Hop plant rhizome formation

Here's a pic of what rhizomes forming on a dormant hop crown look like. There seems to be some confusion out there about Hop plants, crowns, roots , rhizomes and how they all relate. A pic is worth a thousand words. These are dormant crowns - a complete hop plant with dormant buds and root system. You can see the rhizomes forming horizontally- these runner underground and periodically send up shoots. The new shoots are still attached to the mother plant via the rhizome stem. They are easy to tell from the roots because rhizomes have a budded growing tip with buds along the stem. If rhizomes are cut from the mother plant, they have to re-form a new root system and crown structure. This takes time, and is why rhizomes don't typically produce cones the first year like a hop plant with a crown and roots. Most rhizomes sold on the Internet come from annual spring hop yard cultivations that remove them to keep the mother plants trimmed and in the trellis rows. Questions?

Very interesting, thanks!

Thanks for the overview! I am looking into homegrowing next season. A friend just dropped a few rhizomes on me out of the blue and I was going to try to get them going now to hopefully get a root system going. Is this likely to increase my chances of being able to cultivate a greater amount of cones next summer?

marshallbertram said:

Thanks for the overview! I am looking into homegrowing next season. A friend just dropped a few rhizomes on me out of the blue and I was going to try to get them going now to hopefully get a root system going. Is this likely to increase my chances of being able to cultivate a greater amount of cones next summer?

Click to expand...

In Buffalo? No, that ain't gonna happen. Your area is at least as "challenged by weather and sun" as mine if not more so, and my hop plants have been slumbering for at least a few weeks already...

Cheers!

I have cascades that just finished up their first season. I was told not to take cuttings from them because the roots didn't have enough time to get established to the point where they can be cut. If i understand the original post correctly the rhizomes are different from the roots. does that mean if i see rhizomes on my plants i can cut them and replant?

Right on! Rhizomes have buds that will produce new shoots and generally grow near/along/below the soil surface. The roots don't have any vegetative buds and pretty much grow straight down. If you have some rhizomes formed already you can cut them off and replant in another location. Good luck.