Chopping for winter?

Ok, so I grew 2 plants this year, only got about 12 hops out of each which wound up browning on the vine in my attempt to hope more would come so I didn't get anything. Not the end of the world as I wouldn't be able to do much with 24 wet hops anyway, but now it's starting to cool down outside. Do I just chop the bines off close to the soil and wait for next spring for them to sprout again? Do I just leave them alone? Or is there something else I should be doing with them?

I plan on growing the same plants again next year in hopes of getting a better harvest. I didn't really fertilize this year so I'll need to get some miracle grow, or something else, next year, and hopefully will see a much better yield.

Leave them until them die back.

Cool this answers my question as well. This was my first year growing and didn't get any this year. Hopefully next year I will have better luck. I guess I will just leave them. What do you guys usually do with your lines?

On a related question... I'm moving around the end of Oct & want to take my crowns with me. Can I cut them at ground level and transplant in a day or so without killing them? I've got two cascade and two Columbus. Both are first year plants that did extremely well (close to 1.5lbs total). I don't really have much choice, but I'm curious for answers.

SCHombrew said:

On a related question... I'm moving around the end of Oct & want to take my crowns with me. Can I cut them at ground level and transplant in a day or so without killing them? I've got two cascade and two Columbus. Both are first year plants that did extremely well (close to 1.5lbs total). I don't really have much choice, but I'm curious for answers.

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Should be fine, just keep the soil moist and transplant as soon as you can!
Good luck on the move!

david_42 said:

Leave them until them die back.

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So how dead is dead? Just curious because I have been growing them in large(very large ) pots on my deck. I have no problem letting them die back, but the fiance may start having issues with dead plants on the deck so I'd rather cut them back sooner rather than later.

Or do you normally just leave them all together and they just start growing again next year???

I grew two plants as well this summer, Nugget and Cascade, which I got from a hopps cooperative near me. They did alright, I got maybe two oz wet. I was very pleased though, I planted them late, in soggy soil, with no drain, and no trellis, just a pole. I expected nothing from them. Next year I plan to transplant them into better soil, trim them as I am supposed to, and build them a trellis.

Hopp vines die off completely and overwinter underground. I chopped mine last week after my harvest, thinking that I wasn't going to get anything else out of them this season. However, they have been growing back so fast that it makes me wonder if I could force a winter harvest if I transplanted them early and brought them inside.

If I don't bring them inside, is there anything I have to do for my plants in preparation for winter?

dummkauf,

they'll die back, the leaves will turn brown and blow away but the vines will remain on whatever they were climbing on until you cut them back. i usually let a few inches sticking out of the ground so i know where the center of the crown is located for next year. once spring comes, you'll see a bunch more new shoots popping out of the ground in that vicinity and maybe a little further out from the main crown. if you like, you can take a shovel and knife down into the soil between the main crown and the shoots that are popping up further away. what you have just cut through is a rhizome. you can now dispose of it, or plant it somewhere else.

hoppinghappily,

if you have 18 foot ceilings you could try it, but i don't know how much success you would have as their growth cycle is winding down now to rest for next year. all you have to do is to throw an inch or so of mulch/compost on them if you like, and next year they should jump up in the spring. if you plan on transplanting them next spring, i would try to get an area ready this fall if you have some decent weather. try to work some organic matter into the soil and mound up the soil within reason if your soil drains poorly. this isn't a cure-all but it may help. good luck!

Thanks B-Hoppy, that's pretty much what I figured.

Since we are on the topic of trimming... What is the thought about trimming shoots in the spring and summer? Do I cultivate one vine, or let everything that sprouts grow as it may?

dummkauf, thanks for the great topic, I am new to the forum and your questions really mirrored my own. Like your question about chopping the vines at the end of the season. I have already trimmed mine, but did I do the right thing? Could I have gotten another harvest out of them?... OK. I doubt it, but could I be harming regrowth in other ways?

please look over the following links:
http://www.usahops.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=hop_farming&pageID=3
http://www.oregonhops.org/culture1.html
http://www.oregonhops.org/culture2.html

they basically tell you that these plants, once established, will produce many more shoots than you need to produce your crop. select a few shoots that you want to climb and train them, then remove any others that come up. when i first started growing hops, i disregarded this advice once and what i ended up with was a mess of vegetation that was out of control and very difficult to pick come harvest time. on some of the lower yielding varieties i would let 5-6 shoots climb the pole. after a few years i realized it was just a waste of time to even try to grow them so they were eliminated. some varieties that throw out long sidearms should be limited to 2 and maybe 3 shoots per pole because the sidearms end up getting tangled resulting in a hard time picking. you just have to see what will work for you so hop to it!