Hops as a functional feature?

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Hi guys, here is a picture of my pub, now i want to add a bit of green to the facade, what I was thinking was three potted hop vines growing straight up the three columns in the brick work in the middle, one either side of the front door and another on right on other side of window to make it symmetrical, I figured large tall pots with one or two wires to train them to going all the way up to the gutters, has sun all day and have access to cascade crowns in a couple of weeks. I'm
In Tasmania so I know they do well here Firstly how big should the pots be? How high will they grow? But probably most
Importantly will it work in pots? and in first season how much growth can I expect?

Thanks


She doesn't seem to understand, I really, really, like beer...

Oh, and my intention is too at some stage turn the place into a brew pub and try and use the pubs hops, lots of paper work and money to be thrown at it first though sadly.


She doesn't seem to understand, I really, really, like beer...

Cool place! Wine barrels would serve you well. Train the 3 strongest bines to your twine. 1st year should climb about 15-25'. They'll reach the top gutter by year two.

The bigger the pot, the better. Literally as big as you can bare to place in those spots. Half a wine barrel would be minimum if you want them to grow well.

While robust, hops are not as resilient or persistent as climbing ivy that attaches itself to buildings. One drunken vandal could kill a plant with a snip or two. Make sure you know your neighborhood.

Bobby is right about largest available footprint/soil mass. A 1/2 barrel would probably get root-bound if the roots weren't trimmed year over year.

Great thanks everyone, I was thinking about barrels but not sure what the council will think. Also should I just use one crown per pot or two or more? And maybe a silly question but for how many months +- per year will the plant be green? Had also wondered about the vandal thing, but we in a small country town pretty quiet here and a lot of local pride, not going to let that stop me. Also home grown cascade or should I say cascade in general? I've made hundreds of liters of home brew but never used it, just what I've been offered, I have about 2kg in my freezer at the moment wiring for a brew day, doing an ipa tomorrow from te same guy that I an get crowns from, what do you think, fairly versatile? I like ales and ipa also make a fair bit of stout.


She doesn't seem to understand, I really, really, like beer...

There's growers on here that grow in Rubbermaid tubs with great success. I started with potted plants and moved to a ground location. I think since you're thinking of this in a functional way, you'd want to have cut half-barrels as planters. If you're maintaining the plants through weeding and root rhizome maintenance (after year 1 and 2) the half barrel should be enough. After a number of years, since the roots will become root bound, you may want to split the crown or start new plants.

Edit: I was typing as we were entering church, so I submitted early.

It would be awesome to see this using several half barrels in front of your facade, and running lines to the barrels from to eyelets on the roof of the 2nd floor. It would certainly be a conversation piece inside the bar, especially if you use your havest in a house brew. If not, placing bowls of freshly harvested fragrant hop cones would be interesting. You could even make a hop wreath with the bines and cones. Since they're a huge part of the brewing process and help give character to beer, having these elements out for customers would spark further interest and conversation.

The growing season in the Northern Hemisphere is primarily between April and September, with the bulk of growth in May/June/July, flowers in July and August, and harvest in early September. Growing seasons extend earlier in spring further into the fall/winter months the closer one is to the equator. The green season is really from May to August here in Illinois, and it's barren from harvest time to April. Not sure what the Tasmanian growing season would equate to, but it's a good 4-5 months of growth.

Well I got my ryzomes today and have planted into small pots ti get them started, two columbus and three cascade, so wish me luck. Still looking for right pots gor the front of pub, but still have some time up my sleeve.


She doesn't seem to understand, I really, really, like beer...