growing hops

ok i just given a lot of rizones, the thing is i rent and the landlord has landscaped the whole backyard so they will be in large pots, for a 1st year plant how tall will this plant get? I'm trying to figure out how to get climbing strings up and how tall they need to be

In big enough pots (5 gallon or bigger) they will easily reach 15 to 20+ feet. So give them as much rope/twine as you can (up to 20 feet). They will take what you give them - if 10 feet is all you can muster, give it to them.

Where I'm living now I think I can't get much higher then 10ft. Will this be an issue?

No, they will just start to produce cones when they are maxed out.

Does that mean that it will just be a smaller yield? Can they be grown on to a Pergola type structure and stay there permanently or as the plant grows over a couple years they would need a taller structure?

Smaller yeild, But with a lot of arms. You have to trim the bines dow to the crown each fall.

Hops want to grow straight up to a height of about 20 feet. If you can provide the means for them to accomplish this, you'll give them the ability to produce their maximum yield. Grow them on an incline and you'll have less than optimum yield. Grow them on a short trellis and you'll have a smaller yield along with a very hard time at harvest as the growth that would have stretched to the 20 foot mark will end up all tangled at the top of the trellis. These scenarios are all based on the assumption of the same number of shoots trained in each situation.

Totally agree!

10 feet won't be an issue. Less height/surface area for fewer cones but it won't hurt the bines. Once they top out, they will start to send out laterals (branches) and bush out. Same varieties should be placed at least 3 feet apart and different varieties a minimum of 5-6 feet apart so they don't intermingle. Once they intermingle, it is difficult to separate different varieties.

The first year I grew my hops, I grew them in pots (from rhizomes) with a nutrient rich soil. They grew up a trellis that I ordered on ebay. It was 10 feet tall. They out grew the trellis with about 8 weeks to go before harvest. If I had to do it over and start from scratch, I would probably build a 14 foot 4x4 T style vine rail. Anchor it in the ground with a cement sono-tube. Otherwise your hops will overgrow a trellis and will ask for much much more.