Moving houses - how to move established plants?

[Psych]

I've got a four year old Nugget that has a gigantic crown and four second year plants that I need to move to a new house at the end of June this year. The plants are already doing well, Nugget is some 7 feet high on the twine, and the others are between 1-3 feet up already.

How best should this be done? Can I just carefully dig a circle around each plant and get as much of the crown as possible, coil up the bines and try to move them in a single day?

Any precautions I should be taking? I don't want to lose the plants, but it wouldn't be the worst thing if they didn't get a good production year in, technically. I'm still flush with hops from last year

Thanks guys!

 

[beerdrinker]

Maybe when you did it up get yourself a few cuttings as well as the crown, that way you can grow a few backup plant's.

 

[Hoppity]

If you have 7' growth now, there's no way you're moving them in late June without serious damage to the yield for the year. You could just leave them and return for Harvest, then move them. Otherwise, I would cut them back until you move them.

 

[ffaoe]

Psych, what are the circumstances of your move? Are you selling your home and not going to have access to the plants after June? Or will you be able to process your harvest and dig up your crowns once they go dormant?

 

[Psych]

Wow I forgot about this thread, yikes...

Ya selling our home, won't have access to the plants after June unless they come with us. And harvest here has always been in September, by June they're still growing, no flowers even.

I'm at around 12 feet of growth on the 4th year plant now, just kinda letting it fall over itself past that 12 foot mark cause I don't want it to grow like a weed...

I definitely accept I'll lose all yield for this year, and that's fine, I've got more than enough from last year's crop still.

 

[beerdrinker]

Any chance you'd be able to get them in the ground at the new location early?

 

[DarkCoder]

Dig your crown, keep at least 1 foot long roots (cut the rest), keep 2 or 3 bines with 2 or 3 nodes with healthy leaves (cut the rest). Try to keep a lot of those thicker roots, they are food reserve for the plant. Put the crown in big pots or bucket (with holes to drain water) and cover with soil. Keep the soil humid and keep the pot outdoor in the shade. No sun during the day. Do this a few days before you move and replant as soon as you can. Try to protect your plant from the sun for the first 2 weeks after replanting, it will give time to the plant to reestablish some rootlets. Sidearms will start to grow at the nodes level, keep only 1 vigourous sidearm from each bine and train it like a new bine.

Hops are hard to kill.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

 

[kh54s10]

I would dig them up with the biggest root ball that you can transport. If big enough it would be like they were still in place. If you handle the bine carefully enough they should survive. Transport them quickly and get them back in the ground asap. Covering them from the sun for a couple of days is probably a good idea.

Be advised that I have never done this. I just think that if you don't disturb too much of the root system they should do fine.

 

[Psych]

Good info guys, thanks! Unfortunately I won't have rights to dig on the property until the day before move day, so the window is pretty small.

We'll see how it goes, fortunately the newer plants are pretty small still so at the least they should be a fairly easy dig and move. The big one though, whooo boy. I'm sure it's going to leave a mess of rhizomes behind for the new owner of our house, haha, enjoy!

 

[DurtyChemist]

You better have EVERYTHING packed or hire movers if you have 1 day to dig what you want for plants. There are some great suggestions here and you have a couple options from leaving them to cutting some bines and starting over. I'd be interested to see what you can do.

I am surprised you can't dig in your house during the sale. I would rip them out once the offer is 100% going to go through and put them in pots unless the buyer specifically stated they wanted to keep the hops because they homebrew.

 

[Psych]

Oh I can definitely dig them up right now if I wanted to, but I'm moving in a month and a half so not sure if there's a point to doing so at this time. I can't actually plant them at the new place until end of June.

I may think more about the whole 'move to a pot' idea, the ground at the new house may have more acidic soil from pine trees and such. Then I could dig and put them in pots soon, let them get adjusted and move whenever I need to.