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For a 60' run, you should seriously consider galvanized "aircraft" cable. As others have suggested, you need to think about more than just the weight of the plants. A long row will act like a sail in the wind - applying hundreds, if not thousands of pounds of force. For 40-60' runs I have used...

Here are what ladybug eggs look like. If these appear, you know your hops are well protected.

When I look at the pic, I only see aphids - big green ones, little white one. Look close and you will see the little legs on each. Soap kills the aphids by drying out their exoskeletons. It works quite well, but there is one thing that is way more effective: Ladybugs! Earlier this year, my...

Here are a few pics from the yard.

Checked on the hopyard. They look a little beaten, but some are starting to take off. Several are already over my head. Other ones, whose main bine was damaged, have started popping out new shoots from the soil. Only 6 seemed completely dead. Another load of compost was added to help them along...

Hard to tell from the pic, but looks like Japanese hops (Humulus japonicus).

@ffaoe, 1) You really should move them to bigger pots at some point. 4" pots dry out very quickly. I've lost a few this way. You also need to consider how much the roots grow the first year. Here is a pic of the root system on one of my one-year-olds from seed...

I'd brew with gutter hops!

Not according to the USDA and Forest services: "The anchor should be installed perpendicular to the ground surface. As the angle of pull nears perpendicular to the ground, the anchor should be installed vertically. The objective is to avoid having the direction of pull in line with the...

Straight down. This gets it as deep as possible.

A single line needs to be directly in line with the top wire. Anything else will pull the post out of alignment. You could, instead, have 2 wires on each end spread apart at 45 degrees. This would be super strong, but harder to implement. I was originally going to do this, but I am glad that...

I vote for Honey Badger.

Those are the sidearms that will produce the flowers (cones).

They are *almost* always sterile. It takes a lot of trials, but I can confirm that it is, in fact, possible to breed with pollen from the female plants: http://gabriel.nagmay.com/2014/02/hop-breeding/

Third from the left and seven down. That's the winner!

Hard to tell from the pics, but don't pull them yet! I have actually grown hops from seed and want to correct some of the misinformation above: 1) hop seeds are tough and can sometimes survive a boil. 2) Sprouts from seed do not look like spears. B-hoppy just posted some hop sprout pics...

I used 3/4" x 4' auger anchors, but they can be hard to get in. Others have used "duckbill" style earth anchors. Just make sure that they can hold the tension (+2600 lbs in my case). Cement is used to make a snug fit and add a little weight. It's not going to add much support with those size...

I have all but goldings in my yard. Cascade, chinook, and nugget tend to be very vigorous. The chinook has jumped to a nearby tree and will grow 30' into it. Hood and sterling (in my experience) are less agressive. However, they still reach the top of my 17' trellis without issue.

Few more notes about guy-wires: A common angle would be 45°, but I didn't have 17' on the ends to make this happen. Mine are about 8.5 out (so 67.5°). You can calculate the tension on the guy (and ground anchor) using the following formula: force / cos(angle) = tension So, lets say there...

I have 2 - 4x6, 20' posts for my trellis. They are about 30' apart, which is enough for 8 hop plants evenly spaced. each pole is only 3' in the ground. However, I do have guy-wires running to ground anchors on each end. This is what holds the posts into the ground and keeps them from being...