Second Year Hops on 4 ropes per plant

[barhoc11]

I have taken advice from most people and trimmed back my second year hops to encourage growth and the plants have taken off like crazy. Now that I am getting good growth, my question is very simple... How many bines per plant should I let grow and train up the rope? I have 4 ropes per plant available, due to how I setup my hop area against my garage. Should I just pick the best 2 shoots and let the hops grow up the outside 2 ropes so that they do not get intertwined? Does it matter if the bines grow too close together?

I just want to run this by some of you guys before I do anything. I think the recommendation was to let 2 - 3 bines grow per plan and cut the rest back to the rootball so I am trying to figure out how to utilize 4 parallel rope with 2 - 3 bines in the best way.

Thanks!

 

[ststephen5]

I run 4 bines per plant with good success. Seeing that you have second year plants, I would go ahead and train all the lines you set up. This is my setup. Once at the top they start to loop around one another as the make their way over to the trellis. The only problem I have with this is at harvest time with the cones being hard to get to within the mass but all in all not a big deal, just as long you have the same variety wrapping around on another of course. Good luck! View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1430749073.603195.jpg

 

[rekoob]

I'm interested in what some of the more experienced people say about this.

In the past five or six years I have cut mine back and then only a few of the faster growing vines would get to stay. All these plants were in pots and although they grew well and produced I didn't get near the amount of cones others have posted.

In the past month or three weeks (I was on work travel from Dec-Apr) I have been transplanting my pots into the ground. I put up a "T" shaped post for each set of plants to grow up on. Although not as high as I would have liked but better setup then what I used to have.

With the plants already growing and the transplanting I'm worried if I cut them back now I might shock them more then they would like.

So, right now I'm just letting all the shoots grow. Not sure this is the right thing to do. in the past years whenever I planted a rhizome in the ground it always died on me so my fingers are crossed that my established plants will do okay with the added area to grow.