GearBeer's Overengineered Hop Trellis

With my hops coming along in the basement I started the construction on my trellis this weekend.

I started by laying out the basic shape with 8' landscaping timbers. I staked out two isosceles triangles to ensure even loading on the guy wires before digging the base holes.


48" deep base hole


I used two 8' 4x4s and a a chopped up 4x4 from the basement to make the base. Props to Highlandsbrew for the base design.


The ACQ lumber is ground contact rated but will corrode fasteners that aren't hot dipped galvanized or stainless. However, I did use 1/4"x6" zinc plated lag bolts on the bottom because they'll be encased in concrete.

The 5/8" bolts for the pivot are hot dipped galvanized. They run through the scrap lumber temporarily to keep the base lined up.




I finished both bases tonight and bought all the supplies to finish the project.

The rain over the past week kept me back, but I managed to get out today (in the rain) and cement in the poles.

I used stakes, synthetic twine and a pole level to center each pole. I didn't put a whole lot of effort into making sure the two bases line up, since the cable won't care if they're a little misaligned.





Three or four times per post I added stones dug up in my yard during my stalled construction project as aggregate.



After three hours I had two solidly mounted bases for my extreme hop trellis.

Lookin good what is the total height going to be?

It'll be about 19', I've got just over 4' on the bases and 16' 4"x4"s will mount on them with ~1' overlap.

Nice work, can't wait to see it finished!

I spent a fair amount of time getting my posts vertical. Three years later, they are at about a 15 degree lean. The whole hillside migrates in the wet season, but the top foot moves fastest.

Kyle, I understand the pivot deal to load and unload the ropes, but I am not seeing how you will put the 16' 4x4's upright, back to vertical.

David,

I'm installing two guy wires off each post that will be individually adjustable to counteract any future lean. I'm going to have the options of tightening the nut on the closed loop hook or one or both turnbuckles on the bottom. I'm a little worried that I may, some day, have to install an additional guy wire on one side to hold the trellis in position but that's a project for another year.

HH,

Comealong.

I haven't installed the pipes that the trellis will be anchored to yet, but to give you the jist of it:
There are going to be two pipes (anchors) pounded into the ground equidistant from the pole. A shorter length of cable will be run between them and a comealong will be attached to the ring where the guy wires attach (I'll probably use one of the guy wires because they're already up there) and the shorter cable (used to center the comealong so I don't torque the pole). I'll just let the comealong out little by little and direct the trellis down in an orderly fashion.

Thats insane. I can't wait to see the finished construction thou.

sterling214 said:

Thats insane. I can't wait to see the finished construction thou.

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Over-engineered, for sure.

Insane would be using a helicopter.

That would be awfully expensive. How much do you think 4 months of in flight refuelings would run?

Nice setup. I should have done something like that, but all I did was stick some dead trees in the ground and tie ropes to the tops.

I like that '63-64 Fairlane in the garage too.

Thanks Brew Runner, that's my first '63. It's only a little 6 cyl car but it's a 2 door post with ~7500 miles. The other one has a tube frame, 6 point roll cage and ladder bars and is getting a big block once my garages are back together. :rockin: You can see it's bumper in the first pic.

I got a little more done yesterday.

I bought 4 10' lengths of 3/8" rebar and cut it into 2' sections for staking my landscape timbers in place (I saved $0.65/2' stake this way).



The stakes were driven through the two layers of landscape timbers using predrilled holes.

Over the weekend I got all of the timbers pinned in place. I stapled weed/root barrier to the timbers to keep it clean-looking.

Time to rototil and get them rhizomes in the ground-get back to the trellis after that.

A buddy of mine is coming through tomorrow to move some dirt from my garage into the garden bed. I'm going to have to wait until he's finished to rototill.

By way of explanation: My garage was built without scraping the top soil off first. So, I'm having to pull it out after the structure was built and before the pad is poured.

Wow! Looks good!

Alrighty, folks! Tonight is the night (if it dries out).

My buddy moved the dirt out of the garage. There's some sand mixed in from the deeper stuff in my yard, but the hops should love that. There's also some wood mixed in from an old stump (also in the garage ), so I might have to do some fertilizing to make up for the nitrogen the rotting wood will leach.



I tilled it last night but it was too dark to take a picture by the time I finished. I did get the tiller back to Home Depot in time, though.

Due to a combination of drunkenness, stubbornness and, I think, prudence my hops have not been planted yet. My back yard is quite windy and I also didn't want to be walking over them while raising the trellis, so I did that first.

It turned out to be a whole day job (10-9:10) with some longish breaks for water and/or beer. I finally got it up, but it was after dark so no pictures today.

I'd love to have a photo of my neighbors' faces tomorrow when they look out their windows and say, "WHAT THE #&@% IS THAT!!!!!"

Picture!

I had no idea how bad I would hurt this morning.

whoa, they will probably think your starting a paratrooper school or something

awesome work, it's going to look amazing full of hops

GearBeer said:

I had no idea how bad I would hurt this morning.

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How do you think I felt, I'm a little older.

jcdillin said:

whoa, they will probably think your starting a paratrooper school or something

awesome work, it's going to look amazing full of hops

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My wife's sister said she thought we were building an Olympic size sex swing.

That sir is awesome!

Henry Hill said:

How do you think I felt, I'm a little older.

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Dude, you had help.

Kyle what is the method of rope to cable?

I used 1/4" cable clamps with 1" welded rings pre-spaced on the cable (3' between ropes for the same plants). I used bowlines to attach the coir twine to the rings.

EDIT: Thanks guys!

Looks professional to me. :rockin:

Now I'm embarrassed to take a picture of my $10 hop trellis.

GearBeer said:

Picture!

I had no idea how bad I would hurt this morning.

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Sissy !

lehr said:

Sissy !

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hahahahahhaha

I didn't have a friend over. And that tractor don't climb a ladder.

Kyle, by bowline, do you mean http://www.animatedknots.com/bowlineboating/index.php

lehr said:

Sissy !

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You're just envious of my enormous trellis.

HH,

Link doesn't work.

This bowline. Simple and strong.

Does now, and my link is an animated knot.

And you better not get too headstrong about your trellis, wait until Pat can work the ground for his.

Henry Hill said:

Does now, and my link is an animated knot.

And you better not get too headstrong about your trellis, wait until Pat can work the ground for his.

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My dad was bringing the poles down yesterday and got his tractor stuck in his field...I'm going down there today with my John Deere and pull him out.
I'll post some pic's of my hop yard when I'm done.

Btw Sissy your hop yard looks nice !

Pat

Little update here.

I lost one Centennial and my Willamette is looking haggard but everything else is taking off. However, I'm a little disappointed in how slowly my hops were growing during spring, but now that the temperature is getting up they're really growing fast (I measured >1" on my Cascade in a single day). You can't see them clearly in this photo but most are in the 2-3 foot range. I'm wondering if my early starting in the basement didn't actually limit them this year.

So, is it true that the FAA is mandating that you install flashing lights at the top of those poles so planes won't crash into them?

Like this.

I'm not at liberty to discuss any ongoing litigation.

Kyle the trellis looks nice..now go mow your lawn !

Pat

Can you remove your hop tower in the winter? How do you lower them with the 4X4 bases orientated that way?

I'm considering a smaller version of your design but thinking of facing the mounting posts the other way to allow them to pivot down during the end of the season.

Ive just had a quick read and look at your post and the first thing that springs to mind is the quality of your soil. To be honest it looks terrible. You really need to get some well rotted organic material in there, and I mean bucket loads.
Excellent trellis though.