Home-grown Hops: Digging And Dividing

[geoffi]

Hi all,

After a very pleasing first harvest of my POR, I've had interest from a few people in obtaining rhizomes. Very happy to oblige, but I'm not sure what the best way to approach this is. Do you just dig up the whole thing and cut it into pieces?

BTW, I had a look at the hops wiki, but the entry for digging and dividing was a bit light on...empty in fact.

 

[Wolfy]

My POR was planted in a pot this year, so it made the digging-up part easier.
After that you want to look for the rhizome-part of the root system, it should be a largish-thick-fat portion of root with a number of 'buds' along the length.
If it's a first year plant it may or may not have a rhizome that is large enough to split, in addition doing so may reduce the growth of your plant next year (compared to if you were to leave it intact).
If you decide to split the rhizome, you want to make sure it's long enough and it has an adequate number of buds along the length.
(You may like to look at the pictures on Ebay of people selling rhizomes to get an idea of what size/shape you should cut up).
Once you've done it a few times, you can just look at it and work it all out very quickly and easily, but it's also not something that is easy to explain.

Edit, here is a pic of one of my Chinook rhizomes from last year, but you may find that a first-year plant is smaller: http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x37/k_w...er/Chinook1.jpg

 

[drsmurto]

Hi all,

After a very pleasing first harvest of my POR, I've had interest from a few people in obtaining rhizomes. Very happy to oblige, but I'm not sure what the best way to approach this is. Do you just dig up the whole thing and cut it into pieces?

BTW, I had a look at the hops wiki, but the entry for digging and dividing was a bit light on...empty in fact.

Rather than dig the rhizome up and split it (which may reduce your crop for next year) find all the shoots that have appeared away from the centre of the rhizome.

You should be able to pull them slightly out of the ground and trace it back to the rhizome - they are reasonably strong so you can apply a decent amount of force. Snip off at the ground and then decide how small a piece you want to divide into.

As long as it has the white/purple buds at junctions along the rhizome/root then its fine to cut up and grow. No buds = no shoots = no good.

Here is an example of the rhizome/root i dug up last year (no photos from thsi year). I was able to divide each one of these into 3-4 pieces and to make sure they would grow i planted one in my garden which cropped this year. This year i sold much bigger/thicker rhizomes with a lot more buds.

And here is a close-up of a junction with the buds you need

 

[geoffi]

Thanks guys. I won't dig the whole thing up...I wouldn't want to jeopardise my chances of another good crop next year. But the Doc's idea looks like a goer. I'll have a little dig around and see what I come up with.

 

[MarkEinOz]

Great pics. It's good to dispell the myth that a rhizome needs to be a whole crown of plant like asparagus. Hops are a lot like spuds. As long as there is at least 2 sets of buds on the root stem and at least 10 cms long, it should take off no worries.

Here are a couple of greats pics from freshops.com in USA

 

[Wolfy]

As long as there is at least 2 sets of buds on the root stem and at least 10 cms long, it should take off no worries.

True, but the size of the rhizome does determine (to a large extent) the growth of the plant (especially in the first year), so the bigger, healtheir nd more buds on the rhizome the better. Some of the 'rhizomes' advertised on ebay are not really what I'd consider rhizomes, but rather a small amount of root matter or even a tiny (grown from cutting) plant.

 

[praxis178]

Ok had some problems posting a pic into this thread so I chucked into an album here: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...si&img=5158

So the question is what should be looking for on this plant? The bigger nobs/bumps near the old bines, or the smaller ones along the larger roots?

 

[drsmurto]

As long as any cuttings you take have the buds shown in one of my pictures above it doesn't matter where you cut it from.

 

[Mitternacht Brauer]

As long as any cuttings you take have the buds shown in one of my pictures above it doesn't matter where you cut it from.

Hi Guys,

I was digging about the hops today and came across this around the one of my hop plants ? It is from a Hallertau but doesn't have any buds . Has anyone had something like this that has sprouted ?




MB

 

[jyo]

Hi Guys,

I was digging about the hops today and came across this around the one of my hop plants ? It is from a Hallertau but doesn't have any buds . Has anyone had something like this that has sprouted ?

View attachment 38732


MB

It won't grow, mate. You need to have some eyelets/nodules for any chance. This is basically where the plant stores it's energy over winter.
Cheers, John.

 

[mckenry]

So digging (pun intended) an old thread up. I cant find anywhere that this has been discussed.
Simply, I need to move my hops within the boundary of my yard.
So, yep, I'm going to dig up and replant within the hour.
When's the best time of year to do this? I have the luxury of waiting, as I'm not moving, but need to move the hops to another spot and may as well do it at an ideal time. When is that? Now - before it gets really cold, or at the start of spring? sometime else?
They have already died off for this year and I've cut them back and covered with hay.
Thanks hop growers!
mckenry

 

[Yob]

go for it.. as long as they have died back I dont think there is an issue

Doc's doing Rhizomes now and they survive

 

[drsmurto]

I'd dig them up now whilst they are dormant. Give them a few months in their new spot before the growing season.