Try layering some of the excess bines to create a larger root system for feeding those remaining. :unsure:
I don't buy that as a reason. That would seem to be assuming that you would tender your hops in a commercial way in presumably a backyard situation. It is just not neccessary to do this in your backyard. Layering would be an unnecessary thing to do (if for that intended purpose) and that reason would be nonsense. The roots grow like you wouldn't believe.
For example:
one season in a half wine barrel (and they grow more rapidly in the ground).
From this:
to this:
Layering would be more for
propagation purposes than feeding the remaining roots.
I suspect that layering is also best done late in the season not early in the season. I tried it earlier in the season and failed, they just rotted; it may have just been poor technique. Layering towards the end of the season (which seems to be when most folks suggest it be done) would seem to be a simple, low effort way of producing rhizome sections for harvest and splitting in the following winter. I found it better (for me) to strike cuttings and let them grow and develop in the same growing season into advanced rhizomes by the winter. It's probably more effort though.
Have a look at this rhizome from a cutting:
The section near the top growth buds was as thick as my little finger. Look at the massive number of buds on it (I count about 18). I didn't photograph all of the zomes from cuttings I had, this was one of the first I de-potted and photographed when the novelty was fresh. Others were substantially larger than this.
Something to note, these cuttings were taken late in the growth season (mid March) so were not planted out into pots until April. They were a shits and giggles experiment with surprising results. Imagine if I had of taken some cuttings in December and thus given them a few more months to grow?
Further observations:
Cuttings in pots - Little pots grow little rhizomes and bigger pots grow bigger rhizomes.
These cuttings kept their leaves and continued slowing growing quite some time after the mature bines nearby had dropped their leaves (maybe a micro climate things at ground level on pavers but who knows).
Yes you will get terrific growth from a length of rhizome with 4 or so growth buds on it taken from layering and it is probably less effort to generate rhizomes. Or you could take cuttings and generate a robust plant (I call it a plant because it is a rhizome plus tuber like roots and feeder roots) with many growth buds. I am not saying one is better than the other (even though it seems that way). There are pros and cons for layering and likewise for cuttings.
I am not a hop expert, nor have I been growing them for many years. I have just made a few more observations and pictures than maybe most folks would. It seems to me that I have made some reasonable assumptions that are mostly supported by some photographic evidence and some actual experience.
