Shedding a tear....the end of year "cut down" thread

Cut down the bines today, eight plants. Left one up that has a small second harvest still maturing that I'll probably take to work and let others smell. Just seems wrong to defy mother nature like this, but it was time. Most of the leaves were yellow, brown, or white. I always make sure to talk to them after cutting them down because it can't hurt, right?

Anyone else have a ritual for removing the dead bines?

Mine are getting there too. Maybe another week or two, tops.

Mine get drawn, quartered, and composted. Then I feed the remains to the yard the next season. Friggin cannibals!

GilaMinumBeer said:

Mine get drawn, quartered, and composted. Then I feed the remains to the yard the next season. Friggin cannibals!

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Ditto - I still have a small amount to bring in, maybe a couple of ounces (dry). I cut them down, put them into the compost heap, then take some nicely decomposed material and mulch the stubs.

I need to cut mine down, they look pretty bad.

I may just give my rhizomes away. I may have saved a total of $2 by growing my own (not including the money spent on fertilizer, etc.). I got about 3 ounces off my 4 second year centennials and nothing off my sterlings or goldings. I just bought a pound of centennials for $10...

I think it's just too hot down south to grow them very well.

It's kinda like brewing. More a labor of love and a task to produce the freshest possible than a cost savings.

Sorry, to hear of your struggles Bakins. If it's any consolation, neither my sterlings or goldings have done very well.

I've gotta agree. If you are growing the hops to save money, it may work out once every 2 to 5 years.

You grow them for the experience, to guarantee your freshness/quality, to guarantee you have what you want and when you want it, etc.

Its like my crazy neighbor. He ripped up his backyard to grow barley. After 3 years, he finally got something that was malting quality. It was enough for about 3 gallons of so-so beer. Now, his backyard is back to grass but he has one incredible experience to share. He sure as hell didn't save any money.

Same with tomatoes... they must cost me a fortune.

If it aint making you money, it's costing a fortune.

I should have added, "but they're worth it."

I thought i read around here that it's best to let the bines die back down to the ground, as opposed to cutting them down...

Depends on your motives. I f you have needs to be warm while preparing the beds for winter then, early fall is best. If your motives are to feed the rhisomes as much as they can get, then wait for natural die back.

Another consideration is for the drying of the bines. If you are re-using trellis ropes then you want the bines to be pliable for removal. If you aren't re-using the ropes then there is no reason to not wait other than your own personal cold tolerance.

My preference is to clear the beds and test the soils prior to winter on-set. If I need to adjust the pH of my soils then I can cultivate a good slow release sulphur as well as any other amendment I deem necessary. I also prefer to root prune while the soil is still warm and dry Spring tends to get sprung late here and I often find copious growth prior to the last frost. I'd mush prefer to just focus on taming that growth rather than the bulk maintenance of the yard.

Rather than starting a new thread I figure this question might fit here.

I have several plants that I grew first year in pots. I am going to put them in the ground next year, would it be best to do that in the fall (now) or wait until early spring?

Mine died in a heatwave a few months back. Nothing but toasties to cut down.

samc - go ahead and plant them.

Living way south in Florida I knew hops were not going to be easy to grow(too hot, too wet and short days), but I tried anyway. They grew alright the first year, poorly the second year and didn't come back this year.....until now
I was mowing my grass today and about 12" from where they came up last year I have a 4' tall cascade plant climbing up my pool cage. I once again don't hope for much, but it does show just how hardy these things are. IIRC they grow best between the 40th and 50th degrees latitude and I'm at Latitude: 26.64 N

So is anyone trimming their bines and burying them? I've read the idea is to create more rhizomes/plants...burying roughly 2 feet of the bine.

I planted five rhizomes this season and only one truly thrived. My hope is to use this plant to expand the garden as opposed to purchasing more rhizomes next spring.