Advice on what to do with second year hops

[Calder]

Trying to figure out what I should be doing with my second year plants. Hoping to get some advice.

1) Should I be cutting back the first growth.
- How high do I let the first growth go before cutting it back?
- I have 30+ shoots coming from one of my plants, do I cut all of them back?
- How do I decide what should be cut back?

2) How many shoots should I let grow, and how do I select the best ones?


My longest shoot so far is about 6 inches (as of 2 days ago - not checked since). And many of the plants have multiple shoots, one plant I counted in excess of 30.


Unless I get advice to do different, this is what I plan to do:

- Let the first shoots grow to about 2 feet and then pinch out the top (so the leaves can help feed the plant). Probably about the 4 most aggressive shoots.

- Take the next 4 healthiest shoots as the ones I want to grow (probably the tallest/thickest ones).

- Cut all others back to ground level.

 

[rupert130]

Go to basic brewing radio online and listen to a recent episode titled Springtime Hops. Lots of good advice on there

 

[day_trippr]

What I've been doing each Spring:

- pull back mulch, clean up the crown and pull up and cut off all runners.
- let all the eventual sprouts grow to between 6" and a foot.
- chop everything back to the crown.
- even more shoots will pop up, let 'em all grow to 6" and a foot, pick the best looking four, cut everything else back to the crown.
- train the Chosen Ones and keep chopping back the upstarts.

Pinching the tops of shoots probably doesn't help much if at all wrt "food".
Early in the Spring the plants are using the easily available carbs they stored the previous Fall...

Cheers!

 

[Troutchaser]

im glad you posted this. I had the exact same questions. I also have lots of shoots coming up and wasn't sure what to do.