HopBomb
Member
I've got a couple of first year plants (2 Cascades and 2 Chinooks), all doing quite well here in Virginia. All have cleared 15 ft on my hop tower. Lots of cones, easily a couple of dozen on each bine with more bids showing every day. So far I'm pleasantly surprised with the first year production. The bines don't appear to produce any cones lower that about 6 ft, but there is lots of leaf and sidearm growth down low. They are really starting to bush out. My question is should I pinch the low growth off to promote more growth up high and more cones? I don't want to get too greedy with first year plants, but would like to maximize the cone harvest.