Simple Hop Trellis Photos

I picked up two Cascade rhizome earlier in the year but because our winter here in Minnesota never ended (and me being fairly lazy) I just got around to building my hop trellis and planting them. Fingers crossed that all that time they spent in my fridge didn't kill them off.

Thought I'd share some photos.

Materials:
1 - 16' 4x4 pressured treated
2 - 10' 2x4 pressure treated
1 - 12' 2x10 pressure treated
8 - 3/8x3" lag screws
Handful deck screws
6 - eye bolts
2 - carabiners clasps
1 - 50 foot length of 1/4" sisal

Looks great! I love the Craftsman-style chamfer on the cross beams. Something very classic about it.

Questions:

How many plants will this support?

What sort of yield will these hop plants have?

You guys posting make hop farming seem so simple even a "black thumb" like me could do it. So...what's the catch?

BTW I want to see more pics as the plants start growing.

Nice looking! How deep is that 4x4? Did you use concrete to secure it?

Also wondering the depth and how many rhizomes you have there. I think the original post said 2 but I'd be interested to know. Sweet setup

Thanks for the responses guys. I'm definitely counting on the old adage that hops grow like weeds cause I most definitely not a green thumb I'm hoping a little bit of water, lots of sunlight and just a little tending no my part will do the trick.

ianw58 said:

How many plants will this support?

What sort of yield will these hop plants have?

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As to how many it will support I could see it realistically supporting up to four but for now I just went with two rhizomes. Both Cascade. Figure to see how it goes. As to the yield your guess is as good as mine

sok454 said:

Nice looking! How deep is that 4x4? Did you use concrete to secure it?

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bigmike99 said:

Also wondering the depth and how many rhizomes you have there. I think the original post said 2 but I'd be interested to know. Sweet setup

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I put the post 2.5 feet into the ground. I did pour a small base of quikrete cement at the bottom but am relying mostly on the heavy clay that we live on to do most of the support. If it falls over I guess I'll try again

I'll update this thread as the summer continues on to see how things go!

Subscribed...no time this year, but next summer I'd like to try my hand a hops...

If you have any notes or pictures from construction to share that would be awesome!!

Looks good.

But i have to ask, why not just go the easy route and string twine up to some eye bolts screwed into your eaves there and get the extra 4-5 feet of height and not have to ever build anything?

FuzzeWuzze said:

Looks good.

But i have to ask, why not just go the easy route and string twine up to some eye bolts screwed into your eaves there and get the extra 4-5 feet of height and not have to ever build anything?

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Where is the fun in that?

It has been almost two months since I built my trellis and planted my hops. I thought I'd take some new photos to show the progress.

First thing that really surprised me is the amount of twisting that the 4x4 post did.



The base of the post is still square to my house but the top half is twisted almost like a plant looking for the sun.



For awhile I thought that one of my rhizomes had sat in the fridge to long and had died off. The one that did pop up right away and has been growing pretty steadily. I'd say it is about seven feet tall now.






That said I was pleasantly surprised when my second bud popped out of the dirt and is now starting to make its way to the rope.



Onward and upward!

Got some hop cones budding


The one rhizome continues to grow, the second being much more the slow grower.

Found this thread while looking for a small, basic home trellis design - definitely like the look of what you built.

Any updates from the 2014 growing season?

Snowden said:

Found this thread while looking for a small, basic home trellis design - definitely like the look of what you built.

Any updates from the 2014 growing season?

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2014 is off to a good start. The rhizome I planted on the right side is again the front runner and just leaped out of the ground growing multiple inches in a day. The left hop is more in line with what the right one did the first year.

I chose to prune the right side down to three of the strongest chutes and let the left one go wild to get a better root system.

As to the Trellis itself it held up fine to many a high wind and storm. The one odd thing about it is my main post twisted heavily on its own. As you can see from the picture (taken at the end of May) the top is longer parallel to the house. Not too big of deal outside the aesthetics of it.



The white pvc used to hold a hose pointed down at the dirt. Now I have a cheap small sprinkler (yellow thing). I have it on a timer to water it for 2 minutes a day. I should also note I got rid of the two 2x4s that I had at the base and now just have eyelets threaded directly into the outer planter box and the string tied to those.

Very cool. That twisting 4x4 is definitely weird!

How much yield do you expect off of these two this year?


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Snowden said:

Very cool. That twisting 4x4 is definitely weird!

How much yield do you expect off of these two this year?


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Just saw this reply. Here is what one of the plants yielded:



That is the equivalent of one five gallon bucket full.