How To Build A Hop Trellis

[HBHB]

How do you guys harvest hops from the top?

Batz

One of these ought to do it Batz.

 

[Malted]

I just made a trellis up out of bamboo, it fairly high and perhaps being first season it won't all be used. How do you guys harvest hops from the top?
Batz

The design was to allow the strings... to be lowered for progressive harvesting. For restringing when the strings rot or to remove and hide during the winter the pole just lifts up and is easily light enough to handle alone.

I am an advocate of the flagpole arrangment of using a rope to hoist them up and down the pole instead of using the pole itself. It allows a harvest without them scratching the shiite out of you which I used to get a lot when up and down a ladder, reaching across/through etc. Leaves can get on the ladder rungs and make it slippery and there are always cones that are just out of reach, but if I just lean out a bit more I will get them...
I'd hate to fall off a ladder and get hung up on barbed wire used in the trellis, that sounds dangerous.

In the picture below taken in June, you can see the arrow pointing to one of the hoisting ropes tied off on the fence rail. With lots of birds in my area, I now try to reduce horizontal structures (aka perching structures). It works for me, it may not work for other folks. There may be better ways of doing it.

 

[hoppy2B]

The flagpole is a very neat method. Couple of sturdy poles with mesh between is very practical and its possible to lean a ladder against it. I like the idea of growing hops twining around bamboo poles and then lowering the poles. Poles are very sturdy and don't get blown around in the wind the way that strings sometime can.
My yard has a combination of string, mesh and bamboo poles on account of the fact I still haven't figured out what I'm doing. :lol:

 

[Batz]

The flagpole is a very neat method. Couple of sturdy poles with mesh between is very practical and its possible to lean a ladder against it. I like the idea of growing hops twining around bamboo poles and then lowering the poles. Poles are very sturdy and don't get blown around in the wind the way that strings sometime can.
My yard has a combination of string, mesh and bamboo poles on account of the fact I still haven't figured out what I'm doing. :lol:

Mine are bamboo poles with string, I guess I'll have to park the tractor next to them and use it to support the ladder.
Anyway harvset is a long way off yet. :lol:

 

[punkin]

Got three Cascade rhizomes in the mail this week, so i'm taking the doctors prescription and adding a very large pot to the front of the trellis and four more strings.

I'm removing the goldings and cluster and shifting them some where else (somewhere ) to make the single pole a support for three plants the same.

hopefully that will give me a decent yeild and i won't have to worry about the combining of the plants at the top.

What i was going to do was add the cascade instead of the Goldings and pick the cluster from one side, the cascade from the other and when i got to the top where the intermingling was just pick cascade/cluster combo for a pale ale.

No worries now though.



Obviuosly the side strain will make it impossible to park my ute on top now with hops pulling from three sides, so hopefully someone (besides malted) will recalculate that for me.

 

[punkin]

Just to add a pic of the 200l pot in front.

 

[punkin]

Just finished a rebuild of my string arrangement.
I had some failures last year as the string i was using rotted in the weather and towards the end of the season some of the wild winds combined with the weight of the bines caused the odd string to break.

Making sure that doesn't happen again now. Climbing strings are now 2.5mm stainless balustrading wire and a bit of parramatta rope for hoisting them up and down.

 

[Dave70]

That's fecking top idea.

You should really consider adding a pirate flag though.

 

[punkin]

Need an AHB flag


Simple Really?

 

[Trevandjo]

Just finished a rebuild of my string arrangement.
I had some failures last year as the string i was using rotted in the weather and towards the end of the season some of the wild winds combined with the weight of the bines caused the odd string to break.

Making sure that doesn't happen again now. Climbing strings are now 2.5mm stainless balustrading wire and a bit of parramatta rope for hoisting them up and down.

Hi Punkin,

Thanks for the posts. How did the stainless wire end up going? Was it still ok for the hops to climb?

Cheers,

Trev

 

[blekk]

Just finished a rebuild of my string arrangement.
I had some failures last year as the string i was using rotted in the weather and towards the end of the season some of the wild winds combined with the weight of the bines caused the odd string to break.

Making sure that doesn't happen again now. Climbing strings are now 2.5mm stainless balustrading wire and a bit of parramatta rope for hoisting them up and down.

hoptrellis12.jpg

hoptrelli13.jpg

hoptrellis14.jpg

Any luck using the SS wire? Ive heard mixed reviews with the hops being able to climb it