First time growing hops and initial setup

I've been home brewing for a few years now and have tossed around the idea of getting a couple of hop plants going but hadn't pulled the trigger at this point. I was just on vacation in South Haven, MI this past week which is due west of Kalamazoo on Lake Michigan. While at a u-pick blueberry farm I had some cascade hop plants catch my eye. They were potted with a couple of bamboo stakes in the pot and had a foot and a half or two of growth on a couple of bines. I couldn't resist. I'm not sure how long ago these were potted but I know it was later than it should have been.


After much debate about where to put the plant to have the best exposure and yet have some protection from our ridiculous winds and weather up here in flat as a pancake Northwest Ohio this is what I decided on. I hope it works.




I used a 50ft total length 3 strands of jute twine line loosely braided for the climbing lines, passed them through eyelets on the board attached to the eave at the corner and down to the plant. The center of the 50ft line as a laundry line rope tied to it and is through another eyelet at the peak of the eave then down and attached to a cinder block with a carabiner. This will allow me to drop the lines down from the peak or tighten them up depending on the position of the block(s).
I tied the other end of the lines at the plant to a couple of bricks to give an anchor point until the bines gain some grip and strength. There's about 23-24' for the top line and about 22-23' for the bottom line. I hope I won't run out of room in a few of years.

Is there anything I've overlooked or words of advice to make this work even better? I've read that in year one I should let everything grow and allow the plant to establish a good root base, so that's the plan right now.

I'm not even sure if these will get to the turn at the first set of eyelets being this small this late in the season, but I figured I'd start with the same plan and design I will eventually need as they get larger and stronger in future years.

Well, last summer with the late planting of a very small plant the bines only got about 5 feet long and were very thin and wispy.

This year already they've made the turn at the edge of the garage roof...here they were a few days ago. I've got 1 plant and 2 bines per string so 4 bines total which seems normal from what I've read. Hopefully I'll actually get some flowers from it this fall.

Looking good. I picked up some rhizomes a little over a week ago at my LHBS since they had some out on sale. Planted 3 different types in pots and Cascade and Centennial are poking out after a week. I dont have any hope for the nugget. This is my first attempt as well. Wife isnt too thrilled. Looks like I will be doing a 5' vertical then 20' horizontal grow pattern on the southside of the back yard.