Dougan
Well-Known Member
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.
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.