15 minute hop trellis

I sketched up some plans for this trellis and bought all the supplies at the big orange store. It went up in about 15 minutes so I'm calling it the 15-minute hop trellis.

It can be taken down easily and broken into 6' sections for storage. (In fact all the pieces came home from the store in my Ford Focus!)

It's pretty wind-resistant. So far it has barely budged in 40+ mph gusts during the recent storms.


Can you see it? It's simply two tall black iron uprights (just in front of the fence) with a red vinyl covered cable going across to support the sisal twine "vees" that the hops climb up.

Here are some of the features that make it easy to take apart:

The anchor sleeves/sockets are 1" diameter galvanized iron pipe. They are 24" long and are driven in flush to the earth. The bottom 18" or so of the uprights slides right in and the uprights can be pulled out easily.


The uprights themselves are 1/2" black iron pipe. Plenty strong, and threaded on the ends so they can be complexed/extended with common plumbing fittings. Each of the uprights currently consists of two 6' sections joined end to end with the fitting you see pictured. With the portion below the ground surface, and the sag of the cross-cable, this gives 9.5 feet or so for the hops to climb.

Here's the apex of one of the uprights:

You can see the stainless S-hook where the cross-cable lays. I also anchored the first "vee" twine to the S-hook so it wouldn't slip down the slope of the cross-cable.

And here's where I conveniently anchored the cross-cable to the fence. Another option would be to extend it to the ground and use a stake or large weighted object for an anchor.

Here's the sisal twine I tossed over the cross-cable to form the "vees" that the hops climb.


And the bottom of the "vee":


I put larger versions of the photos in the gallery. Search for 15 minute hop trellis!

That will never work

Glad to see you got your trellis up before your babies got too far along. Looks a lot safer than the 2" schedule 40 cast iron I was envisioning you putting up.

Yeah, I had to rein it back a bit from my previous drunken brainstorms. :cross: But I knew I had to do something soon because the bines were starting to grab onto the fence which would have been hard to undo after a while.

I really didn't have too many options for materials, given my current transportation. Probably the best part of this design is--NO POST HOLE DIGGER REQUIRED. Just about 5 minutes of hammering the 1" pipes into the ground.

The Cascade is winning the race right now, which was expected. And of course the Goldings is the slow grower, also as expected. The surprise to me is that the Nugget has surpassed the Centennial at this point.

Now that I'm looking at the pics again, is it me or does this thing resemble some sort of HAM radio antenna?

the only problem I see is the occasional need to replace them as it will rust at and under ground level. But, it's pretty cheap stuff, and goes up easy, so I doubt that will be a big issue. Just do a good check every month or so, so that you will be able to guage when you need to replace it.

I think the galvanized anchor pipes will last for years. Certainly much longer than any pressure treated lumber would have held up.

The uprights will probably outlive me.

If it's black iron, like we plumbers use for gas, it can rust rather quickly. By quickly, I mean in 2 or 3 years, depending on soil chemistry. Make sure it's painted, which it looks like it is, and a shot of paint on the inside of the buried end wouldn't hurt.

Next time I'm at a customer's house with rusted black iron gas pipe outside, I'll snap a pic or two for ya.

Looks good for year one, but what about next year? From experience, ten feet won't cut it. When you extend, it'll be a lot of weight when they get up to 15 feet and flowering.

I like it for a temporary trellis. Use some of that very smart thinking to plan something more permanent for next year.

YMMV

The black iron is only for the uprights. The part that sees soil is galvanized. It's similar to the volleyball net setup we had in my yard growing up. That galvanized pipe has lasted 10+ years directly in the soil, so I'm not worried about this stuff rusting away any time soon. Even if it does, another $5-10 and 5 minutes of time is no big thing to me.

Cuinrearview, one of the reasons I went with the threaded pipe is because it's no big deal to add another 6' section next year. I think 9.5-10' is plenty for year one, and I think 16' is plenty from then on. The cable is rated for over 100 pounds (tensile) which according to what I remember from engineering classes, is more than enough.

I realize the purpose of the threaded fitting, and the cables and what-not are more than enough to handle the weight. From experience, 16 feet MAY be enough. I've had years where 12 handles all of the growth, then years like this where 20 probably wouldn't contain it all. My growth tips were ripped off a week ago on the older plant, so it's no longer a problem.

My point about more permanent is that I look at that and while I appreciate the ingenuity, I also am not naive to the fact that a fully grown plant with leaves will topple it in a strong windstorm. Especially when the black pipe weakens from rust.

The materials, design, and pictures are top-notch. You obviously know your stuff and how to get your "babies" up in the air. I am in no way criticizing what you've done, just asking you to think long term. I think that with the way farming in the U.S. is taking a turn we'll be best served to grow our own hops and learn how to use them for many years. At least this is my plan.

You're right, I may need to add guy lines once the plants fill out and start increasing the wind load requirements. In the mean time, the cross-cable is performing a dual role of keeping the poles tensioned so they don't sway, and of course keeping the sisal twine elevated.