How many rhizomes per "hole"

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PleasantValleyHops

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O i have 12 rhizomes in the ground right now. But i have quite a bit that i got a good deal on coming from oregon this week. I was wondering. Would it really be any harm planting 2 rhizomes per 18" diameter hole. Or Should i really just do one per. Space isnt the issue w 10 acres to deal with. But time is. If i can get away w digging half the amount of holes id love that

Shoot me any ideas
Thanks!
 
I wouldn't do that. It wouldn't be that big a deal for the first year, but after that you'd definitely have a real hop monster on your hands...

Cheers!
 
All you have to do is to dig them up and split them for next year. After one season in the ground they're not really tangled together and very easily separated. Go for it!
 
It is acutally recommended to plant 2-4 rhizomes into one hill according to commercial growers (maybe they just want to sell more rhizomes?). We only planted 1 in each hill and out of 125 hills (we have 150 hill but in 25 hill we planted 2 because they sent us extra) only 2 didn't come up. If we would have planted 2 in every hill they probably all would have come up.
 
PariahVineyard said:
It is acutally recommended to plant 2-4 rhizomes into one hill according to commercial growers (maybe they just want to sell more rhizomes?). We only planted 1 in each hill and out of 125 hills (we have 150 hill but in 25 hill we planted 2 because they sent us extra) only 2 didn't come up. If we would have planted 2 in every hill they probably all would have come up.

I have read this in a couple different places also. And im talking over 500 rhizomes. So its a big difference between ~800+ holes and 4-500 holes.
 
I have read this in a couple different places also. And im talking over 500 rhizomes. So its a big difference between ~800+ holes and 4-500 holes.

Considering we just planted this year so i don't have much more information, but the hills with 2 rhizomes have more bines and at this point I am glad we have 2 in each hill because the one rhizome hills have about 2 bines average coming out of the ground while the 2 rhizome hills have 4 +. I won't know till following years if this is good or bad though.

I would play it by ear, if the rhizomes look good when you get them plant one per hole, if they look dry or like they haven't sprouted anything then plant 2 per hole?
 
Just plant them a few inches apart and when they grow into small plants you can decide to yank one out or not. I would recommend you use 2 or 3 because most new plant growers of any kind fail at propagating at a high enough rate. This just insures you a better chance of success. Also, you can pick the best plant to let live and yank out the weak ones. Plant them 1/2-1" deep and keep moist but not muddy/ saturated.
 
Wow, 500 rhizomes is a good chunk and enough to take up about a 1/2 acre depending on how you are going to set up your trellis system (You can pack in between 1000-1300 rhizomes/acre). I would go ahead and dig your self the same number of holes that you have rhizomes and the little extra work you put in now will alleviate the headache you will have in the future trying to split 2 rhizomes out of 1 hole next year. Trying to split up the root systems next year seems a little dangerous in that you risk damaging them pulling them out of the ground and replanting them somewhere else. If you are doing this as a $$ venture (I am assuming this is so since you are planting so many rhizomes) your primary concern really the first year is to get your plants established and off on a good foot, which basically means taking care of that root system. Your hops shouldn't come into full production until year 3 anyway, but if you mess with digging stuff up next year you may come to regret it.

Another consideration for planting in separate holes (3 ft. spacing) is to reduce the amount of shading. Once your growth really gets going (not until year 2) you are going to end up training between 3-6 bines per plant in future years, and then trimming other bines that come out. With 2 plants in the same area you may not be able to figure out what bines are coming from what plants in future years and will not be able to appropriately cull the bines you don't want growing.

At the scale you are planting you will be a small scale production hops farmer.
 
I'd do one per spot. You really dont need to dig a hole at all. After the first year your going to have 20 some shoots coming from each plant so you wont need to have two in each spot.
 
We did ours 1 per hill 36" apart and it seemed to work out nicely. That was last year and this year we just trimmed them back and got them climbing up the twine. We also planted them late last year on the 4th of July. They're looking great this year. Will post some pics soon.
 
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