Amazing difference. Very stark contrasts. Would you say something Major changed, or does the maturity of the plant ( and the fact that you could trim it back) seem to be the biggest contributor?
I'd say plant maturity. All my plants were harvested for Rhizomes this year, so they are now mature plants. 2014 was their first year, with the exception of Nugget. You can see big differences in 2014 Nugget compared to 2014 Zeus, Cascade, and Chinook. All 2015 plants fared equally, and I think suffered from all the rain we had last year. This year, I did soil testing for the first time, and adjusted my fertilizer to try and meet the plants demands for nutrients, pH, etc. Before, I was just assuming they were getting what they needed. I found I needed to significantly boost my nitrogen source early, so I did with extra Bloodmeal. I'll need to test again soon, as it's been about a month since that application. The pH was right in range as well.
Something new that I did that I never considered before was draining my pool cover onto the plants. Before anyone loses their mind about possible chlorine poisoning, the pool cover is water tight and I tested the water to ensure no chlorine was present before using to water. Once I drained the bulk of the water, I get down to the gritty grimy leaf matter water, which I pumped onto the plants. They were slightly acidic (about 6.0) and my soil tested at slightly basic (8.0) I figured it would work out to about 7 ish, so I figured why not. I'll repeat this on coming years, as this seemed to help growth out as well, and I'm seeing no signs of disease or chlorine poisoning.
Great photos and design. Do you think the criss-crossing twines/ropes (some at very shallow angle) help the hops? Do you hook them onto the twines, or just let train by themselves? I planted my own hop garden a month or so ago, nothing as advanced as yours, but a few plants are already over 8 feet and keep climbing so I need to do something to redirect them.
Thank you for the kind words. Each plant has a 90 degree turn every 4 feet. If you try to make a "tight" turn, you will risk snapping the bine. I try to start leading the bine through the turn about 6 inches on either side of the wood post. This way, it's more of a gradual 90 degree turn and not something abrupt.
I do have to continually train each bine, as naturally they want to grow up. I take the upward growth and carefully wrap it around each line. If you have a vertical trellis, you won't have to train them after they take hold of the line. They will naturally climb vertically.
My very first year, I had a 5 foot climbing trellis, something you'd use for rose bushes, and tied lines to them leading to the roof of my house. This helped give me extra vertical room for them to grow, and they were able to train themselves more naturally. That may be a solution to your height problem.
