propogation by airlayering

hi folks,

planted some hops for the first time this year and they're doing great. we had some wet weather recently and they've really gone to town, putting off lots of sidearms.
I couldn't resist and decided to try to start some new plants using air layering where you just take a sidearm and stick it in a pot of dirt while leaving it attached to the parent plant while it gets going (used a little rooting hormone too)
anybody try this?
4 out of the 6 plants I started are doing fine but I wish I had a dozen and don't want to wait till next year

the whole setup


airlayer attempt 1


airlayer attempt 2


a pretty hops cone


Dave

yea this works, if you have a healthy shoot you should be able to just cut it off and stick the cut end into some dirt. Ive done this several times with extra shoots from the early spring this year and now I have hops coming up all over my yard. the rooting hormone should help but I havent had the time/money to try that yet.

kool
my single nugget plant doesn't have any sidearms close to the ground I can do airlayering with
think I'll try just taking some cuttings
I've been doing it with some other plants with excellent results

Dave

Alternately, wait until the cones are ripe. Rather than cutting the bine off at the ground, leave it 3-4 feet long and bury it. You can leave the leaves above ground. In the spring, dig the bine up & cut it into sections.

Healthy hops will spread like weeds. I had shoots coming up 3-4 feet from the main plants this year.