Left with rotten sticks...

Well I had the best intentions and planted 16-20 rhizomes in 11 pots three weeks ago in a great growing medium and now I have a bunch of pots w/ rotten sticks in them... That's the bad news... As for good news our 2nd year crop is taking off phenominally. My question... Has anybody taken cuttings from established crowns and used a rooting hormone to start clones? and Would it really be this easy to propagate some 1st year plants in this manner? Any info would be most appreciated.

i did this exact thing this year. The clipping is now my strongest, and only flowering plant. This nears plantings are really struggling. My second and third years are also sad. I just clipped four more and dipped them into rooting solution. Last year i had a huge output. This year look bleak. I posted a thread on this earlier with pics. My best result was dipping it in the powder the planting in a small starter cardboard type pot, and spraying the plant very often with water as there are no roots.

thanks LabRat... I'm going to try this and see where it leads. Did youo put the clipping directly into potting soil or just in water until roots satrted forming? I have access to plenty of clippings and might try both methods if time allows.

Don't worry too much about rooting hormones/compounds. I've cut off 6"-24" hops shoots and had them spit out roots after a week or two in just water.

Sorry to hear about your new rhizomes.

Ditto above. While removing underground runners would be best since they already have feeder roots, you can use shoots from a healthy plant and get them to root by soaking them (maybe misting them, too, if you want to get fancy). This year, I've removed 6-12" shoots without roots, cut off the growing tip, and buried part of them in a big pot. Within a couple weeks, you'll see new growth.

They didn't all take but I'd say at least 75% of them did, and all I do is water them every day or two--easy as could be and didn't have to get fancy at all to make it work, no rooting compound, no sterilization, no misting, just buried sections of hop shoots with the growth tip pinched off left outside in a mix of sun and shade.

I had a crash + burn this Spring too. I planted direct into the soil before any sprouting. Nothing came up (or has yet).

After talking to some folks I guess it's best to start in pots.

Last year we put ~400 directly into the ground and I'd say we had a 95% success. This year out of 100 rhizomes planted only 2 crowns so far... Oh well, that's farming. Still going to call the distributer...

Check this.

[ame]http://youtu.be/sVSeEJRycig[/ame]

Thanks for the link... I'm definately starting this on Friday. At least we'll establish some bines for next season...