My Hop Garden? - 6 Rhizomes

[Marktic]

Any advice/direction on my first hop garden?

This is my current idea anyway. I was planning on the main pole being about 16 feet or so tall. The plants themselves would be planted a little lower, and with the angle to the top of the pole, it would allow for maybe 20 feet in growing length. The rhizomes would be spaced 4 feet apart. If I used a 10 foot cross piece on the pole, the plants would then be two feet apart at the top if they stretched that high.

Does this look like it would work? I hope to plant 6 different varieties, I am curious if this setup would give enough space between the vines.

Any better ideas out there for this location?

 

[beginnerbeers]

Hey Mark, Id suggest boxing the sides to keep them seperate. I think over the years they like to wander. Might have trouble with the growth overlapping. I have mine in 3x3' boxes with 2-3' between each box.

 

[Marktic]

Thanks. So rather than a full box, would a single 2x6 in the ground between the plants be enough that they don't mingle? I will also mulch each plant. I have 5 varieties to put in the ground...Centennial, Chinook, Nugget, Willamette, and 2 Cascades. I was thinking of putting the cascades a little closer together, to give the other varieties more room. I fell a dead cedar yesterday which I will use for this project.

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

I have harvested rhizomes as deep as 9" on some bines. You might want to use something like some old metal roofing and get it down about 1 foot deep to make sure the bines will not intermingle with treated wood at the top.. I have mine set up in different rows but that is not an option for what you are doing. I also heard of a grower (customer) have problems with termites last year eating the bines because of wood in the ground attracted them. Cedar should work great for the box. Hope it helped.