Hello all, I'm new here, and interested in some advice in growing hops in Eastern Tennessee.
35-deg N, 84 Deg. W... USDA Zone 7a.
The area I have picked out faces East, and will get solid Sun all summer from 10-4, longer during peak season. The soil is terrible (Chert? Take clay, and compress it for 1000's of years until anything of value is long gone...) So I dug a deep hole (36" - 1 meter) and back filled it with some rotten logs, grass clippings, leaves, etc., and will put (good) soil on top.. sort of a Hugelkulture bed? Rhizomes will rest slightly above grade, and will mound the soil on top of that, if I've read that stuff right?
I plan on having 2 posts, about 12-15-feet in the air (~4-5 meters), on a hill approx 2-feet above-grade, for a vertical difference of at least 15-feet/5-meters. The bed is approx 6-foot (2m) and maybe 15-feet (5m) from the 2 posts, so the angled run should be at well over 20-feet (7m). I was figuring on using some steel cable and a pulley at the top of the pole to rig up a system I can lower for harvest.
I was hoping to only have the one bed (digging it was tough!), can I plant 2 different types of rhizomes in the same bed? I was looking at Star and Southern Cross from Thymegarden.com. It is approx 3-feet (1m) diameter. I was planning to run the wire from one pole on the left side of the bed, and the wire from the other pole to the right, and use twine to tie the bines up to the wire, and just let them go. Come fall I can lower them down to harvest-height, and then pull the wire back up for next year.
Thanks.
- Kevin
35-deg N, 84 Deg. W... USDA Zone 7a.
The area I have picked out faces East, and will get solid Sun all summer from 10-4, longer during peak season. The soil is terrible (Chert? Take clay, and compress it for 1000's of years until anything of value is long gone...) So I dug a deep hole (36" - 1 meter) and back filled it with some rotten logs, grass clippings, leaves, etc., and will put (good) soil on top.. sort of a Hugelkulture bed? Rhizomes will rest slightly above grade, and will mound the soil on top of that, if I've read that stuff right?
I plan on having 2 posts, about 12-15-feet in the air (~4-5 meters), on a hill approx 2-feet above-grade, for a vertical difference of at least 15-feet/5-meters. The bed is approx 6-foot (2m) and maybe 15-feet (5m) from the 2 posts, so the angled run should be at well over 20-feet (7m). I was figuring on using some steel cable and a pulley at the top of the pole to rig up a system I can lower for harvest.
I was hoping to only have the one bed (digging it was tough!), can I plant 2 different types of rhizomes in the same bed? I was looking at Star and Southern Cross from Thymegarden.com. It is approx 3-feet (1m) diameter. I was planning to run the wire from one pole on the left side of the bed, and the wire from the other pole to the right, and use twine to tie the bines up to the wire, and just let them go. Come fall I can lower them down to harvest-height, and then pull the wire back up for next year.
Thanks.
- Kevin
