Not sure if this is the most appropriate section so please move as seen fit…
Ground is warming and it is time to start redesigning my hopyard! This will be my third year growing and I have yet to be completely satisfied with my set-up.
First year I set up a 9’ 4x4 post (well, 12’ post with 3’ in the ground) using a tent type setup with the hop mounds planted in a ring around it about 10’ or so out. It worked okay except my plants have been mostly monsters from year one. Many of them grew up and over the top. Three out of the four varieties I planted the first year in fact. The only one not doing so was the Goldings. I had bought Cascade and Centennial rhizomes and some unknown variety a friend had found at an old farmstead. The latter being the most aggressive. All of my hops also have always had wicked lateral growth to boot with side shoots reaching 3-5 feet, possibly more!
Last year I lashed on an 8’ 4x4 to that. I also added 2 new varieties, Willamette and Chinook. ALL of the plants grew up and over the 17’. It became a HUGE tangled mass at the top. Could not tell what was what let alone reach it all. I estimate some of the plants may have grown to at least 30’ if they were untangled and measured.
So, this year I am thinking about setting up something more like commercial growers with at least 2 poles at 18’ and a wire across the top for the strings to tie to. Then guy wires for support. Only problem is this won’t really help with harvest time. Last year I had to hack the top down with a pole saw to reach it and even then I had a blend of unknown proportions instead of separate varieties. Once they get a certain height it is hard to stop them from tangling around each other.
Another thought is something lower like an arbor, maybe a big beer garden patio area. With the idea that I would train the hops laterally. This sounds easier to harvest but it also sounds like a huge tangled mess as well!
Yeah, that is sort of the type of design I was describing as my first possibility It is somewhat similar to how they are grown commercially minus the cross bar at the top.
Still has the difficulty of harvesting the top. I find that my hops have tended to do the majority of cone production at the top. When they get as tangled as they did last year many of the cones inside the mess do not ripen as well. So, potentially I will miss out on a large portion of potential harvest.
Had a wild hair brain scheme last night before drifting of to sleep. I was thinking, how can I let the hops grow as high as they want and still be able to reach/manipulate them? Well, if they grew on a structure I could climb…
A tower! I can make a tower of four posts with rungs up the sides. Or perhaps a ladder up the inside of the tower and let the hops grow up the sides… With a platform on top…
As it is a freestanding structure I could put concrete footings in the ground with sonotubes and a galvanized bracket to attach the posts at the top.
Then I thought this morning, what if I made it a water tower with a cistern on top to collect rainwater which could be used for irrigation!!! Like, a food grade 55 gallon drum, with a drain hooked up to a ball valve connected to my drip hose I have around the hopyard…
:o :o :o
Boy the neighbors will love that eh?
And, don’t think I am not actually partly serious about this idea either… Despite the date.
I agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment. I just don’t know how to stop my hops from getting wicked out of control! I feel like if I were to only grow them up a 10’ structure they would reach out and strangle each other, me, and anything that gets too close!
What do you do to keep them under control? Do you clip the end growth? Train them down, over, under? It just seems they will get too thick and heavy if they can’t climb.
I just grow mine laterally on a four foot chain link fence. Probably don’t get the production, but, I get more than I can brew with, and am always giving lots to the local brew-pub for free beer, so it works out nicely…
I have about 300’ of fencing, and about 10-12 hills. I’ll see if I have any old pictures, it really turns the fence into a nice hedge for a couple months…
:D, I really don’t do anything to try and keep them under control. They get to the top, reach for more in thin air, and then fall back down, and try again. They usually form a mass at the top, and then flower.
I only trim a little when different varieties start to encroach on each other.
Couple of points about this bush hop method…if you are in a high humidity area, you could have trouble with nasties. In the dry heat here in the intermtn west, I don’t have any trouble with mildew etc.
As far as getting them off the fence…I wait until early spring and over the winter the bines get pretty brittle and rip off pretty easily. It helps that the cattle panels are sturdy and welded into place so they do not move too much.
That was one of my concerns. Last year when I had the HUGE mass of all the bines intermingled at the top it was a bit too damp in there. Especially with the wet summer we had. Lots of hops did not ripen well, and a bunch had mold/mildew. So perhaps this ain’t the way for me.
I harvest from the fence. Cut them off at the ground, then just wait until a nice day in december, and they break off pretty nicely as they are bone dry.
I like the hedge they create, that’s more why I do it this way, than any other reason, and since I have hops to spare, I don’t need to worry about maximimazing production. It does take a bit more maintenance, as they always want to grow up, but I’m out in my yard all the time anyway…
Same here. I think the only way to make something like that workable would be either to make it insanely tall, or make it so the entire trellis folds down somehow. I’m convinced it’s much easier to make the trellis low enough that you can simply pick off of it without taking anything down.
It depends on how happy and healthy your hops I are I guess. Mine are wicked happy and healthy and I truly believe they could easily climb 30’ (if not more) if given the opportunity. They also grow laterally VERY thick.
I am starting to lean towards a pergola/arbor type design now. In a space about 20’ x 10’ I am thinking I will set up (12) 12’ poles (8’ above ground, buried 3’) 6 on either side of the 20’ length with 10’ 2"x6" spanning between. Each “arch” will have one variety of hops (I have 6 I am currently growing). They will be spaced by about 4’ apart. Still may have some issue with the lateral growth intertwing at that spacing but at least I can reach it to correct the issues.
I have seen that design before. I believe I watched the video on basic brewing radio. It seems like an interesting idea, but knowing how my hops grow it does not seem practical. I see it becoming a big bushy mess in the end where you may as well have just grown them straight on a plain post.
