to cut or not?

[tchuklobrau]

Not that i will do it this year but i was wondering something about triming 1st growth. I understand that triming the 1st groth promotes a better harves, however what does it do for increasing bine #'s? My hops are just as important for decoration and barrier wall as they are for brewing. I usually let most of the bines go to town. am wondering if trimming early will increase the #of bines as well as cone production.

 

[B-Hoppy]

t,

As the crowns mature, each year more and more buds are formed on the crown not to mention the additional buds that will form on any rhizomes that grow out from the crown. The buds just emerge at different times. After about 5 years of growing, I realized that the time frame between the first to shoot up and the stragglers was about 3 months. At that point I realized that knocking down the first flush of growth would buy me a couple weeks to get other 'green' things done (anyone who works with plants realizes that time is at a 'premium' in the spring). Once I felt confident about the whole scenario it's become a regular cultural practice in my little garden. Kinda scary at first but if the big growers do it you gotta believe we can get away with it. Good luck.

Forgot to mention that the number of buds that will sprout is pretty much fixed as far as I know. I don't think that removing the first growth will promote 'more' buds to emerge. The amount of harvest is up in the air as I've been doing it this way for about 20 yrs now. I usually just whack back to about 5-6 per pole for the weak varieties and no more than about 4 for the Cascades and Chinooks(they do the best for me and have the longest sidearms).

 

[tchuklobrau]

ok so long and short 1st trim does not promote more growth but better growth? If you look at my pics in the hops garden section https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/2011-hop-garden-picture-thread-238783/index5.html i like to have 1-2 bines per slat on the fence looks really nice when summer rolls around

 

[B-Hoppy]

I wouldn't say that removing the first flush of growth would promote 'better' growth - it just buys you more time to get things situated for them to climb on and allows for a more uniform harvest as all of the vines that are allowed to climb will be trained together and not staggered over a period of time.