My babies

[enso]

Denny, do you find it easy to harvest your hops with them growing on woven wire fence?  I haven't put up poles, cable or anything yet because I haven't decided what type of trellis etc. that I want to use.  Last year I used cables horizontally at about 10 feet with a single hemp rope drop line for each mound of plants to climb.  It worked okay but stretching a couple of sections of woven wire would be easy to do and give the plants support for lower lateral spread (making a nice privacy screen from the road) if I put a couple of extra support poles in the middle. 

Well, I wouldn't say it's easy, but it's not too bad.  Your neck and arms get kinda tired after an hour or so, but after that amount of time I've picked all that will fit into my food dehydrator, anyway.  I usually pick daily for about a week or so, so it's not too bad. 

Denny, do you have any photos of your hops growing on this system?  I am trying to rethink my hopyard this year as it has been rather unmanageable.  http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=1836.0

Thanks.

[MrNate]

My Fuggles have gone absolutely nuts this year! Bigger than the Cascade right now! I guess they like this wet, miserable weather - they are English, after all.

[denny]

Denny, do you have any photos of your hops growing on this system?  I am trying to rethink my hopyard this year as it has been rather unmanageable.  http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=1836.0

Thanks.

[enso]

Thanks Denny.

Does that get so heavy it brings the fence down?  Do you do any trimming?  Does it excarbate pest disease problems?

Sorry for all the questions.  Just trying to figure this out.

Thanks!   

[denny]

Does that get so heavy it brings the fence down?  Do you do any trimming?  Does it excarbate pest disease problems?

Nope to all of those.  Once I get the bines established on the fence, I don't do anything but water.

[bluesman]

Do you fertilize them at all? They look really healthy.

[denny]

Do you fertilize them at all? They look really healthy.

Nope, not really.  I planted them with a lot of compost, but that was 10 years ago.  I think maybe my wife might put some fish fertilizer on them when she's out in the garden, but if that happens it isn't more than once a year.  I just let them grow and do their thing!  Last year, IIRC, I got about 6 lb. dried from that crop you see in the pics.

[micsager]

My Cascades popped up this past weekend, still waiting for the Nuggets and Goldings.
Most of my hops are trellised, but I have some on a chain link fence and they produce at least as well as the trellised ones.  It's a lot easier to harvest too.

That's what do, (chain link fence) it works great, but I assumed I was losing production.  Maybe not........

[babalu87]

Our Fuggles poked through today

Mt Hoods and Cascades arent up yet

LHBS should have my Columbus rhizome this week.

[beerrat]

I finally got out to check mine.  Nice growth for the brewers gold and cascades in NE PA.  I need to weed, toss some compost, and mulch.  Other then water, not much else during the year.  The soil is pretty bad construction fill, but a lot of compost fixes that up.

Brewers Gold:   Cascades:

I'm skipping building the trellis and going back to just training them onto the chain link fence. Bines balled up at the top of the trellis, mixed the 2 plants, and I was not able to easily lower rig as planned.  Also, solar array installed in the fall would be shaded by trellis, so solar wins and hops go back to chain link.  I got same production both years, so works out not having to build/maintain yet other structure ;-) .  Chain link is simple, gold goes left, cascades to the right.

[bluesman]

My Magnum's are coming up now. 

[MrNate]

Where did you get Magnums? I seem to remember having a hell of a time finding them.

[dean]

Freshops had Magnum rhizomes this year, I wanted to get a couple but missed them.     Since my hops are in an experimental location this year maybe its a good thing?

[bluesman]

Where did you get Magnums? I seem to remember having a hell of a time finding them.

I got them from Freshhops about 3 years ago.

[MrNate]

Hmm... think you might take a Saaz cutting for one of those bad boys next year?