Do I have to trim my 2.5' Cascades?

I hope everyone is enjoying this early spring start!

This forum has helped with a lot of great recourses on hops growing. One of the latest threads hads a link to a lecture at the University of Vermont from a pro-hop grower. He said to cut all the first bines and let the secondary growth that is growing from the deeper parts of the plant, which have better access to more of the plant's roots and energy, be the primary bines. While other growers like the ones I have heard on basic brewing radio only mention trimming everything but the bines you are going to put on the string, without mentioning the first pruning.

I would like to hear your personal experience either way!

As you can see from my picture this 2nd year cascade is big and the thought of chopping these guys down is tragic!

Part of my dilema is that my parents are visiting my wife and I from Ca in 2 weeks and I want to keep these bines so they can enjoy them while they are here! My other 6 plants are taking their sweet time.

I've only ever heard to keep them pruned to around 3 bines max. I know that the strongest bines that are starting to come off my plants are shoots coming from somewhere along the bottom of the plant. The buds on the top of the crown aren't really growing at all. So atleast for my plants They fall into both categories of pruning belief. Are you sure yours aren't deep shoots that are surfacing ?

I never prune any shoots. 1 reason to prune is to promote a more even harvest. My hops are for decoration as well as use so i let em all go wild. In doing that I get a solid wall 4' tall on my decorative fence that cannot be seen through, then i train 6-7 bines per string to go from 4' up to the top of my trellis.

tchuklobrau said:

I never prune any shoots. 1 reason to prune is to promote a more even harvest. My hops are for decoration as well as use so i let em all go wild. In doing that I get a solid wall 4' tall on my decorative fence that cannot be seen through, then i train 6-7 bines per string to go from 4' up to the top of my trellis.

Click to expand...

So how much harder is it to harvest off 6-7 bines compared? I'm considering letting most of mine go crazy.

I read that the first shoots are also trimmed cause they are the ones that contain overwintered powdery mildew and other problems.

I've heard this theory on several occasions. The first bines up will race up the cord but produce less than those that come later. In our tests, we haven't seen this to be the case but we are still experimenting.

What does matter is when the first shoots come up and how far you are from the summer solstice. Many growers that are south of the Mason Dixon line will have very early growth. The bine shoots up and ends up flowering before a lot of the side arms can form. This will hurt yield. In those cases, it may not hurt to trim back the first growth to delay.

Many of the commercial growers cut off the first growth but that is for two reasons...to make harvest time uniform and to delay harvest. Their harvest schedule is so tight that they can't afford to harvest just a row or two from a particular field. They have to come in and do all or nothing. So they cut off all the first shoots so the 2nd batch all comes up together, thus increasing the chances of a uniform time for harvest. They will also cut back a field to delay harvest. If I had 30 acres of cascade but only enough capacity to harvest 15 acres in a given window, I would cut back 1/2 of them so the harvest in those 15 acres is delayed long enough to allow for proper harvest.

By all means, if you like the looks of them, leave them up for your parents. If you want, cut them down after they leave or let them grow.