Lateral branching?

[allentwnguy]

This is the first year I have seen this. I guess my crowns are pretty strong this year as I have had to cull a lot of bines after selecting the 8 (2 each) I selected to grow on the trellis. The trellis is anchored on a 3rd floor (attic) deck railing. It's set up so when I harvest I can lower each line, pick the hops the pull the hop bine back into place and let the plant strengthen as much as possible until they brown out. That is until these side chutes came along. It looks as though they will start to grab a hold of anything they can to climb, thus killing my "system." Has anyone dealt with these by cutting them off? It's been my experience that hop cones grow on the chutes that begin at the base of the leaf stalks. Will these chutes set flowers too? If these guys grow like the hops (I'm in Buffalo and they are already 20' tall) my trellis system will be all locked together. I'll add a pic.

 

[DarkCoder]

Those sidearms are where the flower (cones) will be, so if you trim them, you will loose a part of your production.

 

[thaymond]

Don't trim the sidearms. That's where the bulk of your hops will come from. If you have to try and control them, see if you can wind them back to the main bine. Since they're already 20' tall, it is going to be a challenge.

 

[B-Hoppy]

As the years progress you should be ready to pull more and more and more excess shoots after you train the ones you want, it only gets worse. This can be made easier if you prune/thin the crowns out each spring of many of the excess shoots before they get a chance to emerge (it's actually a desirable practice for a number of reasons). If they're growing that well for you, you could probably dig the entire crown(s) up after about 3 years, trim and replant without much of a setback in production at all.

Those lateral branches are the structures that will produce your crop so if you cut them off, you'll be losing some production. Looks like you may have to do some modification to your system.

 

[allentwnguy]

Those lateral branches are the structures that will produce your crop so if you cut them off, you'll be losing some production. Looks like you may have to do some modification to your system.

I just never saw lateral branches get that long!!! They are 3 and 4 feet long. I'm expecting the bines to go sell over 25' this year so I guess they are "size appropriate!" I was thinking the small branches with the hop cones on would always be the same size, usually about 1'-1 1/2'.

Thanks for the clarification guys.

I only allow the 8 best looking bines to grow, the rest are cut. After they grow a bit the bottom 2' of the plants are cleaned to the stem. Anything that grows after that is cut.

 

[Experibrew]

That is normal sidearm growth for most varieties. Don't chop your yield. Thats where your hops come from. Cut the head of the bine if you really need to chop something.

 

[allentwnguy]

That is normal sidearm growth for most varieties. Don't chop your yield. Thats where your hops come from. Cut the head of the bine if you really need to chop something.

This is the fourth year growing hops and the second year for these. I lost the first ones because I couldn't decide where they were going grow and had them in planters... they died over winter (I think.) I changed varieties to the 4-C's and replanted spring last year. The first year Centennial and Chinook hit 25' and I got a good crop. I got a little from Columbus and Cascade, they weren't as strong but this year Columbus is right there with he other two. Cascade just seems to lag behind. Height wise it's almost there but girth and leafing out, no, it just looks anemic. At this point I think it is just the way it grows.

I think what helped these guys grow was that I could lower them and harvest then pull them back up into place and allow them to keep growing and storing energy. I treat them like my grandfather taught me to grow tomatoes. They get dried blood in the spring, compost... and water when it gets real dry. From what I have seen so far this year they are really happy. I also fear (not so much) that they are more invasive than my two trumpet vines!

If those lateral branches produce flowers at each leaf pair there is going to be quiet a few harvest beers this year!