My three centennial, cascade, and Willamette arrived today. I’m thinking of planting in half wine barrels on the deck and running them up the south end of the house. How do they like pots?
“Freedom is temporary unless you are also Brave!” - Patriot
I bet they will be fine in barrels. My concern would be a big enough pot, but a barrel should work. At least for a few years. You will want to fertilize and compost every season or even repot them after a few years to replace depleted soil nutrients. They like nitrogen, and they need a butt-ton of water, especially in pots. Just take care not to drown them or they will rot – ensure you have drainage holes at the bottom of the pots.
Cool. I’ll fill pots with miracle grows moisture control soil and fertilize with triple 16 and bone meal.
“Freedom is temporary unless you are also Brave!” - Patriot
Their growth will be seriously limited in pots. Hops form huge root balls. You might not notice for the first year or so, but after that they won’t grow much.
Here’s a good article on growing hops in containers. I think a wine barrel is a good sixe if you do choose to go the container route for your hops.
http://www.byo.com/component/k2/item/1872-growing-hops-in-containers
When is the best time to repot the hops? I read the BYO article and think I should repot with potting mix rather than the soil I used. Also the hops are in their third year any may be close to being due anyway.
I would think right about now would be the time to repot, just before significant growth begins for the season. I wouldn’t use potting soil on its own. I think a blend of three different kinds of soil is a good idea. In my garden I often do sort of a random blend of my native soil (perhaps 50%) with additional commercially packaged humus, compost, topsoil, potting mix, etc. (10 to 25% each), and I have had good results with all different sorts of fruits and veggies doing this. Diversity seems to be the key in successful gardening. After your plants have been growing for 4 to 6 weeks, you can start feeding nitrogen fertilizers, which will help keep the plants very green and vigorous. Then once late summer / early autumn hits, cut off the fertilizer to allow the plants to fruit and then go dormant.
Put enough soil in the pots. I put mine in 1/2 of a sawed off 55 gallon drum but didn’t put enough soil in it. If it’s full of soil I think you’ll be fine. Then ask yourself why you’re not putting them in the ground.
I’m using 4cf of miracle grow per planter.
“Freedom is temporary unless you are also Brave!” - Patriot
I have all but one of my plants in half wine barrels. This is year three for three of them and year two for three others. I have one in the ground that is five years old.
I find that the one in the ground is harder to control then the potted plants. I have to keep a close eye on the runners. They will pop up a long way away from where it is planted.
The three year old are doing well. The runners get to the barrel edge and then up. Easy to cut off or pull up and have replanted a couple. (Don’t know why. Don’t need any more 
)
However, I did notice that the drain holes that I drilled in the bottom of the barrel now has roots into the ground. I decided that if I ever move I may want to take these plants with me (that is if the buyers don’t wish to have them) so I will have to some how get under and cut these anchors.
This is my second year having them in pots. I pulled a bunch of the roots and refrigerated to simulate winter (I’m in Florida) and they are growing well now. I got 1lb from each last year which was more than expected.
I love living in the Willamette valley where i can take the sportster out and observe the fields that got strung up and the growth of the bines. As the summer goes on it’s really sweet…Then comes September !!! LIFE IS GOOD !!!
I personally have had great results growing my hops in containers. The few factors I knew to do though as I read about hop gardening in containers via a BA book called HOPS and there is a section on this. first off is container size as hop rhizomes have massive root systems. the first year I undersized my pot a little and the roots broke through the pot and into the ground below… now I have hops in ground as well lol. second is soil selection and fertilizing the soil at specific intervals. Third is watering as in a container their is no access to ground water and the bigger the plant the more it will require as time goes on. all that said I will repeat I have had no less than awesome results in container. best of Luck !!!
This is a five year old cascade crown in the desert, a poor growing climate. Imagine what it would look like someplace that gets rain more than twice a year. That’s a full size lawn chair.
Great photo! Nice mountain in the background.
Man, what a beautiful view, Jim!
Looks like a postcard for brewers !
Wyeast (Mt Hood) in background
Neighbors wheat farm in foreground
Jim’s Hop Farm in foreground! Beautiful! 