Potted Hops/Limited Space

so i would love to grow my own hops but i dont have a yard suitable. Is it possible to grow them in a small space? I was thinking trying to train them by slowly placing the vine around a metal framework(such as a tomato type metal stand)....any idea if this would work? or even how to keep it in check. If i can keep the vines from going horizontally i can grow them on a wall i have on the side of the house, but without putting up an arbor there is only 5 feet of vertical space.

ANY IDEAS????

Hop bines naturally grow straight up, not sideways. If you have a space you can dedicate four square feet of growing room and at least 15' straight up, you should be able to do it.

The tomato fencing idea will work OK, but you will cry and cry when it's time for harvest and you spend hours picking the bines out from the metal framework. It's easier to just do a string, or an arbor with large holes.

Find a tall pole of some sort, that is stiff and won't bend under some weight. Attach a heavy twine to the top and run down to a LARGE pot a couple of feet away. Should be good enough to do the job. When it's time to harvest, it will be easier to get the flowers than pulling them out of the mesh.

Homercidal said:

Find a tall pole of some sort, that is stiff and won't bend under some weight. Attach a heavy twine to the top and run down to a LARGE pot a couple of feet away. Should be good enough to do the job. When it's time to harvest, it will be easier to get the flowers than pulling them out of the mesh.

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how short do you think i can make the tower? Im aware that the longer the vine the more hops it will yield but all i want is a few ounces....whats the minimal size you think i can get away with?

Ten feet tall, and that's only for the first year. They will get bigger next year. Anything shorter than that and you will have major problems with it overrunning its space. It's not that giving it more space encourages it to grow more, it will grow as big as it wants to regardless and you need to give it room. Hop bines are not to be taunted.

Ooooh here's an idea! You could consider is planting three or four small posts in a triangle or square, then spiral a string around the outsides of them. Then when the hop bines start to grow, train them along the string and they'll grow as long as they want, but not as tall. You would have to train them to go around the string every day, but it could work. When I grew hops last year, they went up to the eaves which were 8' tall, then across string that went over the driveway. I had to train them to go sideways almost every day, but it's worth it.


Here's kinda what I mean (please excuse the crudity of this model, I didn't have to put it to scale or to paint it)

You could do a 10' run up, then go horizontal. I've seen pics of that. I do like the spiral method though! Sorry to say, a good hop plant will be 15-20' tall. There is a dwarf version that I've read about, you might consider that.

if only someone created a bonzai tree out of hops.....damnit. I like the spiral idea. Idealy the more i spaced the 4 postas apart the longer i could make the vine and the shorter the height would have to be.

When you say "train them" you are reffering to re-wrapping them around the twine every day?

Right, training them means re-wrapping them around the twine every day. Summit hops do come in dwarf varieties, but are a very high AA hop and mainly used for bittering oils for big breweries. They do make a delicious IPA though.

How long can you leave hop plants inside a clay pot? Just wondering, since I have a few rhizomes but I certainly do not plan on staying at my apartment for 5 years. Ideally, I would plant them, then the next time I go to my parent's house i'll plant them permanently there.

Check out Basic Brew Radio they did a topic on this. http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=radio


Here is the direct link:
April 24, 2008 - Homegrown Hops Revisited
Chris Colby, editor of Brew Your Own magazine, answers questions from listeners about growing hops in containers and other home growing issues.
http://cdn4.libsyn.com/basicbrewing/bbr04-24-08homegrown.mp3

I am limited on space right now as well, my hops are in large pots and I am training them onto tomato cages to limit the height a little for now. One bine is about 1/2 way around the first ring on the cage. I just have to wrap it every few days to keep it going. I will try to post a pic later. It is definitely doable though.

Aforementioned pic

very cool. This is more o the point of what i was thinking. I just planted them on a rope tied to a tree. Its doesnt have the height i wanted but hopefully it will work. How long did it take yours to break ground?

clemson55 said:

Aforementioned pic

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I have been thinking about how to accomplish this on my apartment balcony for a while, and here is what I came up with: