole and there will be a bar below this that locks it in place.


16 foot 6x6 post.


Chain will go around post and cords for hops will attach to rings. It should be easy to add more vines in the future.


Raise and lower chain as needed. I'm trying I-bolts to guide the rope, if the chain gets snagged I'll replace it with conduit or pvc tubing. The Chain won't snag on that.


Anchor forms made out of re-bar, I-bolt and cardboard box. Use some wire to hold everything together and then fill with cement. When it dries just tear off the cardboard.


Finished anchor being installed


Hops mount with anchor


You could also do this with 4x4 posts, but anything worth doing is worth over-doing so I went with 6x6. Reduce the height of the top post and the price will come down too, I had to actually pay to have the 16 footer delivered, there was just no was to strap it to my Subaru. Simple stakes would work to anchor the cords, but I already had extra re-bar from the base and was mixing cement so made these.

I'll post more pics when I finish the install. I hope this weekend I'll be able to convince a few friends to help raise that massive 16 foot 6x6 post!

Damn! So when do we storm the castle? Looks like a grade "A" trebuchet build!

Seriously though, great work!

How closely are the two varieties of hops planted? Will they both climb that one post?

Here is a sketch that I made of the trellis, this should make things a little more clear. I hope to have some more pictures by this weekend, if I can get it finished.

If you do the math...A²+B²=C² on the triangle A=18' (height) B=10' (post to anchor) then the hops cord (C, the hypotonuse) would be just over 20 feet, not bad. If I go farther on the base distance the cord gets longer, but the "weight" seen my the anchors gets higher as the angle becomes sharper. Shouldn't be a problem with this stucture though.

Update on the hops trellis. I got the main post in place, I just need to have a few friends come over to help tilt it up.





Hops just out of the ground.


Cheers!
Schoolmaster

very nice, now grow, grow, grow!

Wow, and I was going to just let mine crawl across my deck railing...

I assume (correct me if I am wrong) that the height was for commercial production and for small scale I believe I can still grow mine horizontally just as easily as vertical. I planted some Hallertauer and have some Northern Brewer on the way. I hope I can grow mine like this.

I've seen them grown on a Pergola, so yes: I believe that you can grow them horizontally with success too.

Update!!!!!







Hopefully in the next week or so I'll be able to start training the vine to the cord.

cool beans i did more of a grape thing with four post but this give me ideas of being able to build a real straight line style hop yard.


good growing man


side note: it looks like you have clay or rocky soil. mines sandy so it drains well but i have to fert it frequently.

I love this idea... simple and effective! Wish I would have thought of it

SAMPLER said:

I love this idea... simple and effective! Wish I would have thought of it

Click to expand...

I agree..I planted 8 different types of Rhizomes last year...I think it now looks like 5 have come back this spring...I might have to adopt the above design for guys for my strings, that was the weak link in my system last year. I will try to post some pics soon.

Too bad we didn't have a photographer to snap action shots of us swinging that mighty beam into place! Also, the central post idea has great expandability to the semi-circle.

That is pretty sweet. I as well wish i would thought of the Card Board Box Idea! .. I have been wanting to plant more hops.. Cascade,Kent Golding,and Fuggles aren't enough...

How did you do the pivot point and locking bar?

Looks like some threaded Rod through a fence pole secured with washers and nuts?

How tall are your support posts from the surface of the ground to the top of each post?

How hard was it to get the 16 foot post vertical?

Nice work! I am thinking of building something similar this spring!

Digitalb - To make the pivot point I drilled through all three posts with a 1-1/2 inch hole saw to be able to fit the 1-1/2 inch galvanized pipe through. I then put a piece of threaded rod through all three posts and secured with large washers, lock-nuts and nuts. Just a note - it took a while. The hole saw only cut about 2 inches into the wood and I had to chisel out the wood and then drill again.

I made the locking bar by welding a large washer onto a piece of 3/4 inch conduit. I drilled a 1.0 inch hole through the bottom on the posts, similar to the pivot hole. Then I drilled a small hole thought he non-washer end of the conduit and secured it with a trailer hitch lock - I didn't want anyone to be able to open this, there is enough weight here to kill someone.

The 2 posts in the ground are 10 footers. I put them just almost 5 feet into the ground, threw some rocks and rebar in the hole and filled it with a bunch of concrete.

The 16 footer was sourced from a local 84 lumber yard. It's probably not something your local, mom and pop, hardware store will have, and I don't think Home Depot or Lowes carries them.

Best of luck. I really like the design; I only have two vines right now, but you could do a sort of hop-teepee with vines all around it. The neighborhood got a real kick out of it too, many people said it looks like a trebuchet.

Cheers!

the pictures aren't working :'(

Check it out here... The images should all work. http://schoolmasterbrewing.blogspot.com/2010/05/hops-trellis.html

Cheers!

you could totally enter that pumpkin throwing contest trebuchet thingy and win. and the fact that it doubles as a hop trellis is a bonus.

Hey there, I am in the process of building a system something like this, and I thought you might like to know that you can very easily and cheaply build out a system to both raise and lower that bad boy with just one person. a rather weak person at that.

raising a sailboat mast is very similar to raising these poles and I believe that the macgregor 26m mast raising system would be easily modified for your setup. the best part is, you can do it slowly, and without worry about injury. there are any number of mast raising systems that are out there that can be used to raise a pole, but I really like how simple the newer macgregor 26m system is. all you need is a hand winch and a medium sized pole, and enough rope to rig it. as long as the materials used are not undersized (not a problem I would see you having) it would be very easy and the stress of lowering and raising that pole would be nothing.