" Commercial Growers "

[Hounds]

Hi all, I'm fairly new to this forum and have been growing hops here in Central New York for 5 yrs. I currently have 30 plants.

My question is for small hobby type farms or even medium scale production, how many bines to most farms let go up the lines? I used quotes on the term "commercial" because I have more hops than a hobby brewer could use but by no means a large scale production. But I want to expand next year.

I let maybe 4 go the 1st season and by the 3rd season I let only 2-3 go up. Also my holding poles are not huge, they are only 16' 4X4's and I use cable.

In terms of production, are 3 bines per cable too much? largely a matter of the variety in combination with X number of bines? I see a lot of photos with what looks like only 1 or 2 bines per line/cable.

I am getting ready to expand to around 50 plants, possibly 75.

Thanks.

 

[B-Hoppy]

I think a lot of it has to do with the method of stripping the vines. Some types of equipment will get bound up if there's too much vegetation being processed. From a home picking standpoint, too many vines per pole on some of the varieties that produce long sidearms makes it very hard to get at the hops that are formed close to the vines. Also, too many vines/pole seem to create excessive shading and those cones close to the vines don't seem to ripen properly. Just from my experience.