Is there a magic angle?

[tchuklobrau]

Is there a specific angle where hops stop doing the horizontal stupid growth and say oh yea we sposed to go up? My buddy just planted some of the rhizomes i gave him. He has one pole with an eyehook at about 12' he has another on a different pole that is almost 20'(acessable from his attic) run is about 40'. think this is enough angle for em to grow w/o tons of traoning? He says its about 45 degree angle.

 

[B-Hoppy]

I never tried to do anything but straight up but an old book I have stated that research was done over in England on 45, 65 and 85 degree slopes. It stated that the closer to horizontal slowed the growth down and shortened the distance between the internodes. The English found that at 65 degrees from horizontal produced the most sidearms and gave the best harvest. The book went on to say that the Germans found luck with just under 80 degrees for certain varieties. I don't think there's a whole lot of research in this area due to the fact that access by spraying and harvesting equipment will probably be hindered at some point. You've just been appointed lead researcher on this matter and we'll expect a full report at the end of the summer! Ha,Ha. Hop ON!

 

[tchuklobrau]

Sir I gladly accept this mission.

 

[tchuklobrau]

2 different stings of hops 2 different angles. both are 45' long. one is about 45 degrees. hops will not grow up w/o training(all 1st year so harvest is non aplicable as there is no way to compare to another harvest). the 2nd one is about a 75 degree angle they do climb this but barely they made huge loops. harvest looks like it will be immense(3rd year plants will be my largest haul yet), also not a fair comparison as i more than doubled the amount of plants i had from last year.

 

[bengerman]

all 4 of my bines are at angles. somewhere around 50-70 degrees, depending on the plant. no real reason other than trying to get them out of the shade.

 

[tchuklobrau]

all 4 of my bines are at angles. somewhere around 50-70 degrees, depending on the plant. no real reason other than trying to get them out of the shade.

how much training did you do? 1st year palnts or established? looking like decreased harvest?

 

[ctheis]

Well here are some nuggets on a 68 degree angle. They are much shorter this year than the previous 2 years where I grew them on a traditional trellis system. Earlier this year I put them on a maypole trellis and the outside angles run about 68 degree avg. Where the angle goes more towards verticle the plants get taller with a decrease in length of sidearms...when the angle goes more towards horizontal the plants get shorter and sidearm length gets longer and more vigorous. The beds are 15 x 27 with a mixture of 1st 2nd and 3rd year plants. At this point there is really no growth difference between the plants. The 3 plants in the foreground are from left to right 1st year, 1st year,3rd year - all are the same height and all are producing about the same amount of sidearms and burrs. This angle thing is quite interesting. While I have always had good results from the nuggets...this year is going to be a doozy. At this point conservatively it looks like Ill be getting 2.5lbs dried + from each plant...even though the plants are not going to get higher than say 13 ft.

There will be a much better comparison next year when the bed is fully filled with 45 plants. The inside plants will be much closer to verticle so it should be an interesting effect.

 

[tchuklobrau]

small difference on my plants and my buddies they climb a minimum of 12' before they hit the wire that is at an angle. so it is a cable that is at 12' above ground and 20' at the other end.