My trellis plan

[Dougan]

I am going to be growing hops this year. I am planning on growing 8 hop plants. My house is the standard 1950's prebuilt ranch house that they deliver with two big flatbed trucks, and the end that faces south is the short side, about 24 feet wide.

My plan is to make a long, skinny hop garden that goes along the house, about 18' x 2'. I live in a neighborhood, and my goal with my hop trellis is that I don't have something ugly sticking 15 feet into the sky 12 months out of the year. I want to have something that can be taken down in the off-season.

Here is my hand drawing of my trellis plan:

http://www.whobrew.com/trellis2.jpg

I plan to make two of these, each supporting four hop plants. I have seen a few pictures of them like this before. It's basically an 8' 4"x4" fence post stuck 3 feet into the ground, and then a 10 foot 2x4 bolted to that to get an overall height of about 13 feet. The bolts holding the 2x4 to the 4x4 can be removed so that the 2x4 can be swung down to drop the bines and remove completely for storage. That way I just have two fence posts sticking out of the ground half of the year. I plan to use a 5 gallon bucket filled with concrete to anchor it into the ground.

Like I said, I've seen designs for trellises with the same basic premise of having two pieces held together with removable bolts. Can anybody speak on the effectiveness of something like this? Do you think it would be sturdy/effective?

Also, this plan gets me 13 feet high. Do you think this will be adequate, or should I try to bump this up to a greater height? I have seen some untreated 10 and 12 foot 4x4's at menards that I could try to get as weatherproof as possible if you think I need to go higher.

 

[sweetcell]

looks like a good plan. nice design!

13' is pretty short. the hops will likely reach the top of that by mid-summer, and will form a bushy "nest" at the top as they twirl around trying to find something else to climb. i would try to build a higher structure if you can.

 

[tchuklobrau]

View attachment 54720

Good comparison. The pole on the right is at 13' the one to the left is 20'. I know not the greatest pic, howeveer see how bushy the ones on the right are in comparison. they hit the top and go ape stuff. All bines to the far right are from 1st year rhizomes. So +1 to what sweetcell said 13' is not enough(unless u like the bushy overgrown look)

 

[msu09]

Not to thread jack, but I just want to saytchuklobrau, that you have one amazing backyard!

 

[MichaelsBrewing]

I really like your design and I think I am going to employ the same method. I especially like the bolt feature. That will allow me to take down the HUGE pole sticking into the air after harvest which will make the SWMBO happy.

 

[Dougan]

That is a pretty sweet backyard. Thanks for the illustration. I'll have to find a way to get this up a few more feet. I bet I could find 12 foot treated 4x4 fence posts without having to pay an arm and a leg. This would let me use the same design and get to about 17 feet. Might have to special order, though, but I guess I could get the hops in the ground for awhile before I build the trellis.

 

[Dougan]

I really like your design and I think I am going to employ the same method. I especially like the bolt feature. That will allow me to take down the HUGE pole sticking into the air after harvest which will make the SWMBO happy.

Yeah, I think that if this is stable, I'm going to be really happy I went through the effort of making it this way. I picture having a big towering hop trellis with nothing on it looking pretty ugly during the off-season. I'm just worried doing it this way will compromise stability.

 

[MichaelsBrewing]

Yeah, I think that if this is stable, I'm going to be really happy I went through the effort of making it this way. I picture having a big towering hop trellis with nothing on it looking pretty ugly during the off-season. I'm just worried doing it this way will compromise stability.

I cannot see it being much of a problem as far as stability goes but then again I have no experience. Hopefully someone will chime in who has done a similar set up or design; unless there are some HEAVY winds.

 

[Dougan]

I see that my local Lowes is selling 4"x4"x12' treated posts for like 10 bucks apiece, I'll just swap that in for the 8' 4x4 and gain the 4 feet to get me up to 17.

 

[MichaelsBrewing]

I see that my local Lowes is selling 4"x4"x12' treated posts for like 10 bucks apiece, I'll just swap that in for the 8' 4x4 and gain the 4 feet to get me up to 17.

touché!

Best of luck and of course,

 

[sweetcell]

you can get several 2x4's, cut one in half, off-set them, and create a longer pole:

_________ __________________ _________
___________________ __________________


i forget who suggested it, but it was here on HBT

 

[Dougan]

That's not a bad idea either.

I think what I'll do is pay special attention to the base, get that concrete in there with the fencepost. As long as that fencepost is in there firmly, I can change what I bolt onto it in the future without a lot of work/cost.

This year I'll probably go with the one 10 foot 2x4 and if that doesnt seem to be sturdy enough I can create a new second half next year.

 

[Dougan]

I wonder if something like:

xxxxxx-----------
--------------- ----------------------
--------------- ----------------------
xxxxxx-----------

would be a better way to accomplish this, with two 4x4's stacked vertically on top of each other, and then 4' 2x4's bolted to the sides to keep it in place.

 

[Dougan]

I just found this thread,

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/hop-trellis-stability-73911/

Worries me a little; the 2x4's bowing was what I was concerned with. I think that distributing teh plants equally on either side will help, but I'm still concerned.

Do you guys think using a 4x4 here instead of a 2x4 will be too heavy? I still plan on using a 4x4x12' post at the bottom, 3 feet down in the ground and using quickcrete to stabilize it.