When do we dig?

[svengoat]

This is the second year of my hops and they did great last year. I read all the stickies but they don't say what year we have to start digging up the rhizomes??? Do I not mess with them till the 3rd year?

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

I dug mine up 3rd year to start pruning the roots and have since done it every two years.

 

[Yooper]

I've never heard of "having to" dig up the rhizomes. What does that do for the plant, and why would I want to do that? I thought a well-established plant would be the goal. It seems like digging up and trimming the rhizomes would be counterintuitive.

 

[bob1852]

I've never heard of "having to" dig up the rhizomes. What does that do for the plant, and why would I want to do that? I thought a well-established plant would be the goal. It seems like digging up and trimming the rhizomes would be counterintuitive.

me too Yoop. But since I saw this post I started doing some research...

http://cesonoma.ucdavis.edu/hortic/pdf/hop_culture.pdf

It says to do it, but doesn't really say why.

 

[Yooper]

me too Yoop. But since I saw this post I started doing some research...

http://cesonoma.ucdavis.edu/hortic/pdf/hop_culture.pdf

It says to do it, but doesn't really say why.

I've read that without doing it, it can overtake your yard, and put more energy into reproducing than producing cones. However, each year I'm seeing a few more cones and the plants are doing better and better. Perhaps it's my short growing season, but I'm hesitant to do anything to slow them down. I don't seem to have any runners growing and the plants don't seem to be spreading. I'm not going to touch mine, but I wondered what the rationale would be for purposefully harnessing them.

 

[uechikid]

I grow mine in half whiskey barrels. I can see the need to do that after a few years so they don't get root bound.

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

With my plants, some of them are planted so close together that I have to dig them and prune them every few years or they'll tangle with eachother. I've also see shoots start to branch out and come up a few feet away making it difficult to figure out what is where. I suppose if you've got them spread out enough, it might not be a big deal.