Hops Transplanting Question

[Mayday99]

A friend of mine has graciously agreed to let me transplant my hops to his property where they will get a LOT better sun.

We will be doing this in the next week or so. My mature hops have already started sprouting (numerous new bines about 1-1.5 feet). Should I trim these back prior to transplanting?

Also curious as to other's experience with transplatting. The soil they will be going into has a lot of ash in it as the area was cleared of brush by fire several years ago. I am planning on using some potting soil mixed in with the soil when I transplant.

Thanks for any advice/experiences!

 

[sickbrew]

I would personally try to keep a few of the most robust bines intact and then cut the whimpy ones off. The plat and the root structure in particular will be stressed and removing some of the new growth will allow the roots to adapt and regrow without trying to support all that vegetative growth up top, yet still provide some bonus growth on the existing bines. I don't see how cutting them all back would help since the plant will send up new ones.

cheers

 

[jfrank85]

Id probably mix in some pelletized root stimulator just to get it going and fertilize with some high P-K liquid to get the roots established.

 

[B-Hoppy]

As long as the plants are over a year or two old, I think you'll have success no matter what you do. If I remember right, the first time I moved a crown was a situation similar to yours. All paranoid about the new shoots dying and such. The problem is that with all the digging you'll most likely beat the shoots you want to save up a bit. If the crown is healthy there'll be plenty of excess shoots to take the place of the ones that don't survive the transplant. You'll set the plant back slightly because of being moved, but it's still early enough for you to have great success. By harvest time, you'll forget that it was transplanted this spring. For the soil, I normally just mix in some compost with the native soil and let it go. P and K are nutrients that help in this type of situation but if you don't have anything on hand, don't worry 'cuz these plants don't care if you spend $2 or $20 on them. Just give them something to climb on and they'll be happy!

 

[ThreeDogsNE]

The crown stores energy as carbohydrates to allow growth of the bines from those energy reserves until the leaves can provide new energy through photosynthesis. For a mature plant, we trim the number of bines in the interest of yield of cones. Moving these plants, you are cutting away roots, essentially making the crowns more immature. These crowns need to regrow roots from some energy source. Why cut away shoots that can leaf out and provide that energy? I would manage for plant growth now and let them grow. If growth is robust this year, you can alway switch to managing for cone yield and cut back some bines later.

 

[Jagdad]

Commercial growers routinely lift and replant the crown to maintain their rows. You do have to balance the leaf area with the root mass - too many leaves will transpire water more quickly than the trimmed root mass can provide.

 

[Mayday99]

Wow, what a body of knowledge!

Thank you all for the responses.

I will carefully dig out the crown, mix soil and fertilize as mentioned.

Transplant date is 5/7, so looking forward to it. Putting up a nice high pole in the middle of a sun drenched area.

I will let you all know how it goes. Interested to see how big my most healthy plant is, about 4 year old centennial that has shot up additional shoots a couple feet away from where I initially planted.