2nd year hop grower - how many bines per trellis?

[rwing7486]

Hi All,

My hops are now in their second year and are starting to take off (see pics below). I plan to to tie my trellis twine and prune my hop plants this weekend and I had a couple of questions. In the wide view picture with my trellis's (from last year) you can see I had two lines per hop plant that ran up to a top of an eye hook, roughly 18 feet in length. My question is if I do the same design this year how many bines should i wrap around each line per hop plant? i.e. for 1 hop plant 2 bines per line x 2 lines for a total of 4 bines. Reason I am asking is im worried if 4 bines is too many and will affect my maximum potential yield. Would running 2 or 3 bines on one string produce a higher yield as the plant would have less bines to concentrate its energy / nurtrients on? I am wondering if people have experienced drop offs in yield after a "general" number of bines was exceeded per hop plant.


Thanks in advance for your input!

 

[brewcat]

2-4 bines per plant. So 2 per string max.

What varieties are you growing? More vigorous varieties will do fine with four bines per plant. Some of the less vigorous maybe only two bines should be used.

 

[rwing7486]

2-4 bines per plant. So 2 per string max.

What varieties are you growing? More vigorous varieties will do fine with four bines per plant. Some of the less vigorous maybe only two bines should be used.

Magnum, cascade, centennial and Chinook

 

[rwing7486]

So based on my setup ( two strings per trellis) and the 4 hops I am growing, Magnum, Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook should I play it safe and only grow one bine per string for a total of 2 bines per hop plant? Or can i grow a 3rd or potentially a 4th for certain hop varieties?

 

[sablesurfer]

So based on my setup ( two strings per trellis) and the 4 hops I am growing, Magnum, Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook should I play it safe and only grow one bine per string for a total of 2 bines per hop plant? Or can i grow a 3rd or potentially a 4th for certain hop varieties?

Fifth year on my plants and I am on the 3-4 bines per string side. Halfway up something always takes the top of one of the bines. If you only have one on a string, that is it for that bine.

There really is no perfect answer, so I would never tell you 'max' number. When people find wild hops those things can cover entire trees with dozens or hundreds of bines...and they still produce hops.

I am starting to believe that the limited number of bines per string idea is based on farms and how they need to deal with air flow to avoid disease. They have to crop down to certain number, and clear up leaves near the ground or they have problems with fungus, mold, insects. Home growers do not have that kind of plant density problem to worry about.

How I would estimate what number to train per bine...1) How many do you really want to harvest, and I mean that you can truly dry in time, use in time and enjoy the process, 2) How much watering and fertilizing will you do to maintain those bines that you want to produce since home grown hops are smaller root balls and need more attention to support more bines.

(LOL....I just remembered, I need to find a picture of the hops outside of Three Floyds brewery. Those things were a COMPLETE mess of ignored plant and there were beautiful hops all over it.)

 

[rwing7486]

Fifth year on my plants and I am on the 3-4 bines per string side. Halfway up something always takes the top of one of the bines. If you only have one on a string, that is it for that bine.

There really is no perfect answer, so I would never tell you 'max' number. When people find wild hops those things can cover entire trees with dozens or hundreds of bines...and they still produce hops.

I am starting to believe that the limited number of bines per string idea is based on farms and how they need to deal with air flow to avoid disease. They have to crop down to certain number, and clear up leaves near the ground or they have problems with fungus, mold, insects. Home growers do not have that kind of plant density problem to worry about.

How I would estimate what number to train per bine...1) How many do you really want to harvest, and I mean that you can truly dry in time, use in time and enjoy the process, 2) How much watering and fertilizing will you do to maintain those bines that you want to produce since home grown hops are smaller root balls and need more attention to support more bines.

(LOL....I just remembered, I need to find a picture of the hops outside of Three Floyds brewery. Those things were a COMPLETE mess of ignored plant and there were beautiful hops all over it.)

Ya i figured there is no perfect answer but I am just trying to gauge what other people have experienced when growing multiple bines per plant and if they saw a "fall out" in yield when they reached a certain number (based on plant species). With that said when you say you are growing 3 to 4 bines per string side do you have a similar setup to mine with two strings per hop plant? If so you are training a total of 6 to 8 bines per plant? And when you say "that is it for that bine" when growing only one bine per string do you mean i run the risk for only having that one bine not growing to the top of my trellis and am stuck with a small yield?

I have no problem harvesting multiple bines as I have plenty of space in my basement to dry the hops with a bunch of old window screens so volume is not an issue. Also I have a vacuum food saver which i plan to use to save my hops for extended period of time and I am not worried about not using them as I brew very often and have a bunch of friends that brew in which I could give them some of my hops to use. So basically what I am is saying is I am trying to go for max yield per hop plant

 

[sablesurfer]

With that said when you say you are growing 3 to 4 bines per string side do you have a similar setup to mine with two strings per hop plant? If so you are training a total of 6 to 8 bines per plant?

Yep. I have two strings for each plant and start with a total of 6-8 bines by triming out the first purple bull shoots and the weaker thin scrawny shoots. Seems to work for me. I have never had all four make to top of the string due to weather, bugs, birds, aliens(?)...

And when you say "that is it for that bine" when growing only one bine per string do you mean i run the risk for only having that one bine not growing to the top of my trellis and am stuck with a small yield?

When a bine is topped, the plant will attempt to grow side shoots. Occasionally one of mine is topped early enough in season that the side shoots manage to grow to main bines up the string. Most times they are just spindly little things that don't get very far. So if you only have one per string, and you lose one...you can only harvest the reminder one.

The reason this is an issue for me, is that majority my hops start about 2/3d's the way up the string, with most of them way up at the top. Not sure how others' hops grow.

 

[rwing7486]

Yep. I have two strings for each plant and start with a total of 6-8 bines by triming out the first purple bull shoots and the weaker thin scrawny shoots. Seems to work for me. I have never had all four make to top of the string due to weather, bugs, birds, aliens(?)...



When a bine is topped, the plant will attempt to grow side shoots. Occasionally one of mine is topped early enough in season that the side shoots manage to grow to main bines up the string. Most times they are just spindly little things that don't get very far. So if you only have one per string, and you lose one...you can only harvest the reminder one.

The reason this is an issue for me, is that majority my hops start about 2/3d's the way up the string, with most of them way up at the top. Not sure how others' hops grow.

OK - so the pictures above are 5 days old so my Magnum and Cascade now have strong shoots (green in color and are about 1.5 feet long) and the Centennial and Chinook are just now starting to produce stronger shoots - I will prune the smaller ones down this evening and start tying my twine for all 4 trellis's and will start sending up two strong bines per string for the Magnum and Cascade. I will wait for the Centennial and Chinook to have stronger and longer shoots before i start them on their climb. Does this sound like a good plan? My only worry is still if 4 bines is too much for any of these hop varieties.

 

[sablesurfer]

Does this sound like a good plan? My only worry is still if 4 bines is too much for any of these hop varieties.

Sounds like a fine plan. It will give you an idea of how the hops grow for you.

I have never heard that growth is dependent on variety, so I cannot speak to that. My issues have been regional, like that Willamette just will not produce for me ever. Gave up on it this year after giving it four growing seasons.

 

[rwing7486]

Sounds like a fine plan. It will give you an idea of how the hops grow for you.

I have never heard that growth is dependent on variety, so I cannot speak to that. My issues have been regional, like that Willamette just will not produce for me ever. Gave up on it this year after giving it four growing seasons.

Ah that sucks. Where abouts you live? Im in SE Michigan

 

[sablesurfer]

Missouri. Chinook LOVES it here, Columbus and Centennial are very happy. Cascade and Magnum do pretty well.

 

[jleiii]

I'd been running 1 bine up each string, with up to 7 per plant depending on how many shoots keep going after I prune back the first wild ones, for the last 3 years. My yield has not been great so far, but that's more related to growing conditions.
There has been plenty of extra growing room in this method, so this year I re-did my trellis with sisal twine and only nylon on the edges so I can remove the nylon and recycle the rest. This leaves me 5 'recyclable' strings, and I'm training 2 bines up each one to see how it goes.
I know a few people that don't trim anything, just letting them grow wild. They seem to do well that way too.

 

[rwing7486]

I think im going to do 4 bines total per plant, 2 per string and see what the yield is like. Thanks for the input.