For those seasoned hop growers....

do you trim back your rhizome roots each spring as described in the Brew Your Own article from this spring?

If you don't get byo, it basically said in the spring before shoots are 6" tall trim the rhizome back to be about a foot long.

Just thinking ahead, about 11 and 1/2 months ahead.

I'd be interested to know the reasoning behind this (non-commercial reason that is). By trimming back the root ball you're treating this plant like a bonsai. Reducing root mass will ultimately reduce growth rate as the hop tries to restablish the root system. This also makes it more likely for the plant to suffer from nutrient and water deficiencies as the underground network that would supply water and nutrients has been severed. Not to mention opening the plant up for disease from all of teh damaged roots. I'd imagine a plant that was allowed to keep all of its root system would shoot up a plant VERY quickly compared to one that had its roots cut back.

It just doesn't make sense to me?

I will be doing this as I really don't know where my rhizomes are going to. I have plants planted 3 ft apart and this is close enough to have me thinking that I'm training one plant when in effect I would be training the other.

When the ground gets thawed completly in a few days, I'll dig them up to prune.

7Enigma said:

It just doesn't make sense to me?

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+1. I could understand trimming back the bines, but trimming the roots seems unusual.

Danek said:

+1. I could understand trimming back the bines, but trimming the roots seems unusual.

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The BYO article talks about trimming the rhizome itself, not the crown which is the root of the hop plant.

Danek said:

+1. I could understand trimming back the bines, but trimming the roots seems unusual.

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I think I remember reading that you need to trim the roots (with a shovel in a circle about a foot from the main root ball) so they don''t pop up a couple feet away from the main plant. It keeps them contained.

I'm guessing it's just to keep each plant separate. If you let them go over a couple years, you won't know where one ends and the other begins. Total anarchy. Hop anarchy. Sounds like a good IPA.

I remember reading some where, an article talked about cutting the tops of the crown with a special mower, to promote growth and trim dead non productive parts of the crown.

But they were only talking about the tops, I will try to find the article and re-read.

Found it, here is the link
http://oregonhops.org/culture1.html

The mower is typically used to trim the new shoot growth, a normal practice as I understand for commercial farmers. The intent is to force the plant to produce hardier shoots.

Root pruning is done as soon as you can work the soil. And yes a 1 foot sqiuare or circle around the crown is the suggested method but, you are actually targeting rhisomes that have developed under the soil surface, not the actual root structure of the plant.

The intent here is to, again, force energy into the crown for hardier shoots as well as maintain the crown to avoid growth intermingling with one another.

Haven't done root trimming yet, but my Fuggles is coming up over a 4'x4' area, so it's on the list for next year. I had hoped dripping in one spot would limit the spread, but it hasn't. On the other hand, the Cascade has about 30 shoots in a 1' area and isn't spreading at all.