I decided to share my hopyard build here because the only people I've shared it with are SWMBO who's level of enthusiasm about it topped out at saying "don't hurt your back lifting that." "And you better not come in the house with those muddy clothes." And friends that enjoy good beer but are mostly more concerned with drinking it than creating it.
So here I go...
We sold our starter house that was in the middle of a subdivision with barely enough room for a single row of hops on the south facing sideyard and bought an old Farmhouse with 2/3 of an acre lot last summer.
About 2/3 of that lot was backyard so I had grand plans on a mini hop farm but on the west side of the yard was a huge walnut tree which I discovered shades most of the yard for the afternoon-evening. In addition to that problem the whole outside of the yard is surrounded by fruit trees. Both of which are great problems to have but not ideal when trying to grow hops.
I wanted to grow a decent variety and settled on 4: Chinook, Cascade, Willamette and Mt Hood. I had grown Cascade and Chinook at the old house and love them for my IPAs. With spacing requirements this would require 24+ feet of width in addition to at least 6 feet of length (for 2 mounds of each kind) Given the layout of my yard the only way to get these things enough sun would be to stick rows right down the middle of my lawn. I have 2 toddler boys and really did not want to rob them of the play room so that wouldn't work.
I searched for ideas through the late summer and in to early winter before finding this thread http://byo.com/mead/item/1870-hop-trellis-projects. I thought a square would be a perfect solution for my situation. I'm not much of a metal worker so I changed the design to use wood.
My plan was to use a 20ft (buried 4ft and cemented in for a total grow height of 16ft) 4x4 for the main post and use 5ft long 2x4s for the arms. The 5ft arms would each have a different variety running up to them. I used my limited math skills and a handy online calculator to figure out that the 5ft length would put each strain 6.2 feet apart. I put eyelets in the end of each arm and plan on running sisal rope from the ground 1.5ft from the arm through the eyelet and back down the other side to 1.5ft away from the arm again giving the 2 rhizomes 3ft of spacing. I had no idea how hard it was to find a 20ft long post but finally sourced one from a local commercial building supply company that even delivered it for me. Btw it wound up being a 6x6 which is WAY heavier than a 4x4.
My plan of getting a 16ft grow height was thwarted by 2 factors. First I found out the hard way that my multi-use ladder only extends to 10 feet and gives me a total reach of about 13-14 feet. Second was that I hit bedrock or some other impenetrable layer of large rocks at about 32 inches in the ground. My solution was to cut 4 feet off the post and dig the hole wider to get more concrete for stability.
Currently I'm mid-project. The arms are all attached and the hole is dug. I'm waiting on some decent weather and some help from a friend to get it vertical and braced so it stands while the cement cures. I don't have many pics of the project because documenting it was kind of an after thought. I'll post more as the project progresses and will report back on how the first year's harvest goes.
A word of caution for anybody that wants to try this. According to estimates of pressure treated wood the total weight of this contraption is about 160 lbs so make sure you're prepared for heavy lifting and have help from friends or equipment.
Anyways... Sorry for the long-winded story. Thanks for taking the time to read it and here are the pics so far.
View attachment 1489114720107.jpg
View attachment 1489114739735.jpg
View attachment 1489114767995.jpg
So here I go...
We sold our starter house that was in the middle of a subdivision with barely enough room for a single row of hops on the south facing sideyard and bought an old Farmhouse with 2/3 of an acre lot last summer.
About 2/3 of that lot was backyard so I had grand plans on a mini hop farm but on the west side of the yard was a huge walnut tree which I discovered shades most of the yard for the afternoon-evening. In addition to that problem the whole outside of the yard is surrounded by fruit trees. Both of which are great problems to have but not ideal when trying to grow hops.
I wanted to grow a decent variety and settled on 4: Chinook, Cascade, Willamette and Mt Hood. I had grown Cascade and Chinook at the old house and love them for my IPAs. With spacing requirements this would require 24+ feet of width in addition to at least 6 feet of length (for 2 mounds of each kind) Given the layout of my yard the only way to get these things enough sun would be to stick rows right down the middle of my lawn. I have 2 toddler boys and really did not want to rob them of the play room so that wouldn't work.
I searched for ideas through the late summer and in to early winter before finding this thread http://byo.com/mead/item/1870-hop-trellis-projects. I thought a square would be a perfect solution for my situation. I'm not much of a metal worker so I changed the design to use wood.
My plan was to use a 20ft (buried 4ft and cemented in for a total grow height of 16ft) 4x4 for the main post and use 5ft long 2x4s for the arms. The 5ft arms would each have a different variety running up to them. I used my limited math skills and a handy online calculator to figure out that the 5ft length would put each strain 6.2 feet apart. I put eyelets in the end of each arm and plan on running sisal rope from the ground 1.5ft from the arm through the eyelet and back down the other side to 1.5ft away from the arm again giving the 2 rhizomes 3ft of spacing. I had no idea how hard it was to find a 20ft long post but finally sourced one from a local commercial building supply company that even delivered it for me. Btw it wound up being a 6x6 which is WAY heavier than a 4x4.
My plan of getting a 16ft grow height was thwarted by 2 factors. First I found out the hard way that my multi-use ladder only extends to 10 feet and gives me a total reach of about 13-14 feet. Second was that I hit bedrock or some other impenetrable layer of large rocks at about 32 inches in the ground. My solution was to cut 4 feet off the post and dig the hole wider to get more concrete for stability.
Currently I'm mid-project. The arms are all attached and the hole is dug. I'm waiting on some decent weather and some help from a friend to get it vertical and braced so it stands while the cement cures. I don't have many pics of the project because documenting it was kind of an after thought. I'll post more as the project progresses and will report back on how the first year's harvest goes.
A word of caution for anybody that wants to try this. According to estimates of pressure treated wood the total weight of this contraption is about 160 lbs so make sure you're prepared for heavy lifting and have help from friends or equipment.
Anyways... Sorry for the long-winded story. Thanks for taking the time to read it and here are the pics so far.
View attachment 1489114720107.jpg
View attachment 1489114739735.jpg
View attachment 1489114767995.jpg
