Rhyzome care after harvest

[Tall_Yotie]

I am going to harvest my hops tomorrow. All I have seen is a guide stating to trim the bines 2 feet from the soil. But what do I need to do to keep the plant good until next season? Do I water it every day like before? Do I need to trim it or will it stay low on its own?

Thanks for any help! Wanting to make sure it is good for next year.

 

[ffaoe]

Preferably, you keep the entire bine up until it dies down to the crown. This will allow the plant to send its energy to the crown for next year.

 

[day_trippr]

^that^

A couple years ago I took to cutting the bearing arms off when harvesting and leaving the rest of the bines standing tall 'til the frost gets 'em, at which time I chop them down to just a few inches above grade and leaf-mulch the hell out of 'em to get them through the winter.

'Course, that mulching thing may not be necessary in Santa Cruz. But leaving as much of the bines alive 'til they croak on their own will help them store energy (in the root system) for next year...

Cheers!

 

[ffaoe]

Although, you can leave attached and bury a portion of the bine under a few inches of soil to propagate new rhizomes for next year.

 

[B-Hoppy]

Although, you can leave attached and bury a portion of the bine under a few inches of soil to propagate new rhizomes for next year.

Have you ever done that successfully? I've seen it suggested in literature a few times but it doesn't make any sense as those vines are senescing at this point of the game and eventually die back to the crown.

 

[ffaoe]

Have you ever done that successfully? I've seen it suggested in literature a few times but it doesn't make any sense as those vines are senescing at this point of the game and eventually die back to the crown.

Honestly, no I have not tried it myself. I've seen it online and on a number of post on here. I will be trying it this year to propagate more nugget and centennial.

 

[Tall_Yotie]

Preferably, you keep the entire bine up until it dies down to the crown. This will allow the plant to send its energy to the crown for next year.

New to all of this and the terminology; so if possible, I should leave as much of the plant as possible? First year, so easy to just trim the hops off. Wanting to make sure I do it right.

 

[ffaoe]

Correct

 

[Tall_Yotie]

Awesome, thanks! So I will trim the hops, leave the bines, water it normally, and then once it all dies off, just make sure the soil is moist.

 

[day_trippr]

Have you ever done that successfully? I've seen it suggested in literature a few times but it doesn't make any sense as those vines are senescing at this point of the game and eventually die back to the crown.

fwiw, I've used this technique a few times to be able to give "starter plants" to folks without risking harm to the parents.
It's been totally reliable, I've never had a buried runner not sprout a bazillion rootlets within ~10 days or so, and they've always survived potting.

But, I've never tried it this late - pretty much post-harvest time - so while I suspect it'd still work that's just a SWAG, because even now most of my bines have sprouted new arms near the crowns...

Cheers!

 

[B-Hoppy]

Layering shoots for propagation purposes during active vegetative growth is a very common practice and is probably the easiest way to do it. At this time of the year the upper portion of the plant is shutting down so it will be interesting to see if ffaoe will have success.

 

[ffaoe]

First picture is my nugget. The top half of the bines were dead but there was still a little bit of life on the lower portion of the bines. Its a little hard to see in the photo. My centennial was not quite as died down as the nugget. I harvested both plants a month ago.
The second and third pictures are of what I did with the bines. We shall see if it works out in the spring.