hops in planter containers

[didimcginty]

Good evening,

I live in a Philly suburb, my hops are in planters outside, big plastic bins, I dug them out of the 20ish inches of snow and put them on my porch. These are very heavy containers, I can bring them inside of the house if I have to, but will they be ok outside? I just planted them last April, so they are new, I have noticed one has a large root that has come out of one of the holes I drilled out of the bottom of these containers. Thank you in advance for all help.

 

[k-moe]

Don't bring them directly inside to a warm room or you will shock the roots with the fast warmup and may loose the rhizome entirely.

Place the containers next to an exterior wall and tent them with plastic. If they get covered with snow, just leave it. Snow is an insulator and will prevent the rizomes from freezing (out here the best winter-wheat harvests typicaly come after the winters with the greatest snow cover because it protects the young-dormant plants from freeze damage).

I grow Basil (typicaly an annual here) in containers. Usually I clear the roots out of the containers after the last harvest of the year so I can go directly to planting in the spring. In 2014 I put off clearing the roots from the pots. By mid-summer 2015 I had new Basil growing from the previous year's root stock.

If someone with experience growing hops in containers has different advice, go with that.

 

[lurker18]

As I have said many times before, I live in Winnipeg where winter temperatures get to -40C, and I do nothing to my hops in the winter. The ground is definitely frozen to far below my hop roots, and every year they come back. As I and several others have said, once they are growing, they are harder to kill than keep alive. No need to do anything with them just because a little snow has fallen.

 

[didimcginty]

Excellent, I appreciate all your help. I figured on just leaving them alone, just needed some backup.

 

[zam216]

I live in Delco and I have my hops planted in plastic half whiskey barrels from home depot and all I do is put some burlap over them and let the weather do its thing. When the snow came it just blanketed the burlap but not the soil under it. It is breathable so you don't keep moisture in the barrel which will then cause freezing.