Found a new hop variety in my garden...HopZilla...jeeez, don't try this at home kids

[kilohertz]

Splitting up and moving my hops today, the ones I found by accident in my garden a few years back (see my first post about a new location). It's taken me 2 hours to get this buggar out of the ground..broke a shovel, a pitch fork and finally had to resort to a pry bar to get the last part of the root out. What a fight. Anyway, I have a cart full of crowns and roots and am getting ready to replant shortly.

Here she is...wow! Are all roots this big? This is over 15 years old and has never been maintained, but it has been rototilled several times by accident in the past years, before I knew what it was. :smack:

BTW, that's a 6' pry bar in the ground.

Cheers
Paul

 

[aeviaanah]

Looks like you had some fun!

 

[kilohertz]

Man, I tell ya, I'm ready for a hot tub.....

It sure started out lookin' easy but when I got down to 2' and still haven't found the end of the root.....I think it started as 2 plants, and over the years intertwined underground and then grew together into this massive crown. I ended up with 15 plants in the ground from this cluster...I still don't know what the rhizomes are supposed to look like when they have had many years to grow...maybe some of you guys recognize them in the cart and can point them out to me. I have just fluffed dirt over the holes waiting to hear what I can take as rhizomes to plant in a new hole.

Any input, greatly appreciated...now for some Czech Pilsner and a hot tub.

Paul

PS see my other post asking to ID the rhizomes for the pics

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

I had one of those last year, They are fun to move!

 

[kilohertz]

Well it's been a week now, managed to split up the massive plant into 15 separate plants, 12 are happy and growing well with sprouting leaves and 3 are just root sections I guessed may take off...but not yet. I think I may have 2 distinct plant varieties...will post in a separate thread. Most have really dark wine coloured stems and leaves and are a foot tall already, and a few look blonde and somewhat different leaf, and much smaller, maybe 4" out of the ground.

More later.

Cheers

Paul

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

Give the dark stems a squeeze they might be bull shoots. If they collapse like a straw trim them.

 

[kilohertz]

So a quick bit a of research about bull shoots, and I found something else I had no idea about. Thanks Halifax. I checked em out and sure enough about half are bull shoots. As I just moved these, I don't want to shock them too much, so removed a few of the big shoots from each plant and left the rest. Will trim again in a week or so after they really get going. I also read a good part of the 15 pages of info on starting from cuttings, so I took the 10 or so shoots I cut and put them into a jar with a few TBSP of Miracle Grow liquid start 4-12-4 and water and after just one day, they are continuing to climb around each other, and the stems under water, look like small roots are starting...coool.

Here they are.

Cheers

Paul