i've read the forum for a year or so but this is my first post. i'm not a hop farmer but have a degree in agronomy (ohio st. 1982 or sometime around there) and acquired my first wild hops while working in upstate ny in 1985, about the same time i switched from fruit wines to homebrewing beer. a few years later, a fellow in madison county gave me some roots which he said were cuttings from plants utilized in the first commercial hop yard in upstate ny back in the 1800's. one was called canadian redvine which i had never heard of. 1993, dave from freshops invited me out to oregon to attend the OBF and check out his operation. he didn't know anything about redvines and suggested i head down to the hop farm at OSU and speak with dr. al haunold. al told me they were, at one time, one of the major varieties grown in the pnw but were rogued out and replaced by a new variety. he grew a few of the roots i donated and confirmed (oil analysis) that they in fact were redvines.
these are one of the most vigorously invasive varieties i have have ever dealt with, not that having grown 20 or so varieties makes me an expert. the problem of planting a rhizome horizontally is that the ring of buds on the rhizome, when viewed from above a vertically oriented root, radiate out like the spokes from a bicycle wheel. when that root is layed on it's side (horizontally), some of the new shoots will pop right out of the ground while others will meander downward through the soil until they realize something is wrong (hops are not real smart organisms) and then begin to turn upwards toward the daylight. in the process, they may grow a few feet (yards) underground before they poke through the ground. now, the entire length of the new rhizome (the underground part that is now a few feet long) has rings of buds at intervals along it's entire length that will continue this cycle year after year potentially coming up further and further away from the main crown. if you were a hop farmer, cultivating thousands of hills on a yearly basis, imagine the mess you would have to deal with when spring pruning comes around. a hop farmer would want to plant his roots vertically. if you were someone who propagates rhizomes for a living, horizontally may be a better option for you as you would promote additional rhizome growth throughout the growing season for next year's harvest.
sorry about being so long winded but some topics, depending on how they are worded, need either additional information or some type of clarification as to the exact point that's trying to be made. politicians are masters at this technique. so i don't think there is any right or wrong way to plant them, it all has to do with your personal situation. i just find that the yearly maintenance is much easier for me by vertical orientation.
