Harvested... When to cut back to the ground?

So I have got all I would need for a long while from my hops.. what a harvest! 2 pounds of Chinook form one plant and two pounds of cascade from three plants... all dry weights.. very happy..

Now they still have leaves but are looking darn ugly.. can I cut back to the ground and bury for winter without ill affect?

Or do the roots need to suck up the goods from the leaves?

that's an awesome harvest! i just picked a bunch today, and the rest need another week or so. last year was my first year growing hops, and i left the bines up until they turned brown, and then cut them down. not sure if that's the best way though...

Yeah.. Pretty stoked.. could have gotten more too!

Basement smelled awesome when drying (box fan went yellow with lupin!)

Cool.. Might cut the support and heap them up around the hop hills and then cut and bundle in a few weeks.. October is free green haulage months and would like to get the bines off the property..

You want to wait until the first hard frost as the bines and root stock are still gathering nutrients for next years start up. We have not had that yet in Chicago.

So every year you are supposed to cut the vines back down?

If there's still green in any of the leaves it's a good idea to leave them up because they are still able to turn sunlight into energy. Being that they aren't growing at this point, they're not using any energy, so any that's produced is sent down to the crown to be stored for use at some later point (next Spring). I normally forget about them until Thanksgiving and then cut them back and into the compost pile they go. You can leave them up if you want, but by cutting them back and disposing of them, you're disposing of any disease spores or insects that they may have been harboring. It's just a good sanitary practice that's used in the agricultural industry but you're the one that's running the train so have at it!

So, the old vines won't grow hops next year?

Sorry, not a chance. At the end of the season they die back to the ground and new shoots come up next Spring.

We just cut our first year bines to the ground on Saturday after a frost killed the leaves on our grape vines and hop bines. Figured there wasn't any reason to keep them up after that.