Growing hops up the wall to rafters?

I was sure I had seen someone growing hops up lines to their rafters, but I am not finding it now that I need the link. I remember the system used eye bolts or pulleys, and the lines could be lowered.

Two questions:

Can anyone who has done this or seen it done comment on if it was a success or not after a couple of years?

Is it as simple as screwing eye bolts into the ends of the rafters? I am concerned about damage to the wood long term from water intrusion.



I have given up in my search for posts long enough, figure it might be just ass simple to run them up the side of the house to the roof, it is a 2 story house after all.

Thanks for any thoughts anyone might have.

You should be able to get away with ss eye bolts and ss pulleys on a few inches of wire from rhe botlt to the pulleys.

I tied twine to a 6' piece of 2x2 and set it in my gutter and ran them down to my pots, worked pretty well. I have also used some 16p nails pounded about 2/3s of the way in.

Stainless seems a little excessive here, just get some small galvanized eye bolts. If you are worried about water getting in there slap a coat of paint on it when your done.

I'm doing this very thing myself. This is my first year growing hops so we'll see how it works.

I out an eye bolt in the eve as as high up as I could with relation to where I Mmouttimg my two planters - it's abou 24'

I'm using this http://www.harborfreight.com/gambrel-and-pulley-hoist-99758.html to run up two lines ( the planters will be about 10' apart from each other). If you want to go straight up or only run one bine per puller you could use these instead: http://www.harborfreight.com/general-purpose-rope-hoist-60544.html. I had to replace the rope it came with with a 100' length. I'm going to tie twine to the hooks down to the planters. I may eventually put a third planter dead center underneath and run a third line.

I am painting the gambrel as the wife isn't a fan of that red color.

I'll post pics this summer when hopefully I have hop vines growing up this.

Just a tip from my past mistakes, do not use dyed rope it stunts the plant. Manilla will work great for a year.

on one side of my house is our 2nd story bathroom window.. i'm planning on putting an eye bolt on either side of the window and just tying the line to them.. i hope its that easy.. no need for pulleys i'm assuming since i can just open the window at harvest time and snip the lines..

If anyone needs rhizomes pm me.

lotbfan said:

I was sure I had seen someone growing hops up lines to their rafters, but I am not finding it now that I need the link. I remember the system used eye bolts or pulleys, and the lines could be lowered.

Two questions:

Can anyone who has done this or seen it done comment on if it was a success or not after a couple of years?

Is it as simple as screwing eye bolts into the ends of the rafters? I am concerned about damage to the wood long term from water intrusion.

Thanks for any thoughts anyone might have.

Click to expand...

Not sure if it's my setup you are referring to. (post #303 of the "2012 Hop Garden" thread)

mthompson said:

Here's mine. Four beds ~6 ft. wide, two plants per bed; wild, wild, Cascade, and Centennial. Wild ones were in large pots last year [2011-12], Cascade and Centennial are new this year.

Twine runs from plants to top of garage (15 ft high, plus 6 ft diagonal), through eye bolts at the top and finally tied to center eye bolt near the ground.

Click to expand...

I made beds by stacking rocks on a slope and ran twine up to the top of the shed. I used regular eye bolts at the top with about 1.5" eyes and may even 3/8 threads. They are under the eave, so water intrusion should not occur. I run the twine up to an eye bolt for each plant, then down to a centered eye bolt, where I tie both twines off (two plants per bed).

As far as longevity, I cannot comment for sure, but I do not foresee any issues. I plan to attach the new twine this year to last year's "tied off" end with some tape, pull the old twine/plant growth down, which will run the new twine up and through the eyes at the top. I hope to use last year's unused section of twine (eye to eye portion) as this year's growth climbing portion. Just knot the new to the old after it goes through the eyes.

I also hope to use a similar method for harvest this year. Last year's drought, my busy schedule, a new new baby and crappy water pressure really took a toll on cone production. The Cascade and Centennial were new, so that was expected. The wild hops only produced tiny, think raisin-sized, cones that I did not bother with.

I am going to mulch/weed much better this year and build a low pressure irrigation system.


I CANNOT WAIT for spring to get here... Only 1.5-2 months.