Can I trim them back to make a hop bush vs hop vine ???

Thanks,
Tim

Someone posted a picture somewhere on here of them growing over an arch in a garden...

Hops can be trained horizontally as well, but you have to train the bines to go that way. I have a 10ft trellis for my hops and they just go up and over the other side. It works great for me. I can pick them from an 8ft step ladder and harvest just the hops that are ripe. You can trim the plants back early in the season up until probably mid April or first of May. This will delay harvest and control the length of the bines( This is what commercial farmers do to make harvesting more efficient).

Have to agree with saisonier dubbeler. Since mature hops grow faster than 1st year, the farmers do cut back but definately not in late May. The last(top) 10ft of the vine grows the most hops. I train them to grow up and over my back patio. You have to be there everyday to wrap them if going horizontal.

Remember to wrap them clockwise(looking down at the plant), they follow the sun.

Wow. I am planning to grow hops for the first time this year. I thought that commercial growers only go up to 18 feet. Does anyone really grow them 30 feet tall?

I have only done the initial research, but I was thinking that I would be able to grow them along a line going from the ground to a horizontal wire that is abut 8 feet high or so with maybe three or four feet between each rhizome. Am I way off with my plan here?

My second year Mt. Hoods will be coming up this spring (hopefully), and I plan on training them along our split rail fence that lines the driveway . . . about three feet off the ground, then horizontal for as long as they want to go.

Coctyle, I think your plants are gonna be way too close together. Remember, if they can't go up 30 ft., they'll go horizontally 30 ft. I train mine across a fence and I know that I wouldn't put another plant within at least 20 ft. of the one I've got.

I hope this isn't too much of a hijack. Could hop vines climb something as fine as rain gutter mesh?

Probably, but they'd be a bitch to harvest.

Well I was going to use a 4 foot piece of 2x4 with an eye hook on each end that I could raise every day or two but now I'm thinking the the vines probably need something to climb instead of being raised so it would be easy for me to staple some strips of gutter screening to the 2x4s and just raise that up and then lower it at harvest time.

Thanks, Denny. I guess it is back to the drawing board for me. Good thing I didn't already order half a dozen rhizimes. I wanted to do that many for one row, but it sounds like that number will fill my whole back yard.

Angler, I think the problem with the mesh would be that things would get overly tangled and flowers might get caught up in the mesh or grow into the internodal spaces of the mesh. I think if you did what you are thinking with the 2X4 and just used twine to go from the ground to the horizontal board, it would be better. I haven't grown any myself yet, but most of what I have seen has the bines growing up twine. There is some specific "hop twine" you can get, but I am not sure what is special about it, if anything.

saisonier, could you describe your system a little more? It sounds like the vines grow up about ten feet and then hang over the top of the trellis. Do they continue to grow down towards the ground or just stop growing when they have nothing else to climb up on? What is the total length of the bine? How close together do you or could you place two rhizomes? Are the hops hanging down from the back side when you harvest them?

I've grown mine along my chain link fence. Works great as long as you keep braiding them in the links. Last year they went about 25' sideways and stayed very productive and healthy. All the fancy trelleses are not necessary unless you like work. Remember, these are vines and will take over your yard if not maintained. It's just too easy to grow hops after their 1st year.

Coctyle-hops will grow longer if they have the room. They may be a "little" shorter if any restrictions apply for room to grow, not much. I put 4-5 rhizomes per hill(same variety). It may help to place the hills at least 5ft apart for same type hop. If different variety, you may want to go a little further. They send out runners about 3in below the ground, so like what Rick Lance wrote, they will take over your yard....and the neighbors.

Hops like to be dry, so keep things clean, they are prone to mildew. I strip off any follage 2ft from the ground to allow for ventillation(only water the soil, not the follage).

Thanks WApilot. I made some measurements last night. I plan to put my horizontal line 10 feet off the ground running between my house and garage. The distance between said house and garage is just over 25 feet. So I am thinking I can put one hill in the middle and grow one bine up and then horizontally to the west and another bine up and horizontally to the east. In "The Homebrewers Garden" they describe an almost identical system, but with 20' of horizontal instead of 25. They claim they can grow two or three mature bines on such a trellis.

WApilot, why do you put 4 or 5 rhizomes per hill? From what I have read, it sounds like a single rhizome will produce multiple bines, so why more than one or maybe two in a single hill?

Holy cow, I'd hate to think of my hops with more than one rhizome per hill!

I graduated from college 3 years ago and can't afford a small farm, so we bought a small house in the city. Ground space is slim, so I make each bine thick and it gives better shade for the back patio. Most farmers go 4 rhizomes per hill, to get more in a single acre. Gotta have rough strong twine. http://www.freshops.com/coir_yarn.html
The stuff is from Sri Lanka. Works great. Drive by a hop field and it's all over the place on the ground, but don't steal, just ask
I now have 22 hills(what the h#ll am I thinking), there go's the water bill....

So how many vines to you have going up each piece of twine?

First year hops have about 3-4 vines per twine to the top, while 2nd year and older have 5-10 to the top. There will be a crap-load near the bottom but the stronger vines make their way up.

Anyway you put it, they are so damn much fun to grow. But I have yet had the chance to brew up beer and walk out and pluck some cones off for the batch. Has anyone had this chance?