Hop bines in part shade?

[cheezydemon]

Anybody have a link for hop's light needs? I know they love full sun, but is there anything showing which varieties would do better in part shade?

 

[BeanPot Brewery]

You might be able to Web search and get more info, but I have hops that, stupidly, I put in partial sun because I planted them in the spring before the big a$$ maple tree in my backyard bloomed and blocked out some of the sun. My results have been mixed.
In the sunniest spot, my Cascades are doing great. In a less sunnny spot, but still not terrible, the Fuggles are doing pretty well; although I understand Fuggles are a low-yielding variety anyway.
In the shadier parts, my Nugget bine has grown, but produced next to nothing. I plan on trying to move them this spring, and then I tried anotehr variety - can't recall which- and that never grew at all.
Not sure what you can gleen from all this, just thought I'd pass it along for what it's worth.

 

[david_42]

Well, this http://www.freshops.com/usda_hop_desc2.html has over a hundred hops listed. The only hit is for Sunbeam (ironically) & I can tell you from personal experience, it is worthless as a hop. It's coming out this year.

Sun is energy and the top growing regions have 16 hours of sun a day.

 

[cheezydemon]

Right on. Thanks! I have a decent amount of sun, but I want to grow 5 different hop plants this year, and I want to give them all room on about 60 feet of fence. 20 of which is in part shade.
I guess better to crowd than to plant in the shade.

 

[david_42]

5-7 feet between plants is enough, so if you have 40 feet of sun, no problems. If you won't be setting up a trellis, plan on re-training the bines to the fence every couple days.

 

[cheezydemon]

I'm looking forward to it!

Every year I negotiate with my wife to have more garden space. She likes flowers, I like Dorset Nagas.(the world's hottest pepper) I am out there everyday checking on all of my plants. Training a few bines sounds just fine! My kind of hobby.

 

[CatchinZs]

david_42,

How do you keep your dogs out of your hops?

Just looking for ideas so I don't kill my dogs and then die at the hands of my wife.

 

[Bombo80]

I've got a Nugget along a privacy fence, facing east. It gets full sun until about 2pm. That thing produces like crazy. I just put in three others last year. I just can't remember exactly what I put in. Cascade, Mt. Hood and another. I also have a Perle growing, but it's not growing very well.

I run sisal twine up from the ground, and then along the fence, and train them around the twine, every couple days, and keep only 5 or 6 main vines, and prune out the rest. That is a constant job in itself. I have two of my newer hops along the backside of my garage, facing west. They'll get plenty of sun. I just need to assemble my hop trellis this year. They were growing everywhere last year, and I didn't have my trellis made.

As far as dogs go, my Chessy stays out of them. He likes my tomatoes, though. I catch him every now and then. He also gets into my raspberries. The little (105 pound) $hit.

LATER

 

[david_42]

My hops are outside the dog area. Neither dog showed any interest in them, nor have the coyotes, elk, deer, etc. Not even the leaves.

[Katie likes ALMOST ripe tomatoes.]

 

[SAS98M]

I know I did Cascades and Hallertaurs on the "very" sunny side of my house-they went nuts,grew 24 feet in no time flat.They grew full especially for the first season in the ground(at my house),hop yield would have been very high except we had heavy rains the week I wanted to pick-couldn't pick then blistering sun the next couple days-fryed all my buds.......Man I wasn't happy .....This year I'm really ganna watch near harvest time. With the hop $$ confusion they've gotta produce..... Grow em in the sun . Just my 2c. Shane

 

[cheezydemon]

Good deal. I have some experimemntal ideas for growing on a fence. I will take lots of pics and post them this summer.

 

[G-E-R-M-A-N]

when they die back in the winter, do you still need to water them? I have 3 different types and have been wondering this.

 

[cheezydemon]

I think it depends on where you are climate wise, but I would say that the answer is yes. I think they are developing new rhizomes until the ground freezes.

 

[SAS98M]

I've read and been told that after the season is over-cut the plants just above the brown section(mine were just over 3 feet) and coil this into the planter top(or lay it on the ground-plants in ground) and cover with dirt-come spring you'll find alot of roots growing from the burried stem-viola! new rhizomes..... cut them off in 4-5 inch pieces and plant away. That's what I did last fall(prior to the freeze)-we'll see what happens. Shane

 

[Danek]

Slightly , but how much root space do hops need? I'd like to try growing them this year, but my yard is mostly concrete so they'd need to be in a pot of some kind. Anyone know if that's possible, and if so, how big a container they'd need?

 

[SAS98M]

I took 4 ft of 2ft id. plastic road drain pipe and cut it at 2ft. turned on end-filled with dirt and viola - instant planter. Mine haven't seemed to root excessively(become root bound).You can try that... Shane

 

[cheezydemon]

The more the better, but I have heard that it takes over 3 years for the roots to get very deep. At that point it would limit growth.

You say "mostly" concrete. I would use the part that isn't if you can.

 

[Brakeman_Brewing]

I found this photo of a 3 year old Centennial root structure for those of us wondering how they root in. It appears they dont grow as deep as they do wide.

 

[luckylogger6]

Most sources say full sun but I’m going to try partial shad up here as the 110* plus Redding sun can be brutal in the summer. I put down 3” of aged manure in and tilled down 10” so I’m optimistic of my first try at hop cultivation.