What do people do when their hops get too tall?

I have 1st year hops in homer buckets and the two to the left are already approaching 10'. I am very excited about this but also a bit concerned . I know that I can let out rope as they reach the top, but they will keep growing? I do not really want them to sag on the ground and I do not think trailing them horizontally will work for my set up ( although it could...possibly) I cannot really raise the poles any higher as there are power lines going out of the back of the house. Do they grow until the end of the season or do they stop when they start to create the cones? Is it wise to trim off the top?

I've never been lucky enough to have this problem yet I've heard they'll just get busy up top and it's not a big deal. You might be able to get a bit more length by pulling your homer buckets out into the yard farther and letting the hops go up at a 45° angle?

I was told that training them up diagonally will work....I am trying that (I too am a first year grower), but I can see from your pic that although you live two miles from me your hops are doing much much better than mine (mine are just going over 1.5-2 feet now).

I had this same problem today. I let out the length of rope and moved my planters farther away. I am hoping to have my Hop Pergola built in the next few weeks -- 10 ft up and 20 ft across.

So when do they stop growing?

They will stop growing towards the end of June for most varieties and put their energy into cone production.

Mine just curled in circles at the top when it went over my trellis last year creating a like of ball at the top. It grew hops, but probably wasn't ideal.

II just had this probably and just ran a second line about 8 feet night but attached to the same stake...then I trained the excess onto the other twine

Last year my hops grew until I cut them down in late SEPTEMBER.

I have a variation on the above system with extra rope so I can keep them 10' 'tall" even if it's 20' long. I was having absolutely no problems and then I saw a late runner, she was trying to reach from the "loop" in my rope to the higher rope. In the process of helping her, I broke my bine. ARG. She's still 10' tall, but that's it.

If you can lower the ropes I would consider it, but consider it a careful thing, you dont want to break your bine like I did!

Last year mine hit the top of the 15' rope and started to "wander" out looking for something to grab on to. It eventually grabbed the same rope about 5' lower and they grew back up itself. Like someone else said, it got busy at the top but things turned out fine.

Last year my hops grew up my electrical mast. Unfortunately thats where most of the cones grew, so it was difficult to harvest. This year I'm going to trim them at the top of the trellis and see what happens. This is my third year. I tried to post a pic but I am not sure if I did it right.

https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=37082&cat=all&ppuser=22946

Let out the rope and coil up the bottom portion off the ground. Works for me, and the bines keep growing up, up, up...

I party :rockin:

You're gonna have issues with that design if they keep growing. When they hit the top, they tend to send out horizontal runners, and they can go out 5-6 feet while being unsupported. I think you're going to have a giant mess because the buckets/trellises are all so close.

Synovia said:

You're gonna have issues with that design if they keep growing. When they hit the top, they tend to send out horizontal runners, and they can go out 5-6 feet while being unsupported. I think you're going to have a giant mess because the buckets/trellises are all so close.

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well I have some ideas as to what to do but as David42 pointed out they should stop growing at the end of the month. I have a BIG tree that is behind the plants and I can create a make shift canopy, I also got SWMBO's permission to put stakes in the back yard and create a canopy that way. I am just excited because my hops last year did absolutely nothing. It just figures that it is one extreme or the other with my hop farm.

zman said:

t just figures that it is one extreme or the other with my hop farm.

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Are you allowed to call it a farm if you can pack it up into the trunk of a Honda Civic with 10 minutes notice?

nice one, Randar. The portable hop farm. Need hops? Where are you? I'll be there in... 20.

solved my problem

Mirilis said:

II just had this probably and just ran a second line about 8 feet night but attached to the same stake...then I trained the excess onto the other twine

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Just checked this thread and came across this.... I might be drunk, but.....WHAT?

I LOVE HBT!!!!!!!!!