2010 Hop Plantations

[arogers]

I found one of my Cascades about 2 metres away from where it was supposed to be 2 seasons ago.

WOW

 

[kelbygreen]

yeah i always thought 1m was heaps well looks like my garden beds to small lol

 

[Wolfy]

yeah i always thought 1m was heaps well looks like my garden beds to small lol

Most rhizomes grow close to the soil surface - which is why mechanical tilling works in commercial hop-yards in order to keep the 'rows' neat and tidy.
While the root-ball will grow quite big (up to 2.5m down) it's not that hard to keep each hop plant growing in it's allocated space, just dig/till/turn over the soil around the plant each year, and remove/replant any rhizomes that spread outside the designated area.
The bigger issue is that since they grow for 25 years and put down an extensive root-system, if the plants are close to each other they will be competing for nutrients as they grow.

 

[newguy]

WOW

A guy in my club has been growing hops for over 15 years. Just this summer he removed a concrete driveway and discovered that the hop next to it had sent roots under the driveway and they had almost reached the other side - a distance about about 4-5m. He said the roots were about the size of two thumbs, side by side.

 

[technoicon]

My first yr hop plants are still just dirt! cant wait to see the first shoots come through

 

[blekk]

Mt Hoods going strong after about 6-8 weeks being in soil :super: Might need to put them in a bigger pot soon!

 

[MarkBastard]

Guys I have the hop story to end all hop stories. I am covered in green ant bites, probably about 15 bites in total on my hands, feet and knees. I just realised my first year hope had somehow busted through the bottom of my wooden pot, then somehow travelled sidways across concrete and into my garden and then has travelled about 1.5 metres sideways under the dirt and god knows how far down. The massive root system is up to about 1.5 to 2 inches thick in parts, especially where it's busted through the pot. This is one year after planting a rhizome about 1.5 inches in diametre and about 3 inches long in a god damn pot! I have taken photos and will post them once I've "recovered".

I'm wondering if green ants and hops have some sort of synergy or something, where the hop roots grow into the green ant tunnels or something.

A related question, if I wanted to kill the remaining rhizome that's still in the ground is there a sure-fire way to do this? I don't want hops growing in my garden. It's too small and I'll probably sell this place in a few years!

 

[jakub76]

Mt Hoods going strong after about 6-8 weeks being in soil :super: Might need to put them in a bigger pot soon!

Looking awesome!

 

[brewmasterz]

Hi all,

Finaly got around to build my hop growing wires today. I think it looks pretty awesome :beerbang: - haven't quite finished yet, still got to add half a doz more wires then shes done!!!!

Feedback welcome....

 

[Wolfy]

A related question, if I wanted to kill the remaining rhizome that's still in the ground is there a sure-fire way to do this? I don't want hops growing in my garden. It's too small and I'll probably sell this place in a few years!

Rhizomes are fairly thick fleshy root-like-bits with lots of buds all along them, which are different from the normal root-system of the plant.
If you simply dig up/pull out what I assume are roots that have grown into the ground under the pot, I don't think you'll have any problem since they'll just die.
If it is a spreading rhizome, just pull it out - it should be a long 'runner' - and split it up and give/sell it to others.

 

[wakkatoo]

Hi all,

Finaly got around to build my hop growing wires today. I think it looks pretty awesome :beerbang: - haven't quite finished yet, still got to add half a doz more wires then shes done!!!!

Feedback welcome....

Why 6 more wires? I've got the same setup, but run 2 wires (one each end of the cross bar). Hops will be trained up in a 'V' formation.

 

[brewmasterz]

Why 6 more wires? I've got the same setup, but run 2 wires (one each end of the cross bar). Hops will be trained up in a 'V' formation.

Wakkatoo,

I was going to grow the hops up and along the wire, rather than the V formation. This is my first time growing hops - do you rackon it is better to grow in V??

 

[Wolfy]

I was going to grow the hops up and along the wire, rather than the V formation. This is my first time growing hops - do you rackon it is better to grow in V??

I think you'll find that come summer the vast majority of the growth will be along the top wires, since hops like to grow up to 4-5m, and I'm guessing your poles are about 2m, it will be a big mass of growth up along the top (no matter how many wires you have there).

Most anything will work, once they start growing they'll just take over whatever you let them grow on, and most likely climb all the way to the top of whatever structure you give them.
Looking at how you have it setup, one way to maximize the amount of room they have to grow 'up' is to add another 2 rows of wire along the top at the outside of the T piece.
Then run 3 guide wires (or string) from the top of the next pole (the one near the shed) back to the base of the pole where the plant is, the plants will grow up along these, then you can forcibly train them back along the top wires (like a Z shape with the bottom of the z being the ground), that way the hops are essentially growing 'up' for twice the distance you have between the poles.

One advantage of a V shape is that you can easily remove the hops and guide strings and clean things up for next year, by using permanent wire it's a little harder to untangle the hops once they die back.

 

[brewmasterz]

I think you'll find that come summer the vast majority of the growth will be along the top wires, since hops like to grow up to 4-5m, and I'm guessing your poles are about 2m, it will be a big mass of growth up along the top (no matter how many wires you have there).

Most anything will work, once they start growing they'll just take over whatever you let them grow on, and most likely climb all the way to the top of whatever structure you give them.
Looking at how you have it setup, one way to maximize the amount of room they have to grow 'up' is to add another 2 rows of wire along the top at the outside of the T piece.
Then run 3 guide wires (or string) from the top of the next pole (the one near the shed) back to the base of the pole where the plant is, the plants will grow up along these, then you can forcibly train them back along the top wires (like a Z shape with the bottom of the z being the ground), that way the hops are essentially growing 'up' for twice the distance you have between the poles.

One advantage of a V shape is that you can easily remove the hops and guide strings and clean things up for next year, by using permanent wire it's a little harder to untangle the hops once they die back.

Cheers, Wolfy
Thanks for the advise.

 

[lastdrinks]

Just planted my chinook, goldings, Hallertau and tettnang in 4 half wine barrels, would have liked something bigger like directly in the ground but i live in the suburbs. Filled them with a good quarter m3 of soil delivered then topped up with 3 bags of cow manure. Need to do some more reading on wiring techniques. Anyway thanks to all the guys who helped out with the hop rhizomes.

 

[rendo]

pics...PICS.....we want PICS!!!

Guys I have the hop story to end all hop stories. I am covered in green ant bites, probably about 15 bites in total on my hands, feet and knees. I just realised my first year hope had somehow busted through the bottom of my wooden pot, then somehow travelled sidways across concrete and into my garden and then has travelled about 1.5 metres sideways under the dirt and god knows how far down. The massive root system is up to about 1.5 to 2 inches thick in parts, especially where it's busted through the pot. This is one year after planting a rhizome about 1.5 inches in diametre and about 3 inches long in a god damn pot! I have taken photos and will post them once I've "recovered".

I'm wondering if green ants and hops have some sort of synergy or something, where the hop roots grow into the green ant tunnels or something.

A related question, if I wanted to kill the remaining rhizome that's still in the ground is there a sure-fire way to do this? I don't want hops growing in my garden. It's too small and I'll probably sell this place in a few years!

 

[MarkBastard]

Rhizomes are fairly thick fleshy root-like-bits with lots of buds all along them, which are different from the normal root-system of the plant.
If you simply dig up/pull out what I assume are roots that have grown into the ground under the pot, I don't think you'll have any problem since they'll just die.
If it is a spreading rhizome, just pull it out - it should be a long 'runner' - and split it up and give/sell it to others.

Oh good. There was only one crazy laterally growing one but there was another one that was going down too far to dig. I dug down about a foot and then hit clay soil and the bugger was still thick at that point (bout an inch) and was right next to a concrete slab so I couldn't use a shovel very well and after several green ant bites gave up digging by hand. Hopefully it has no chance.

I've repotted it in a much bigger pot well away from the garden so the ******* won't be able to try that again! Sorry guys didn't cut up the lateral root. The main rhizome has about 10 or so white tip shoots about to take off by the look of it.

 

[wakkatoo]

Wakkatoo,

I was going to grow the hops up and along the wire, rather than the V formation. This is my first time growing hops - do you rackon it is better to grow in V??

I've got no idea to be honest. Mine are about 3m high which was a compromise between giving the hops all the height they need and still keeping the wires at a workable height. As its my first year also, maybe we need to do a comparison over summer to see which design works best?

I'm just glad 4 of my 5 have sent out shoots given the huge amount of water we've had in the last 6 weeks, which coincidently is the same amount of time they've been planted <_<

Mt hood is the most advanced with a few little but very dodgy looking leaves. Can't wait till my next door neighbour spots them :lol:

 

[newguy]

A related question, if I wanted to kill the remaining rhizome that's still in the ground is there a sure-fire way to do this? I don't want hops growing in my garden. It's too small and I'll probably sell this place in a few years!

Roundup will take care of it. Just don't use it on a windy day as even a very small droplet carried on the wind is enough to kill a plant.

I used to use it every summer to kill the thistles that invade from my neighbour's yard. After 4 years of spraying, this year there weren't any thistles left. I hate lazy bastards that don't take care of their yards. :angry:

 

[MarkBastard]

Here's some pics as promised.

Below is a close up shot of the root that I saw when I moved the pot slightly. As you can see the pot was about two inches from the edge of the paving. Not sure where all that soil came from! Maybe the ants did help the hops out by bringing all that soil up to the side like that.


Below is a zoomed out photo of the same. Notice the root just at the top of the pot handle.


This shot below shows where I've started digging to investigate where the root leads to. I was pissing myself laughing at this point that it even found its way to the garden, little did I know just how far into the garden the ******* got!


After I'd cut off some of the rhizome and tipped the pot over this is what the underside looked like.


This is the hole where the main downwards travelling root went into. It was growing literally against the concrete and kept on going. Hopefully it won't survive as I couldn't dig it all up. I had to remove two of my border plants to dig this far down.


This is the money shot. Can you see that trunk in the back ground? And sort of a trench running up to it? Well that trench has the main lateral. It split into two just before the tree with the smaller split going to the left of the trunk and the bigger one going to the right. I'm guessing rhizomes in the wild can't grow up twine so they travel themselves to the nearest and biggest tree they can find to grow up? This is a good 2 metres or so from the pot!


All this one year after planting a tiny rhizome...