Training hops vines

[Pickettj]

What do you guys use to control your vines? I've read they can grow quite rapidly and I'm looking at planing my first hops vines. I'm in central indiana so I think I can plant most varieties without issues as far as climate goes. Any design ideas and pictures would be greatly appreciated.

 

[stpug]

I have used both natural twine and nylon cord for the bines to grow up. Both worked well but the nylon survived the years elements better than twine, although it still went into the trash at the end of the year. I give the bines a little clockwise winding around my twine/cord the first couple feet as they are growing and the plants take over from there.

Once they reach over about 8 feet I can't really control their growth much. I try to keep no more than three bines growing up a single cord.

I have a very tall flag pole (~25 ft) that I use to grow my hops - the hops are planted circularly around the pole. I attach strings at the beginning of the season and raise up the strings. Then attach the other end of the string to stakes that are near each hop plant. From there I help the plant find the string and away they go. At the end of the season I simply lower my flag pole cord to bring down the hops. The problem I'm currently running into is multi-stage harvesting - not only does each variety mature at it's own time, but within a variety you'll have some mature earlier than the others. Right now I'm playing the find-the-best-time-for-everybody game, and harvest.

 

[uberg33k]

I grew mine last year in a pot. I trained the vines to grow in a spiral up. Once they filled in, they kinda looked like a cylinder. I stripped the bottom leaves to make sure the whole plant had ventilation. It worked well, but I think I need to extend the support poles this year.