I thought some of you might want to see how we went about building our hop trellis even though we got a late start on it. My friend's parents have a big farm in southeastern Ohio and they grow all kinds of plants and vegetables, so agreed to tend to the hops. We used some very straight 21' black locust trees that had fallen recently in the surrounding woods on the property. It turns out black locust is very rot resistant and frequently used as fence posts. The posts are sent in 3' deep holes; no concrete was used since it is mostly clay where the soil hadn't been ammended for planting. We strung heavy duty string between pots and left enough slack that the hole "clothes line" can be lowered to the ground for harvesting. The cross rope will be reused year after year, but the vertical climbing support ropes won't be. They are made from sisal and can be composted with the bines. The whole thing is braced by two guy wires on each end. We manage to erect the whole thing in about 4 hrs. The next morning we planted 2 plants each of cascade, chinook, Mt. Hood and nugget.
In the first pic you can see the trellis way in the background.
My friend in the pic is about 6'0 tall.
In the first pic you can see the trellis way in the background.
My friend in the pic is about 6'0 tall.