I wanted to get into growing a few hops this year, but didnt have time get my permanent raised bed location ready, so I opted to grow a couple of Rhizomes (one Cascade and one Mt. Hood) in 20" pots and transplant them next year.
During hurricane IKE I lost a large pine tree in the back yard.. With the help of the big bad cummins I yanked up the stump and was left with a hole about 3 feet deep and 6 feet in diameter.. With beer constantly on the mind I thought this would make a great spot to start a backyard hop garden.. I used some of the local soil to enlarge the hole while decreasing it's depth so ultimately I started with a 6ft x 8ft hole about 18" deep..
Obviously I wanted to end up with a mound instead of a hole so I had a slight problem.. I also lost about 200 ft of cedar fence in the storm so I piled and burned all of that scrap (less the nails, screws and other metal bits) in the hole and earned about a 4" layer of ash in the bottom of the hole for my efforts. With noting else to burn I went ahead and framed up the location (6ft x 8ft) to created the raised bed about 12" above the rest of the yard..
I added a few bags of poiting soil and tree/shrub potting mix to bring the depth up to about 2" below ground level, 14" below the top rail of the bed.. Since then I have been composing all of my grass clippings, kitchen, vegetable matter, and spent grains into the bed to build up the remainder of the mound.. I have a large yard so each week I pile clippings up 5 or 6 above the top of the bed and and with regular watering and turning of the compost it has well settled by the next additions..
Next Spring I will relocate the potted rhizomes intact into their new home.. I selected the cheapest, flimsiest pots I could find exactly for this purpose.. You can literally cut through these POS pots in one pass with a utility knife.. So I will dig a cople of holes in my massive compose mound large enough to set the entire pot into the hole, with enough room to get my arm down between the pots and the wall of the hole.. Ill use a utility knife to cut the base out of the pots and slit up both sides.. Ill pull out the sides pieces of the pot and leave the bottom in the ground under the rhizome.. Then simply fill in the gap with some of the excavated material and use the remainder to shape the mounds for decent drainage..
If all goes well I will have two well developed second year rhizomes going into a very seriously nutrient rich environment with very little damage to the root ball... Right now both plants are about 4-1/2 feet tall and growing 2-3" per day.. Each has multiple bines climbing strong so I expect good root development.. I had a nitrogen problem early on, but added a few inches of compost material to the top and fertilizer and they have colored up well and are growing faster than I expected them to in pots..
Any advice on additives to the compost pile from the more experienced among you? Comments on the master plan?
JT
During hurricane IKE I lost a large pine tree in the back yard.. With the help of the big bad cummins I yanked up the stump and was left with a hole about 3 feet deep and 6 feet in diameter.. With beer constantly on the mind I thought this would make a great spot to start a backyard hop garden.. I used some of the local soil to enlarge the hole while decreasing it's depth so ultimately I started with a 6ft x 8ft hole about 18" deep..
Obviously I wanted to end up with a mound instead of a hole so I had a slight problem.. I also lost about 200 ft of cedar fence in the storm so I piled and burned all of that scrap (less the nails, screws and other metal bits) in the hole and earned about a 4" layer of ash in the bottom of the hole for my efforts. With noting else to burn I went ahead and framed up the location (6ft x 8ft) to created the raised bed about 12" above the rest of the yard..
I added a few bags of poiting soil and tree/shrub potting mix to bring the depth up to about 2" below ground level, 14" below the top rail of the bed.. Since then I have been composing all of my grass clippings, kitchen, vegetable matter, and spent grains into the bed to build up the remainder of the mound.. I have a large yard so each week I pile clippings up 5 or 6 above the top of the bed and and with regular watering and turning of the compost it has well settled by the next additions..
Next Spring I will relocate the potted rhizomes intact into their new home.. I selected the cheapest, flimsiest pots I could find exactly for this purpose.. You can literally cut through these POS pots in one pass with a utility knife.. So I will dig a cople of holes in my massive compose mound large enough to set the entire pot into the hole, with enough room to get my arm down between the pots and the wall of the hole.. Ill use a utility knife to cut the base out of the pots and slit up both sides.. Ill pull out the sides pieces of the pot and leave the bottom in the ground under the rhizome.. Then simply fill in the gap with some of the excavated material and use the remainder to shape the mounds for decent drainage..
If all goes well I will have two well developed second year rhizomes going into a very seriously nutrient rich environment with very little damage to the root ball... Right now both plants are about 4-1/2 feet tall and growing 2-3" per day.. Each has multiple bines climbing strong so I expect good root development.. I had a nitrogen problem early on, but added a few inches of compost material to the top and fertilizer and they have colored up well and are growing faster than I expected them to in pots..
Any advice on additives to the compost pile from the more experienced among you? Comments on the master plan?
JT
