that's a bummer, man

I have a second year centennial that has been growing nicely since April 1st. I am training the two strongest bines up twine to a T shaped structure. Today, I noticed the tip of the biggest vine was limp. Closer, I saw that the bine had been cut about six inches down from the top. Not a clean, blade-like cut, but complete none-the-less. Also, on the same bine but about halfway up, right above a node is a two inch split, running lengthwise. It doesn't seem to be harming the bine, it is otherwise healthy and vigorous. Could it be from training them incorrectly around the twine? Also, now that the main bine has been severed, what shall I do? It is about 4.5 ft long at this time. Any similar experiences? There is nothing feeding on the plant, could wind have done this?

I had the wind grab one of my N.Brewer bines last year and snapped the main root, it never came up this year. I dug it up and planted a Horizon instead.

What kind of twine are you using? I just *almost* had a similar experience with my setup. What I found is when the twine (I'm using sisal) gets wet, it contracts and if a bine is tightly wrapped around the twine it can get pulled at both ends and snap. Fortunately mine didn't get quite to that point, but it did stretch the base of the bine pretty tight. I think that's what probably happened to your hop.

Sorry to hear it, but maybe this will help prevent it in the future. What I do now is try to create small outward loops rather than wrapping the hop snugly against the twine. This should give it some stretching room and prevent breaking.

7Enigma said:

What I found is when the twine (I'm using sisal) gets wet, it contracts and if a bine is tightly wrapped around the twine it can get pulled at both ends and snap.

Click to expand...

Aaaargh! WTF?! I thought sisal was the recommended material to use for guiding bines?

Thanks for posting. Sounds like something that we need to be aware of.

Someone recommended it to me and it looked great when I got it from Home Depot. Was pretty cheap, easy to install, and it held the bines great, but it definitely flexes when exposed to water. I don't know if its something that will need to work its way out (say after 3-4 wet/dry cycles it won't do it quite as bad) or whether this is something that will keep happening. I've thought of some spring setup where it would keep the line from being too loose, but allow some give when it gets wet but it would be difficult to get the proper spring and have it worth every time. For right now I'm keeping an eye on the bines, but I might have to change the setup eventually.

thanks enigma that sounds all too possible, we just had many days of rain. I'm not positive of the twine type, natural fiber and definitely the type that contracts when wet. Today, I cut the damaged bine to the ground, and began training a back-up bine that I had off to the side. I wrapped it looser than before to prevent further breaking. The other bine on the twine(ha) is not as tight, so it should be good. Thanks again everyone appreciate it!