Second Year Centennial Pruning Question

[dodgeandburnbrewing]

Hello! I just pulled my two Centennial hops out of my garage and the bull shoots have already sprouted. This is their second year. Should I let the shoots grow a bit more before I cut them all off? Have a look at the photos and let me know. Thanks!

 

[Kent88]

I don't know about your growing season, but around here I clip off anything that might be a bull shoot until about Cinco de Mayo, but I usually try to leave the 4 thinnest shoots until I'm satisfied that I've found good ones.

Are you confident in how you identify bull shoots?

 

[GoeHaarden]

Are you confident in how you identify bull shoots?

Can you provide any tips on this?

 

[dodgeandburnbrewing]

I’m sorry. I’m in Cleveland, OH. The bines are purple, hollow and spikey so I’m pretty sure they’re bull shoots. I read somewhere that you should trim all the bull shoots once they reach 12”or so. Only one shoot from each plant is that long. The rest are only a few inches. I just want to make sure that I trim them at the right time.

 

[Kent88]

Can you provide any tips on this?

Maybe. I asked the folks at Great Lakes Hops last spring. After explaining that the test to see if a shoot is hollow kills the shoot, which messes it up if it wasn't a bull shoot, the customer service person must've found a fieldworker to answer my questions.

I had told them that I prune most everything at the end of April, and then I do my best to select the most flexible/pliable, thin shoots (I usually keep 4 or 5). They told me I was "pretty much spot on" with that. The new information I got out of that conversation was to also look at the space between leaf nodes. Apparently the space between leaf nodes on a bull shoot can be between 12"-18", but on a good shoot it will usually only be around 6".

Hope that helps.

 

[dodgeandburnbrewing]

Maybe. I asked the folks at Great Lakes Hops last spring. After explaining that the test to see if a shoot is hollow kills the shoot, which messes it up if it wasn't a bull shoot, the customer service person must've found a fieldworker to answer my questions.

I had told them that I prune most everything at the end of April, and then I do my best to select the most flexible/pliable, thin shoots (I usually keep 4 or 5). They told me I was "pretty much spot on" with that. The new information I got out of that conversation was to also look at the space between leaf nodes. Apparently the space between leaf nodes on a bull shoot can be between 12"-18", but on a good shoot it will usually only be around 6".

Hope that helps.

YES! THANK YOU!

 

[GoeHaarden]

Maybe. I asked the folks at Great Lakes Hops last spring. After explaining that the test to see if a shoot is hollow kills the shoot, which messes it up if it wasn't a bull shoot, the customer service person must've found a fieldworker to answer my questions.

I had told them that I prune most everything at the end of April, and then I do my best to select the most flexible/pliable, thin shoots (I usually keep 4 or 5). They told me I was "pretty much spot on" with that. The new information I got out of that conversation was to also look at the space between leaf nodes. Apparently the space between leaf nodes on a bull shoot can be between 12"-18", but on a good shoot it will usually only be around 6".

Hope that helps.

Thanks. Yeah, it goes in line with what I was kind of going by. My second year Centennial (purchased from GLH as crowns) kind of took off at the beginning of the month and I just cut the majority of shoots leaving abt 5. I didn't know abt the leave spacing - good to know.

Maybe a dumb question, but why are bull shoots bad?

 

[Kent88]

Maybe a dumb question, but why are bull shoots bad?

I assume because they are brittle, so they don't hold up to the wind as they get taller.

With leaf nodes being so far apart, I'd also assume that it means less area for photosynthesis to occur, and less spots for cones to grow.

But I'm not a professional, this is all guesswork.

 

[GoeHaarden]

I assume because they are brittle, so they don't hold up to the wind as they get taller.

With leaf nodes being so far apart, I'd also assume that it means less area for photosynthesis to occur, and less spots for cones to grow.

But I'm not a professional, this is all guesswork.

Thanks. Yeah, that makes sense. There definitely were some pretty brittle ones that broke with minimal movement.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

I assume because they are brittle, so they don't hold up to the wind as they get taller.

With leaf nodes being so far apart, I'd also assume that it means less area for photosynthesis to occur, and less spots for cones to grow.

But I'm not a professional, this is all guesswork.

this happened to me last yr.
I trimmed everything that popped up around mid may since they only started coming up a few weeks ago here in NY but still ended up with some hollow ones that bent badly in the wind and due to sag when hop plants got heavy.

so i may have to be a little aggressive with the trimming this yr.

 

[Kent88]

this happened to me last yr.
I trimmed everything that popped up around mid may since they only started coming up a few weeks ago here in NY but still ended up with some hollow ones that bent badly in the wind and due to sag when hop plants got heavy.

so i may have to be a little aggressive with the trimming this yr.

I don't know what kind of schedule hops keep in NY, but around here I'm hardly seeing my in-ground hops do much yet.

I've heard of people transplanting hops or even planting rhizomes in the first week of May, so I doubt you need to be concerned about being too aggressive in April.

 

[Fly_Guy]

Here is my second year centennial. TONS of bull shoots. The Wisconsin spring has been super cold, I'm hoping next weeks slightly warmer air (mid 50's) will really get these up and growing just so I can cut them all down. I planted my rhizome in one of those huge 30 gallon half-'whiskey' barrels that my local big box store sells. I was delighted when I saw it sprouting! I just hope I don't mess up the cutting of the bulls...(see what I did there )

 

[NitrogenWidget]

Here is my second year centennial. TONS of bull shoots. The Wisconsin spring has been super cold, I'm hoping next weeks slightly warmer air (mid 50's) will really get these up and growing just so I can cut them all down. I planted my rhizome in one of those huge 30 gallon half-'whiskey' barrels that my local big box store sells. I was delighted when I saw it sprouting! I just hope I don't mess up the cutting of the bulls...(see what I did there )

Wait until yr 4 or 5 when they are popping up ft away like that!

 

[GoeHaarden]

Getting a little exciting for my 2 year old here. Kind of quit pruning anything and just let it grow, hopefully that is okay!?

 

[Sylvain]

No cutting

 

[Kent88]

This year I got behind on my hops care. I let my nugget go a bit feral, with several bines climbing my trellis before I could get my twine strung up. I didn't cut them down, and the other day I went to train them to a certain direction, and I found two bull shoots when they snapped. When they say bull shoots are brittle and hollow, they mean it. It's ok, as I have several other bines growing that should give me lots of cones.

I prune off the lowest leaves. I can't remember where I heard/read it, but I believe it's recommended to prune those off so the bottom stems are well ventilated and to make it more difficult for bugs, mold, and moisture to set in. I stop pruning around 18" up.