Should I cut side growth?

My Zeus plant is growing up the twine in a very orderly fashion, and is now taller than my willamette. My willamette that started faster has slowed it's upward growth. It is putting off a lot of side growth on the main bine. Should I pinch off some of the side growth to encourage it to put more energy into growing up the twine?

I'm pretty sure the side growth is where much of the eventual cone production occurs. If its just a couple feet off the ground that you want to trim back that's fine and maybe even a good idea for the purposes of good airflow and reduction of pests, but I wouldn't trim anything much further than about two feet up.

The sidearms will stop growing after a while, so don't worry about them.

Stand Back From The Hops!!! :d

I've just let them go thus far since I'd rather not start attacking them. The willamette has three side growth tips that are almost taller than the main bine that is going around the twine! I think I'll just let them train themselves and see what happens.

If there is sidegrowth that is about to entangle with another hop of a different variety then I'll wrap it around the twine and let it grow upward like the main bine.

conpewter has a good point if your hops are less than 7 feet apart. 7 feet is worry-free, because sidearms are rarely more than 40".

I've had to retrain the side arms so they stay on the twine, but mine are far enough apart in containers that I don't think they will get to the other pot. One of the side arms has trained up the twine to almost the same height as the main bine now!

This is my first go at growing hops so I don't really know what to expect, so perhaps this is just the way that Willamettes grow. I'm probably just obsessing over my new babies. But the Zeus looks so orderly and well behaved with good upward progress and a nice pair of leaves at each joint... maybe my Willamette is just the unruly child that won't do as told

Willamitte is one of the varieties that have very long (24-40") sidearms, I suspect on Zeus they'd be much shorter.

Thanks, David_42. That's good to know. Is it best to train those sidearms up the twine, or to let them do what they will?

I'd discourage any that grab other bines, but otherwise just let them hang.

I also noticed this week that my first year Willamette now has 4 side shoots and it looks like there are more coming, some are shooting out where the main bine is a foot above the ground! Since they are first year, I planned on letting anything grow just to help the root structure. The more green above ground, the more roots below ground...

My willamette has been my best plant. I got a fair harvest the first year, and this year it has more growth on it than the two second year cascade plants combined. I think it is trying to eat my shop (where it's trellis runs).