Second Year Hops grower - Prep advice

Hey everybody,

A buddy and I are going to be starting our second year of growing and would like to know if there are any prep methods we should be using to get the plants ready to go this spring.

We have about 120 plants now, a mix of Cascade, Centennial, and Nugget, and live in zone 5 (CT). We had good root growth last year and came out with a small harvest but expect it to increase steadily this year. It's hard to contain the excitement!

I've read that tilling the soil around each plant is a good idea but have never done so before.

Any prep advice for late winter/early spring would be great!

If this is your second year, there's really not much you're gonna have to do. All the stuff that they need should have been done already. The soil should have been analyzed and amendments made prior to planting and a bushel of compost applied on each crown before Winter. Just make sure any of the vegetative material from last year has been cleared away because that's a great place for insects and disease spores to hang out until things get going this year.

Next year you may have to thin the crowns a little - depending on how vigorous they've been growing for you but I'd just sit back and wait for things to explode this Spring. Hop On!

To add to B-Hoppy - you should see quite a bump in cone production this season.
If you haven't installed a dripper water system yet, you should consider it. The system can be easily automated by using a simple lawn irrigation controller. Each "Zone" becomes a row. Pre-emergent weed control is a good idea - applying Preen after a shallow cultivation will give you a good head start on weed control. Also, apply your fertilizers before the plants the plants need them. Don't apply granular fertilizer over the crowns- always sidedress. And if you want your harvest to come in all at the same time, trim any early shoots so they start climbing together.
There is a great fertilization guide and other growing guides that can be found at our Facebook site - Look under "Docs" (documents). Have a great season!

GLH:

Great advice

Yes, great advice and I appreciate it!

We had some premature sprouting last week. Is it too early to let 'em grow and pray the winter is going to take 2012 off?!

I'm going to seriously look into the drip system. I wouldn't imagine it would be too difficult to make and install. We're hoping to get upwards of 200 lbs of hops this season and the drip system would be a great boost to that number.

Thanks again!

My 2nd year and their growing great but have all these wayward tendrils all over. Do they need to be trimmed back?

One of my second years has stopped growing at about 5 feet on the main vines and the bottoms have a dozen or so 2 foot long side shoots. Would trimming this side shoots that are About 6 inches off the ground be a good idea?