First timer growing hops looking for design ideas & tips

[snarf7]

This will be my first foray into growing hops, I've done my research and I think I have a pretty good overall plan, but I'm looking for some of the intangibles, the little tricks of the trade or gotchas you guys have learned that have helped you and improved your overall design.

My chosen spot is a SE facing pasture up against a barn wall. My thought was to run a cable the length of the barn wall so I have something to attach the ropes to and then run those down at an angle to a stake in the ground. Since the barn is right there it has the added benefit of allowing me to run drip irrigation to my hops so I don't have to manually water them. So I have good sun, great soil (gonna test the pH this week first to be sure though), and a dedicated water source, what else should I be thinking as I put this together? Thanks guys.

 

[brandonlovesbeer]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1493583325.531099.jpg
The attached image is the trellis that I built. Completely verticals.
The only change I made was that I added 2 more arms. So there were 4 arms total.

Don't try anything crazy funky designs. They are complicated and frustrating. Hops grow up. Period. Not sideways or at an angle.

My first hop trellis had 5 arms on an angled trellis around 45° or 50°. In a pentagon shape.
Result?
Because hops want to grow straight up I was constantly having to pull them down and wrap them on the trellis.

But when I changed my design and built this vertical design, I never had any troubles again.

Good luck.

And cascades are super easy to grow. My first season, cascades were the only plants that produced anything.
And out of 8 plant (3 different varieties) cascades were the only ones that consistently bore any usable product.

 

[snarf7]

ok, so i still like my design because it means I can use existing structures and not have to put in huge posts right now (1st season afterall), but your point is well taken, I can definitely make the angle much closer to straight up (70-80 degrees), that's a good tip.

 

[ircbrewing]

I'm in my second year growing Willamette, Centennial and Magnum. The Magnum's didn't make it at all. The rhyzomes came up about 3 feet then died out.

Willamette did the best in GA. And I had one Centennial make it, but other Centennial didn't make it because my dog ate it. Bastard.

I didn't get any cones in year one. I got great growth in year one nice thick vines. Now in year two, I think I may get some, but nothing yet. They woke up about a month ago and took off. Getting some tall vines. No cones yet though. Really hope I get some this year.

 

[brandonlovesbeer]

ok, so i still like my design because it means I can use existing structures and not have to put in huge posts right now (1st season afterall), but your point is well taken, I can definitely make the angle much closer to straight up (70-80 degrees), that's a good tip.

I would not go any less than 80°. Like I said. Hops grow straight up. When I built the design above, I originally angled the strings around 70° to keep the plants separated. But I found that I was still having to drain them onto the string. But when I moved the string to between 80° and 90° I had no more problems.

 

[theowlman16]

Cascade here in NC. Hemp string straight up to tree branch. Nothin fancy.

 

[pshankstar]

I followed the design from Andy Sparks on the basic brewing podcast (March 31, 2008 - Homegrown Hop Trellis). I only planted on 3 of the 4 sides. I figured the one in the back would get a lot of shade from the other three.