Ok, folks. Sort of a survey question here, but I have not had to deal with this issue before. I have a 14 ft trellis and the record warm weather here brought spring a full 3 weeks early (according to farmer friend of mine who keeps his farming almanac passed down in his family, this is the earliest spring in NE Illinois in the last 100 years or so)...
And so what, you ask? Well, some of my hops are now 3 full feet above the top wire. I have not had this issue in past years (last year was a late spring, for example) and haven't had to deal with bine going more than a foot or 2 over the wire, which is no big deal.
However, now I have 3+ foot bines flopping, snagging, trying to climb into trees, etc. So my question for those of you on shorter trellises like mine, do you clip the top of your bines to force leaf-out and side arm creation or do you just let them go and flop around? I imagine they will eventually snap here the way they whip in the wind, but as I mentioned, I have never had to deal with this to such a degree. I only have a few plants with active side arm growth going but all of them are at the top of the trellis and flopping around.
And so what, you ask? Well, some of my hops are now 3 full feet above the top wire. I have not had this issue in past years (last year was a late spring, for example) and haven't had to deal with bine going more than a foot or 2 over the wire, which is no big deal.
However, now I have 3+ foot bines flopping, snagging, trying to climb into trees, etc. So my question for those of you on shorter trellises like mine, do you clip the top of your bines to force leaf-out and side arm creation or do you just let them go and flop around? I imagine they will eventually snap here the way they whip in the wind, but as I mentioned, I have never had to deal with this to such a degree. I only have a few plants with active side arm growth going but all of them are at the top of the trellis and flopping around.