Pruning Bines?

So all of my hops are trained and at least 4 feet tall. All of them are putting off a lot of growth (long side arms) up the first couple feet. When do you normally trim up the hop bines? I have heard that doing this helps with top growth and good cone production. I am referring to hop bines that are at a min of 5 years old and have been let to go wild these previous years. I dug them up and trans planted them this year.

 

When there's many bines coming out of the ground, trim off all but four of the biggest ones to the ground. That will promote cone growth in the remaining bines. And let the sidearms do their thing. That's where the hops grow out of!

 

+1 I also keep the bottom couple feet free of growth, so the plant gets plenty of air circulation. I also prune some of the larger leaves, as they grow along the sisal rope I have secured to a privacy fence.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/data/1/medium/4th_year_Nugget.JPG

I usually let the plant grow for a while before starting the leaf pruning. The new growth bines I will pull out as they come up, putting all the growing power into the main bines that are trained on the rope.

 

I don't trim until the bines are 6' or so. I like to keep the bottom 2-3 feet clear.

 

Thanks guys! So I guess there's no real timing on pruning , just do it at your leisure. I will let these guys get a little taller and prune as needed. When you prune, do you usually take lower leaves and side arms or just the leaves? I ask this because I have side arms that are like ground cover right now...going everywhere!

 

The main reason to prune is to eliminate moisture trapping & bug-hiding-places, so I take the side arms off as well. With just the main bines exposed, I can get at the weeds easily.

 

I've been pulling out the new growth that happens like 10" away from the main sprout and just shoving it into a pot of dirt. They seem to be surviving on their own. This seems to be a decent way of propagating without waiting for the next season. I don't expect any production on these first year, but still..

 

Bobby , your side arms are rooting? How exactly are you going about this?

 

I'd like to know as well. I tried planting a few pruned side-arms - for a week or so it looked like they were taking, but then they all eventually went limp and died. Maybe using some rooting powder would have helped.

 

I think the key to getting the side-arms to propagate is in this statement.

He's not snipping them off at the ground, he's pulling up some of the root with them, at least that's how I read it.