New Hop Grower

I planted some cascades, goldings & nugget about a month ago. The weather has been a little wicked up until lately in Seattle (no ground freeze) so hopefully nothings wrong.

Currently two shoots of cascades are coming up. I have an article from BYO Magazine that says to trim back the first few shoots that come out and then pick 4 of the strongest to train.

What's your guys take on this? I've seen some pictures in here of people with 50-60 shoots per plant! At least that's what it looked like.

You'll be lucky to get more than a few bines if these are the same sort of rhizomes i had last year... 4-6 inch twig 'bout as fat as my pinky finger. Most seem to suggest that the root system of an immature plant cant support more than a few bines. As it grows, through out the season you'll see new shots emerge, these i would bury, seems to help the root system develop, many of my buried bines look to have turned into roots over the intervening seasons. But the early bines, if you get more than 3 or 4 i would trim.

mattyg said:

I planted some cascades, goldings & nugget about a month ago. The weather has been a little wicked up until lately in Seattle (no ground freeze) so hopefully nothings wrong.

Currently two shoots of cascades are coming up. I have an article from BYO Magazine that says to trim back the first few shoots that come out and then pick 4 of the strongest to train.

What's your guys take on this? I've seen some pictures in here of people with 50-60 shoots per plant! At least that's what it looked like.

Click to expand...

I wouldnt worry about cutting them back until they are big enough to train. I didnt really cut back the first year until the hops were 1-2 feet tall.

Hmmm, I got mine in the ground near the first of April. got shoots in a week and now have 5 or so inches of growth on most. Only the last Nugget was slow and still has just begun to shoot. I dug it up last w/e to check and there were lots of roots forming so I just re-planted.

Just about ready to train on the twine.

What is your ground like... cus I thought my soil was not very good, even though I tilled in 2 yards of compost, it's still very much like clay. I figure if they can grow in that they can grow in just about anything. I haven't needed to water yet as the rains have been sufficient and the soil holds lots of moisture (raised beds keeps the rihizomes out of the standing water).

SPS NPW resident.

I have two solid Cascade shoots coming up now. One is a bout 6" or so and the other is a little shorter. Neither the golding or the nugget has broken ground.

I tilled in a bunch of good organic compost prior to planting and sprinkled some pellet fertilizer.

Dunno. . . I would have expected to see all of them at this point.