My Hop Garden Plans

Back on the 18th I placed an order for 5 different rhizomes from DIY Brewing Co. to be delivered in April.

I also made up my mind over the last few days on how I was going to setup my raised bed hops garden.

My plan is to build 5 36"x36"x12" cedar boxes to contain a single hop variety each.
I will be stringing rope between two trees in my side yard that has the most southern exposure. The trees are roughly 55' apart leaving me plenty of room for future expansion if things go well this year. The rope will be approx. 12' high with 2 pieces of twine dropped down to each box in a V formation. I will be running the rope through eye hooks to allow for lowering of the bines at harvest time.

Here are a couple of renderings that I did in Sketchup.

The only potential issue I see here is in the attachment to the trees. Unless you rig a weighted tensioning system, the tension on your top line is going to vary dependent on wind conditions.

I dunno how big these trees are but, you'd be amazed at how much flex there is on a tree trunk. Even the big ones.

I'd just hate to here one day that, as a result of an Severe storm your top line snapped and sent all 5 hop plants plunging from 12 feet. Or worse, that the line didn't snap and the ts were ripped from the earth.

I am not saying it will happen, but I am saying it could. Maybe.

I agree, those trees had better be pretty stout. The bines can get quite heavy, and they act just like sails in the wind. At the very least I think you should add a pole in the middle of the span to help brace the top line. Otherwise it's a really nice design, I like it.

After reading your posts and thinking about this all day I agree that it would be tricky to eliminate the swaying of the trees from affecting the main rope and all connected lines.

I'm probably just going to cough up the extra cash for some Quick-crete and a couple of 16' 4x4's. I think Lowe's had the 4x4's for about $14-15, so that's not too bad. And I'll be able to run my lines up to a good 13'.

Thanks for the input GMB and EvilTOJ.

Ice9 said:

After reading your posts and thinking about this all day I agree that it would be tricky to eliminate the swaying of the trees from affecting the main rope and all connected lines.

I'm probably just going to cough up the extra cash for some Quick-crete and a couple of 16' 4x4's. I think Lowe's had the 4x4's for about $14-15, so that's not too bad. And I'll be able to run my lines up to a good 13'.

Thanks for the input GMB and EvilTOJ.

Click to expand...

It could be done with some creative engineering but, I think the posts and concrete will suffice. Also consider some guy wire supports for the posts. Generally, you'd want 1/3 of the above ground post height buried but, that isn;t really practical.

For my system I got everything but the posts from Lowes. For the guy and top wire I chose a a glavanized wire rope, low stretch capable off taking 1200psi of tensile strength.

Keep in mind during your planning that a mature hope bine grow to a girth of 3/8 and that in bloom, each plant can weigh "up to" 100 pounds.

Yeah Guy I would definitely do the 4x4! Good luck! That sounds like an awesome Idea.

Got my 5 rhizomes from DIY today. I went out and bought 5 plastic pots to get them started indoors while I wait for the yard to dry out some and get clear of the last frost for the year. The varieties I selected are Styrian Golding, Fuggle, Sterling, Mt. Hood and Cascade. I planted them using Miracle Grow Organic Choice potting mix.

I bought 5 12' 2x12's to build my raised boxes out of. I will be spraying them with Thompson's water seal to help protect them since I couldn't swing the cost of some cedar!!! I should be able to get the boxes built this weekend.

Here are a few pics.

Sounds kind of like mine. I bought 2 16' 4x4s from lowes, about $15 a pop.
I've got 160lbs of quickrete at the bottom of each one, burried 30 inches deep. No need for guy wires, these puppies are staying put.

A less expensive and lighter weight trellis design is to set the poles pointing out at a slight angle and anchor them to the ground by continuing the overhead wire to the ground anchors outside the the system. This allows you easy access to adjust the tension of the overhead wire and you can easily drop the whole trellis system for harvesting without climbing a ladder. Just use some eyelets at the top of the poles.
This type of trellis does not require as strong and heavy of a pole and it does not require a deep anchoring of the pole. The wire can be anchored using readily available screw type anchors or even short pieces of pipe driven into the ground at an angle.

Attached is a very rough drawing of what I described. The twine could then be attached to the top wire and run down to stakes near the plants.

For myself I am using a wood sided pole barn to support the top of my twine. The barn provides a secure place to lean a ladder and I didn't have to build anything.
Craig

CBBaron, I like the idea but I dont think it will work. You get some bines on there and that thing is a big sail. a good wind would blow it over without any lateral support unless that is 1/2"+ cable anchored in a serious footer.

Probably would work really well for something small scale.

My meterials costs were roughly
2x 16' PT 4x4 $30
20' 1/8 Cable $16
11x 1/8" cable clips $3.50
7x 1" rings $7.00
2x large stainless eyebolts $3.00
4x 80lb bags of quickrete $18.00
7x Rope Horn $10.00

So around 90 bucks. $70 bucks if you omit the rings/7 clips/ and rope horns.

Hey Virtuous,
I was going to go with a set-up much like yours, though maybe not quite as tall. How long of a run is that between the posts? I'm doing 4 varieties, with two rhizomes per mound (rhizomes 1 to 1-1/2 feet apart. I was figuring on 24 feet for the total length.

Chris

Its a little over 18' long.

I have the rings at the top 3' apart, I am only using 6 of the 7 now.
28' is pretty long, you could get 9 bines on there at 3' intervals. I would suggest using 1/4" cable insted of 1/8" for a run that long. I am kind of pushing the limits of the cable with 7 bines.

Yeah, I was debating whether I needed the 24' for 4 varieties of hops, or if I could get away with 20'. Oh, with a 24' run, I was planning on a third post at the middle.

Chris

You could use the trees if you wanted, you'd have to counterweight the line on one side though, basically you tie your guide wire around one tree, bring it over to the other where you've chained a pully to the tree (heavy duty stuff here) and run the wire through the pully, then you hang oh 400 lbs? (not sure how much you'd need) from that wire, so as the trees sway it will move up and down keeping a constant tension on the wire. I suppose if you use a large bucket with dirt or something you could add weight as the season goes on and your hops get heavier.