2017 Hop Plantations, Show Us Your Hop Garden!

[drsmurto]

What sort of trellis height should I be looking at?

Would 4m above ground (so a 5m post with 1m cemented below ground) be tall enough?

And how on earth do I get posts that size to my garden? (my car won't help. I doubt a ute would be long enough. Does Bunnings deliver?)

EDIT:
Oh - and can anyone recommend a cheap post? What material and what sort of width should I be looking at?)

For the first few years I didn't 'build a trellis', i planted the hops next to a fence and let the hops climb up the fence (1.8m chicken wire) and then ran strings across the yard to another fence. It did mean I had to wind the hops around the strings every few days but it allowed me a few years before deciding on a trellis design. I then took the easy route by attaching lengths of pine to the posts already holding the fence up and then running a piece of wood across the top (see below). Now they climb up the fence then up another ~1.5m to the trellis cross beams. They won't win any 'sexy hop trellis' awards but several years later it's still there.

The idea that hops only form x metres above the ground is a myth. They will happily form laying on the ground and mine do every year as I let my bines grow wild. They also don't need full sun nor do you need to cut the number of bines down to a predefined number. These plants have the growth habit of weeds.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

What sort of trellis height should I be looking at?

Would 4m above ground (so a 5m post with 1m cemented below ground) be tall enough?

And how on earth do I get posts that size to my garden? (my car won't help. I doubt a ute would be long enough. Does Bunnings deliver?)

EDIT:
Oh - and can anyone recommend a cheap post? What material and what sort of width should I be looking at?)

You will not need a 1 M below ground, get some galvanised angle iron or flat about 2 M long set 400 mm below ground in concrete and bolt your posts to the metal, that way you will only need to get 3 M posts from Bunnings or where ever.

 

[Alex.Tas]

Ive got some 3ish meter gal CHS that i have attached to my fence with trailer jockey wheel clamps. it means i can remove the trellis and leave the clamp on the fence after harvest till i need to erect the trellis again for the following year.
The CHS allows me to thread a rope up the inside, and out the top, allowing me to raise and lower a "boom" across the top of the two uprights, facilitating multiple pickings each year - which is handy as i have three varieties on the one "boom".

I'm also having a go at stringing up some lines over a couple of gum tree branches that are hanging over the plants. Haven't really thought it through yet, but I'll rig it up so i can raise and lower the strings when i want to.

 

[kaiserben]

Got a lot of work done in the hop garden on Sunday:

Decided to put 3 posts in (one in the middle, although I'm not sure whether the middle one will end up being a help or a hindrance).

The posts were 4.2m (of 90 x 45mm treated pine).



We screwed in a 10mm stainless lag screw to the top of each post (and we fed some 9mm multi purpose rope through them).




We dug holes roughly 40cm deep. We put the post in, then water and 20kg quick-set cement (in each hole). Waited >15 mins for it to set, then covered over with dirt.




So the posts are roughly 3.8m above the ground.




We covered the 2 x rows of mounds with some chicken wire fencing, laid down on top so that wildlife will be discouraged from digging up the mounds. As soon as we'd finished a wallaby came bounding through and across the wire (more than likely a bit spooked by the new stuff everywhere).


With the main rope, we tied it to the lag screw at the top of one end post, then through the lag screw on the middle post, and then through the lag screw on the other end post, and then down to chest height where the rope can be tied off on a cleat hook (with enough excess rope to lower it all down to tie baling twine on - and to lower at harvest time).

But we realised that was a stuff up, because firstly the middle post means only one side lowers easily. And secondly, it really needs to have excess rope at both ends if you want to be able to lower bines to ground level at harvest time. We're going to get a tree removalist to un-tie the end that's atop the far post and pull the rope down to chest level (so both ends will be tied at chest level, with (hopefully) about 4m of excess rope at each end (hopefully there's enough rope. If I've done my calculations correctly we might need an extra couple of metres - so I'll just tie on a bit of extra at each end).

We still need to attach some baling twine between the top rope and each mound. We've got some tent pegs for the bottom end of those.

I also planted the rhizomes yesterday, 14 cascade and 4 tettnang (there's a 3m gap before the 4 x tettnang mounds in the background of those last 2 photos).

I've got a spare tettnang rhizome that I might put in a pot on my balcony. And decide what to do with it at a later date.

 

[pie man]

Gday all, my two hop beds, each are 1m*1.5 and beside the side of the block. I would have built more but don't have the space. Fortunately my neighbor is happy for me to attach the trellis to the side of the fence. I have EKG in the left bed and kracanup in the other, the EKG has started growing early but kracanup has not sprouted yet. Ive used chook wire "tubes" and tent pegs to protect hops and run the string from the plants to the eye bolts at the top of the trellis. Im very new to this hop growing but very keen, let me know if the tubes may cause problems later on in the season.

 

[MartinOC]

1st year, just let everything go nuts & don't expect anything crop-wise. Just watch them grow & marvel at their vigor.

After that, you'll need to make provision for invasive hop explosion into every available space.

 

[Rocker1986]

My second year Hallertau and Fuggle plants have begun sprouting up again in the last week or two.

The Hallertau plant (1st pic) has about 5 shoots. The sort of wilted looking ones are ones that actually shot up in April/May when I cut the old bines off at the ground. They just grew to there and stopped. Not sure what they'll do now but the new ones are looking healthy anyway.

The Fuggle plant (2nd pic) has about 3-4 shoots coming up which are looking pretty good too. I left that one in its pot because there's not really any room for another one of those big planter boxes. The new Cascade rhizome is in the second planter box, but it hasn't sprouted yet.

 

[goatus]

Ive got some 3ish meter gal CHS that i have attached to my fence with trailer jockey wheel clamps. it means i can remove the trellis and leave the clamp on the fence after harvest till i need to erect the trellis again for the following year.
The CHS allows me to thread a rope up the inside, and out the top, allowing me to raise and lower a "boom" across the top of the two uprights, facilitating multiple pickings each year - which is handy as i have three varieties on the one "boom".

This sounds great. Can you post photos of your rope setup?

 

[CheekyPanda]

We dug holes roughly 40cm deep. We put the post in, then water and 20kg quick-set cement (in each hole). Waited >15 mins for it to set, then covered over with dirt.

I'm no expert on cementing wood into holes but be careful with rot. Up here the wood shrinks and the water sits around the wood rotting it. What you end up with is several big concrete blocks in your garden and a post that rots away a lot quicker due to sitting in water all the time.

I'm not saying it won't happen if you don't concrete the poles in but when you ram the earth around the poles you won't have a big concrete block where you want to replace your posts in the future.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

The first shoots to show the professional hop growers cut back to the ground, prevents downy mildew spores which may have attached themselves to the dormant bine over winter so that makes sense, I did put an attachment on last years SUYHG, but here is another one.
http://www.usahops.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=hop_farming&pageID=3

 

[Belgrave Brewer]

A bit of a tidy up and weeding today. Plenty of shoots getting ready to launch, while the Victoria is just starting to throw out some leaves.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

shit! ok its gardening next weekend then. Gotta get all the new rhizomes into their new homes.

 

[Benn]

I noticed my cat has began shedding its fur which means it's time to get my Rhizomes in the ground.
Holes were dug and prepped about 6-8 weeks ago.

Some mushroom compost to top up the holes and hopefully give the Zhomes a nice bed to start off in.

Got 9 planted throughout the yard, 4 Cascade, 3 Vic, 1 Columbus & 1 Chinnok.
Cheers

 

[Yob]

A bit of a tidy up and weeding today. Plenty of shoots getting ready to launch, while the Victoria is just starting to throw out some leaves.

I think you're supposed to put vinegar or salt on them now, Im not sure of the concentrations or which one, you will have to experiment and let me know...

 

[Yob]

I noticed my cat has began shedding its fur which means it's time to get my Rhizomes in the ground.
Holes were dug and prepped about 6-8 weeks ago.

image.jpeg
Some mushroom compost to top up the holes and hopefully give the Zhomes a nice bed to start off in.

image.jpeg
Got 9 planted throughout the yard, 4 Cascade, 3 Vic, 1 Columbus & 1 Chinnok.
Cheers

theyll never take off like that..

that soil has been exposed to Ford...

 

[Yob]

Done a whack of weeding and Mulching today myself, checked the watering lines, just a sprinkle of slow release to go and come on Spring

 

[A.B.]

Is chook poo OK to use as fert? I could google it but you guys know a few things...or so I've heard

 

[Yob]

Best if it's gone through the compost or such, it's pretty brutal stuff, kinda better if it's broken down a bit..

Good shit though...

 

[citizensnips]

Chook poo is high in nitrogen which is good for fast growing greens i.e. hops but nonetheless is hot so put it in the bottom half of your pot/hole to give it time to cool off and so young roots don't get burnt.

Cheers

 

[A.B.]

Cheers, chook poo it is then, once it's broken down a bit. Got 100 chook so no probs with supply!