My newly expanded hop yard with pics, winch system etc.

It's been a busy few weeks and we have expanded the hop yard significantly.

It all started by skidding downed trees from the back 40, nice to have the heavy equipment, laying out the pole locations and digging the holes with the Bobcat auger. Same process as last year, I added 3 rows of 5 poles and ran more ACSR through holes near the top and to a set of posts at the end with a boat trailer winch mounted on them for each row, so that I can lower each row for harvest separately. I spaced the rows 8' apart so I can put any of the equipment down each row, and poles are 27' apart, 6 plants between each pole which makes them about 4' apart, with a pole and 5-6' between species. This year as I had all the equipment, I used 22' poles planted 4' deep so I have 18' above ground. Raised most of the poles by hand but used the crawler loader to raise some of the big heavy end poles. I planted 60 plants this weekend and installed all the drip lines and emitters, got the drip system programmed then sat down for a beers last night, satisfied with the almost complete project. I will post some more pics with the winches mounted next post.

Still trying to decide what to use to hold the heavy sisal to the ground for them to grow on, but am thinking railway spikes as they are "locally" available. They are heavy, 6" long and free. I looked around town for another solution but couldn't find anything under $100.

Here are a few pics of the last few weeks of work. A long way from melting snow with shingles in March.

Cheers

And here is my winch system. I used boat trailer winches, loaded them with 3/16" wire rope, and crimped sleeves I had from my railroad days to join the 2 different size wires, ACSR to wire rope. The pulley I modified from a stock Home Depot pulley found in the rope aisle. Used a chain saw to cut the 45 degree angle on top, lag bolted everything to the cedar posts and away we go. Winch post is about 30' from the first trellis pole so that I can lower the whole row down to picking height. I have this setup on each of the 4 rows, which are 110' long each. I could of economized and come up with a way to use just one winch, and move it from post to post but they were so cheap, it wasn't worth the extra design effort.

Cheers

Someday...someday I will coerce my coworker with a tractor and 24 acres to let me do this. Fantastic work and truly inspirational.

I need more land! Nice setup! The winch was smart

Very nice... You lucky bas...

Dang... Now that's a hop yard right there...

Nice place, love the view of the mountains. What varieties of hops are you planting?

Thanks for stopping your work and taking the pictures, they are fascinating. I am too lazy to look up your previous posts so do you mind saying what you intend to do with your hops?

Looks really cool bro. The only thing I would say is, if that pulley is gonna see any "side to side" force, you may want to put in some support. I'm guessing though that your pulley will never see this force and only "front to back" force?

In any event, I'm super jealous. I'm eventually gonna set up a fully automatic hydroponic hops garden once I can get my ducks in a row...

one thing to think of, on top of the pole that has the winch, you could add a seperate cable lock, just from a couple of bolts and a few wooden blocks.

that would prevent the winch from breaking due to constant strain and the cable on the winch would stay better quality.

You realize jealousy is an ugly emotion, right?

Very ugly. It is probably best that you are in BC or I'd be raiding your hops, just as an object lesson to those who have the space (or spousal support) for similar setups.

Sigh, I'll have to settle with some fence top hops next year (just don't have the time this spring). Maybe one of these day's I'll upgrade from an acre to a few acres (with the trees on/next to my property, I don't have a great place to grow them other than my property fence, and the wife has vetoed hop trellis in the front yard. Though she did sign-off on apple trees in the front yard. That is something).

Kharnynb said:

one thing to think of, on top of the pole that has the winch, you could add a seperate cable lock, just from a couple of bolts and a few wooden blocks.

that would prevent the winch from breaking due to constant strain and the cable on the winch would stay better quality.

Click to expand...

Excellent idea! Thanks. Agree it would relieve strain on the winch and cable on the winch drum.

While I was thinking about a way to use just one winch and move it to which ever row needs lowering, I thought I could just Crosby clamp a piece of wire with a loop on the end onto the ACSR and then attach an eye bolt or eye hook onto the post. Crank up the line, hook onto the eye hook and then unhook the winch line. Still may do that, would achieve your idea of strain relief on the winch as well. As for side force on the pulley, I think it is close enough to the winch and post, and doesn't have any hops on that side of the last trellis pole, that it shouldn't have any side force.

cheers

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the compliments, appreciate it. It's been a long journey but definitely fun and worth the effort.

My son and I have 20 acres out in the country and can do pretty much anything we want, nobody to tell us what we can/can't do. All of my equipment is old, much like myself, but still works well.

Varieties? Well, we have 20 now of Hopzilla (see previous posts on subject) that I split up and replanted last year.

Last year also added 2 each the following, which have really taken off this year and look great.

Brewers Gold
Chinook
Hallertau
Magnum
Mt. Hood
Northern Brewer
Sterling
Zeus

and this year just planted the following

6 - Cascade
12 - Centennial
6 - Chinook
12 - Golding
6 - Mt. Hood
6 - Nugget
6 - Sterling
6 - Willamette

Planning to supply local microbreweries and U brew shops in a few years when everything gets mature, as well as continuing for our own use.

I am also picking up some more mystery hops next week, from an old row of hops on a farm I found, but the owner doesn't know what they are. Here we go again.

Thanks again!

Cheers

azazel1024 said:

the wife has vetoed hop trellis in the front yard. Though she did sign-off on apple trees in the front yard. That is something).

Click to expand...

you poor bastard. LoL

Le wife here got her apple trees in the front, so I get hops in the front. Well, that reason & so the hops were away from the doggies.

Very cool setup! A friendly word of advice, if you plan on selling to breweries, and you plan on expanding, plant less varieties. Remember, the scale of a brewery will need a lot of each variety. 6-12 hills of each may not be enough to supply them. I've seen this happen to a couple farms in our area. We have 4 varieties and 2300 hills. Soon to be adding a 5th variety in our next acre expansion.

Good luck and again it looks like a great start!!

For attaching the sisal just run a length of solid electric fence wire along the bottom about a foot high and tie them off to it. Looks great!

HI Brian,

Thanks for the thoughts on varieties. I wanted to start off with the various types to see what is going to do well in our soil, climate etc. and because of some local requests. Once we figure out what does well, and if I decide to take this to the next level, I will definitely narrow it down, although 100 plants is nothing to sneeze at work wise, it is still a long way from commercial production.

Ray, yes, that's a great idea but as I need to traverse the hop yard regularly, I am just thinking I'll be tripping on it more than anything. I do have some fence wire here. Maybe I'll try it on the farthest row. Actually, you just gave me an idea!!! I could use that wire to suspend my 1/2" drip line to get the emitters out of the dirt. Not sure if it could hold the weight when full of water though. Only way find out is do it. Thanks!

Also when I planted the 60 new rhizomes this year, I used my 9" augur bit to dig and loosen up a nice hole 12-18" deep, leaving the dirt in it. I added mulch and mixed it all up, planted the rhizomes, some vertical, some horizontal, depending on the size and shape of it, but all with no more than about 2" of soil on top. After watering a few times, all the fluffy soil underneath collapsed and now the rhizomes are about 4-6" below surrounding grade, buggar. I have dug up a few of the deepest ones and raised them....wondering if I should dig em all up and raise them or can I just add mulch/soil next spring to get the desired mound shape. Will the crown find it's way back to the surface next year? They have been in 9 days and about 30% have sprouted

Cheers

I understand! We started with 4 varieties and 120 hills to see how thing went! Then we got drinking, and oops! But we love every painstaking moment!

We call it BEERENIGERING here!