Rhizome orientation

I planted my Rhizomes tonight but after some more reading I think I may have planted them upside down. In all my experience with planting things the roots and offshoots normally go down and the root goes fat to skinny from top to bottom. With this in mind I planted the shoots down and the fat part of the rhizome at the top. Should I dig them back up and flip them or should I plant them horizontally? If it makes a difference these are planted in planters, AKA 55 gallon plastic barrels cut in half, the tops are about 1-2" below the dirt, and I was planning on adding on a layer of mulch on top.

I planted all of my rhizomes horizontally, under just an inch of soil and a light cover of mulch to hold moisture. 14 out of 15 came up and have been rockin' the cones for two years going on three (#15 was replaced by MW as it really was an earthworm size totally white "thing" that was probably just bare root).

I think horizontal takes the guesswork out and just lets the rhizome figure it all out for itself. Some part will pop roots, some other part will pop shoots, seems to work out just fine...

Cheers!

If you planted them with the shoots down, then yes you should lift them and plant with the shoots up, maybe an inch of soil on top of the shoots. Downward and they may run out of energy before they realize they're growing the wrong way.

You definitely can plant them horizontally to be safe, but they'll tend to 'creep' more so than if they were planted vertically. Hoppy Growing!

ideally you should plant them horizontally, that being said, nature will usually find a way regardless

Ok well it sounds like I should dig them back out and flip them over or plant them horizontally. Just to be certain I don't mess this up again using the rhizome in the picture below the right side should be pointing up?

Correct.

The white nodes are the hop bines they should be pointed towards the sky

I was out doing some digging today and found a couple examples of what happens when rhizomes are planted with different orientations. Both are Canadian Redvine rhizomes after one year growth.

The top pic was planted horizontally in the ground. To the left of my thumb was a rhizome no bigger around than a number 2 pencil and was about a foot long. You can see some monster roots that formed all along the rhizome but the bigger concern is the orientation of the new shoots. Some are angled upward and the others downward. Those ones heading south are the ones that can cause trouble because they may grow a few feet before turning upward for the sun. All along those few feet of new rhizome will be more buds that will continue this cycle again next year. If you don't pay attention and dig them up they can spread very easily.

The bottom pic was a little Redvine rhizome planted vertically in a 5 gal bucket. For one, it's a lot smaller due to being planted in the container as opposed to the ground, but you can see that because of the orientation, the new shoots are all pointed upward (for the most part) and the roots are going down like they're supposed to. You can also see that the original rhizome (above my thumb) has begun to turn somewhat woody as compared to the lighter colored roots below.

B-Hoppy said:

I was out doing some digging today and found a couple examples of what happens when rhizomes are planted with different orientations. Both are Canadian Redvine rhizomes after one year growth.

The top pic was planted horizontally in the ground. To the left of my thumb was a rhizome no bigger around than a number 2 pencil and was about a foot long. You can see some monster roots that formed all along the rhizome but the bigger concern is the orientation of the new shoots. Some are angled upward and the others downward. Those ones heading south are the ones that can cause trouble because they may grow a few feet before turning upward for the sun. All along those few feet of new rhizome will be more buds that will continue this cycle again next year. If you don't pay attention and dig them up they can spread very easily.

The bottom pic was a little Redvine rhizome planted vertically in a 5 gal bucket. For one, it's a lot smaller due to being planted in the container as opposed to the ground, but you can see that because of the orientation, the new shoots are all pointed upward (for the most part) and the roots are going down like they're supposed to. You can also see that the original rhizome (above my thumb) has begun to turn somewhat woody as compared to the lighter colored roots below.

Click to expand...

Great information. I ended up digging them up and flipping them over and planting them vertically so hopefully I have them oriented properly now.

AznDrgn said:

Great information. I ended up digging them up and flipping them over and planting them vertically so hopefully I have them oriented properly now.

Click to expand...

I dont think there is a 'proper' way.

Horizontally as he showed has the capability of spawning a lot more shoots and root nodes. But this is at the expense of having them spread out a lot and you need to stay on top of them creeping super far.