Hop'speriment 2015

I'm using an appropriated clothesline, inspired by an old article I read years ago. Length between poles is 50ft and the poles themselves are 7ft high. They were installed something like 25 years ago and haven't been regularly used in about 20 years. They certainly seem strong enough to hold hops.

Beds are something like 4 square feet by 10" H and filled with my homebrew tomato soil (really good stuff). The native soil is fertile and filled with earthworms but it's clay dominate so I figured I'd give the rhizomes a good start with beds and let their feeder roots run down into the clayish stuff once they're established.

Hops are Northern Brewer and Centennial, in the left and right beds respectively when looking at the wide shots. Originally intended Nugget instead of NB but my LHBS had some sort of miscommunication with their supplier. Doesn't matter to me as Norther Brewer seems interesting. The bed it's in should get some dappled shade during the hottest parts of the day, so I think it'll all work out for the best.

In the middle there's a plant that's kinda hard to see in the pics. It's a Glen Coe purple raspberry. My best recipe is a Chocolate Raspberry Stout that people still request so imma try and make my own fruit puree this time around. Have another small raspberry bed in another location I might take some snaps of as the season progresses.

Wish me luck!



Centennial ^^



Northern Brewer ^^

You have plenty of room to grow them, but... It is not high enough. In less than 2 weeks, they will have reach the top. You can grow them horizontally, but it's more work.

Take a look at this thread.

According to the Pythagorean theorem diagonal lines run from the beds to the tops of the poles will be approximately 21 feet. I do realize hop bines can grow to 30 feet. I'm guessing if they do reach maximum length they will spill over a bit but never touch the ground.

I'm going to play it out over a season or two and see what happens. If I have to make the poles taller I can without much trouble...but with 21 feet of growth before they reach the poles I don't think they'll outgrow it in less than two weeks?

Yeah, but Pythagoras was not growing hops ! The angle is not steep enough for the hops to climb naturally. You will see...

Have fun !

Pelikan said:

According to the Pythagorean theorem diagonal lines run from the beds to the tops of the poles will be approximately 21 feet. I do realize hop bines can grow to 30 feet. I'm guessing if they do reach maximum length they will spill over a bit but never touch the ground.

I'm going to play it out over a season or two and see what happens. If I have to make the poles taller I can without much trouble...but with 21 feet of growth before they reach the poles I don't think they'll outgrow it in less than two weeks?

Click to expand...

Are you growing diagonally from the beds to the poles, then run the hops down the clothesline towards the crown (making a 45° angle)? That can be your additional length you need to allow for 30+ feet of growth. You may want to support in the middle of the clothesline though, as these guys can get heavy in July and August.

Btw, diagonals do work, it's just more work. You'll have to train them daily.

thaymond said:

Are you growing diagonally from the beds to the poles, then run the hops down the clothesline towards the crown (making a 45° angle)? That can be your additional length you need to allow for 30+ feet of growth. You may want to support in the middle of the clothesline though, as these guys can get heavy in July and August.

Btw, diagonals do work, it's just more work. You'll have to train them daily.

Click to expand...

Originally I was going to remove the clotheslines and grow diagonally to the poles. Then I thought vertically to the clothesline and then toward the poles. Hadn't even considered diagonal to the poles then horizontal across.

Decisions, decisions...

The clothesline is actually insulated metal wire so they probably can go without support. And don't mind training if required. The way I grow my tomatoes requires quite a bit of training and upkeep so I'm used to it.

Thanks for the feedback guys, very valuable!

PS: Perfect response DarkCoder! I LoLed!!

Pelikan said:

I'm going to play it out over a season or two and see what happens. If I have to make the poles taller I can without much trouble...but with 21 feet of growth before they reach the poles I don't think they'll outgrow it in less than two weeks?

Click to expand...

I said less than 2 weeks if you were to grow them vertically up to the clothesline... 7 feet is a short ride for hops. Then it would be manual training horizontally on the clothesline. Or if you go diagonally, like Thaymond said, it will be manual training all the way because the angle is too steep. Your hops will definitely grow either way, it's just that you will have to work a little bit harder.

Update:



^^Centennial 5/7



^^Northern Brewer 5/7

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^^Centennial 5/14



^^Northern Brewer 5/14

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Centennial's taking off pretty good. Northern Brewer is still kind of puttering along but seems to be digging in. I think this is due to rhizome size; the centennial was close to an inch in diameter while the NB was pencil-thin...

Rigged up lines after I snapped the last pics. Figured if I have to train no matter what I might as well keep it simple, so ran sisal twine vertically from the beds to the existing clothes line.

Will try to post updates every few weeks. Going well so far! :fro:

^^Centennial 5/21




^^Northern Brewer 5/21




^^Glen Coe Purple Raspberry 5/21


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^^Centennial 5/28




^^Northern Brewer 5/28


So Centennial already has four bines growing up the ropes plus four more on their way. Pretty lot of greenage there...almost wondering if I should hack off some of the smaller bines getting started as they're side shoots.

Northern Brewer's going at its own relaxed pace, but looks healthy. The first primary bine made it to the rope and is now climbing. The plant is putting off a second bine which is good, as I just assumed by this point it would not grow any additional shoots.

Good stuff :rockin: