[fmader]

The weather finally turned for the better here in Ohio. The gardens are coming alive and have had a lot of perennial growth the last couple days. I have three second year hops starting to develop shooters. This centennial was the best plant last year and is, by far, the earliest to develop significant new growth. As you can see, there are several larger shooters starting, but there are probably close to 30-40 smaller ones. Being that this is its second year, should I just let it go this year or should I prune some these back when they begin to mature a bit more?

[duboman]

Jealous! Here in the north of Illinois it is still butt cold, daffodils aren't even an inch yet! My hops are still sleeping:(

[Mark G]

I'd prune those back to just a few shoots per plant and train them up your string, trellis, etc. You should start to see a harvest your second year.

Duboman... They're on their way. Mine all started breaking through the ground in the last few days. That's about a month behind last year.

[fmader]

I'd prune those back to just a few shoots per plant and train them up your string, trellis, etc. You should start to see a harvest your second year.

Duboman... They're on their way. Mine all started breaking through the ground in the last few days. That's about a month behind last year.

This plant actually gave me a couple ounces in its first year. It grew probably twice as full and 50% taller than the other two, so I'm excited to see what it will do this year. The other two only have a couple shoots per plant. So, as far as pruning back to a few...should I wait until they grow a bit to see which are the healthiest?

[BrewArk]

Cut 'em - they'll make more.

[Mark G]

I usually wait a bit to see which are the strongest growers, but I don't think it matters that much.

[fmader]

Thanks guys! The plan was to cut them back a bit, but I wasn't sure about it since it is still a relatively young plant. I think that I am going to wait until May to do so....Get out of the clear of a chance of another frost....which might happen this weekend.

[duboman]

I'd prune those back to just a few shoots per plant and train them up your string, trellis, etc. You should start to see a harvest your second year.

Duboman... They're on their way. Mine all started breaking through the ground in the last few days. That's about a month behind last year.

I know it's coming but today was 37 and rain, soil temps haven't reached 40 here yet, it's like freakin' November!

[coastsidemike]

Those look great.  Frank, how deep did you plant them?  Horizontal or vertical?

Thanks!

[fmader]

Those look great.  Frank, how deep did you plant them?  Horizontal or vertical?

Thanks!

Those were planted last year and were started indoors in pots....which I think was a mistake. We actually lost a centennial after the transplant. They were planted horizontally in the pots. There were no signs of roots or shoots on those rhizomes, so they were just thrown in the pots. They were probably moved outside into mounds of top soil in late April or Early May (Ohio). This plant produced a little bit of cones its first year. The other centennial and golding didn't, but the were noticeably smaller than this one. They are just now sprouting a couple shoots. This one pictured now has leaves on some of the shoots just a few days later. We got 3 days of nice sunshine and 75 degrees, then it rained like hell yesterday, they should grow rapidly now. These plants were covered in mulch all year and topped off with it for the winter. Then new wood mulch was added after I planted eight more this year. I added manure to this years. This years rhizomes were planted directly outside. I think you saw those pics on a different hop growing thread. They were planted semi-horizontally. They were very nicely rooted and had a few starter shoots exposed on one end. So, I dug the whole deeper on one side. I laid them in horizontally with the end roots slightly deeper than the shooter end. They were probably 4"-5" deep on the high side and tapering down to 6"-8" deep on the low side. They were very large rhizomes, so the holes were rather long. Then packed the mounds pretty tight to ride the soil of excess oxygen in the dirt. These hops get about 80% of the day's sunlight too. They miss out on the evening sun but that's about it.

[Pinski]

Mine are already getting away from me, I need to get out and set up some trellis & twine this Sunday!

[fmader]

These second year Cents are starting to take off. This pic was taken 17 days after the original posted pic on this thread. I have pruned them back to 5 or 6 main bines, and ran the twine up the side of the barn yesterday. Hopping is looking positive!

[fmader]

I really can't be happier how my second year Centennials look. They are 18' tall and growing back down the rope. It's tough to tell, but the one on the left is pretty loaded with large hop cones.

[fmader]

I got my first harvest off of my pair of second year Centennials. There's not a whole lot of young cones still on the bine. I honestly thought there would be more compared to what's on my first year plants. But solid harvest and should work well with my other C's!