How to grow Hops

[oguss0311]

I've looked around on here- and found some general discussion about growing hops- but I've got a few questions that I can't find the answer to.....
1. Are people out there growing horizontal as well as vertical vines? I think I would be able to set up a 6-8 foot stake/post, run some rope to another- kinda clothesline-ish. Anyone done that?
2. What are peoples experiences in NY,NJ and PA? (I read a lot of discussion from people in PA that I found in the sites search option) How far apart are we growing different varieties?
Any replies and/or redirection to posts that I've not found would be flippin' sweet!

 

[denimglen]

1 - I do horizontal, I wouldn't recommend it. You have to manually train the stem and they're quite easy to snap off - when it does the plant still grows but the lateral growth goes crazy. One upside is being able to harvest without destroying the plant, but you'd want the rope to be around eye level.

Can't help with 2 sorry.

 

[Homercidal]

I've seen drawings of professionals (probably from a long time ago) that used a similar technique. They build a grid of crisscrossing ropes about 6-8 feet off the ground. Not sure how well it works. Maybe works better for some varieties than others?

 

[david_42]

Dwarf varieties are easier to train horizontally. First Gold and Summit come to mind. Very hard to obtain rhizomes though, as First Gold isn't grown much in the USA and Summit is new and in limited distribution.