Show us your Trellis

[Straya]

Hey guys, thought I'd start a thread where we could share designs of hops trellis' to help new growers like myself to create simple but effective trellis' for our rhizomes.

I'm sure there are some genius ideas/designs on here that would be awesome to see and share among the brewing community if you're happy to.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

One word


TALL

 

[Straya]

Personally having trouble finding huge bits of timber. Considering cutting down some nice tall dead trees off my property to use as beams. Longest bits of timber or steel at bunnings or masters (I can find) is only a couple of metres at the most

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

The taller the trellis the better they grow

The other alternative is to horizontal trellis them, but you will need lots of width

 

[Straya]

I've got horse fencing all over my property, this could be beneficial. Just train them along the 100's of metres of horse fencing.

 

[spog]

Personally having trouble finding huge bits of timber. Considering cutting down some nice tall dead trees off my property to use as beams. Longest bits of timber or steel at bunnings or masters (I can find) is only a couple of metres at the most

Why not bung a couple of treated pine posts in the ground ,then use some 40x25 steel fence rails bolted to the side to get the height .
Use 2 bolts on each post one near the bottom and the other near the top so come harvest time you undo the top bolts and lay it down to get the hops. ( and string it )
The fence rail is 6 metres long so you'll get plenty of height
When you build it laying down drill some holes in the rails to run some lateral ropes,then tie some more ropes to the laterals for the bines to climb up and anchor these to the ground when it's up.

 

[wynnum1]

Heavy Concrete Reinforcing bar is 6 meters long weld up a small cage with a few pieces and paint to stop from rusting .

 

[Straya]

Spog you're a legend mate.
But where the hell would I get the posts and the logs? Maybe a tradies outlet or something? Longest poles I've found are 2.1m at bunnings

 

[Straya]

In the meantime

 

[spog]

Straya, the 2.1 m posts should be fine. If your bury it half in the ground you'll have a metre to bolt the rails to.
If you want longer posts try tradies yards or land scape suppliers.

 

[earle]

Personally having trouble finding huge bits of timber. Considering cutting down some nice tall dead trees off my property to use as beams. Longest bits of timber or steel at bunnings or masters (I can find) is only a couple of metres at the most

Definately don't buy steel from bunnings or masters if you can help it. They are seriously expensive for steel as you are paying for the convenience. Go to your local steel supplier for much better prices. Also ask if they have seconds or damaged stock that they sell at a discount. Sometimes there's stuff with little dents that you wouldn't use in a weight bearing structure but would be fine for a hop trellis.

 

[leighaus]

I've gone horizontal this second season.
I'm building a pergola for the hops to grow all over after this harvest.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uurfnbdn16o7n3h/DSC_0171.JPG?dl=0

 

[Judanero]

As others have said go as tall as you can, training horizontal is a pita. Once the bines reach their available height I find they seem to throw out more laterals.

I'll try and get a pic tomorrow of mine, mine aren't very tall but I've got a wide enough area to string up a few and they've produced well every season so far (apart from fuggles and goldings).

Another idea- I've often wondered about using an old tv antenna tower (the ones that are about 4m) but not sure where you could source one- I guess when people throw them out maybe... just thinking out loud on that one.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

I cant go high without being reported as some kind of community nut job. With a few meters here and there of horizontal. I'll pretty much shade areas of my scrawny back yard through some of the hottest summer. Use the vines like a canopy over the vegie garden etc.

 

[Mr B]

I cant go high without being reported as some kind of community nut job. With a few meters here and there of horizontal. I'll pretty much shade areas of my scrawny back yard through some of the hottest summer. Use the vines like a canopy over the vegie garden etc.

Just say its an organic radio tower antenna to communicate with aliens and you'll be ok.

 

[Pogierob]

So this is mine. 40ml gal tubing mounted on 35ml gal tubing that was hammered 2 metres into the ground. Cable ties on the top so the birds don't sit and shit on my hops and pulleys attached along the cross beam, so in theory I can lower them down for harvest time.
I currently have 4 varieties but I have set it up for 5 with room for a sixth.

I'm considering putting some tension wires in to help support the weight pull I'm assuming will happen towards the end of the season as they bulk up.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

I can see that pole bending in a strong wind at full bush but that will probably be ok still.

 

[spog]

Thinking further on this trellis setup, using the setup I mentioned earlier when the trellis is full and ready to harvest it would be reasonably heavy and difficult to lay down.
Keeping with my original suggestion to set it up but for easy maintenance etc I thought of using eye bolts to lower the whole set up
.
The threaded eye bolt would need to be long enough to go through the steel rail.
One nut each side of the rail to lock the eye bolt in place,with an eye bolt at the top of both rails.


Tie one end of the rope off to one eye bolt and then run the rope through the other at the other end leaving plenty of rope so you can lower the whole rope trellis to the ground.
It's a cheap pulley system.
( hope this makes sense).
I wouldn't have the ropes pulled tight because It would allow for movement if it got windy and the bines are flexible enough to accommodate for this.

Again I hope this makes sense,give it a go.

Edit: between the 2 eye bolts simply tie as many vertical ropes as you need to the top rope and anchor the other end to the ground with a stake or whatever you find suitable.

 

[Pogierob]

I can see that pole bending in a strong wind at full bush but that will probably be ok still.

It's plumbing pipe, it's pretty damned solid. but just in case I'm probably going to brace it with catinary wires

 

[Wilko76]

Here's a few pics of my trellis. It stands about 5m tall with about 6m of growing length. The posts on the 4 corners are 60mm gal pipe with 25mm rhs joining the two sides. The centre posts are 3m of 35mm rhs on the bottom half, with 3m of 25mm rhs on the top half. The 25mm slides inside the 35mm and has a bolt through both to secure it. Bolts are removed to slide it down for harvest.