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Author Topic: Hop String for hop growing. Any alternatives?  (Read 22099 times)

Offline pyrite

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Hop String for hop growing. Any alternatives?
« on: April 05, 2011, 11:17:36 pm »
Hop string on hopsdirect.com is 3 dollars per 25ft.  Anything less expensive out there? Or any other possible alternatives.

I have 12 hop plants.  I need 3 strings per plant at 20ft tall=====over 108 bucks.
« Last Edit: April 05, 2011, 11:19:56 pm by pyrite »
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Offline chezteth

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Re: Hop String for hop growing. Any alternatives?
« Reply #1 on: April 05, 2011, 11:59:37 pm »
bailing twine works very well.  I got lucky.  The previous owners of my house left a huge roll of it in the garage.  Perhaps check a local hardware store for some.

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Hop String for hop growing. Any alternatives?
« Reply #2 on: April 06, 2011, 12:29:03 am »
Google jute twine or coir twine and find a cheap source.  The jute will sag a bit more than the coir, but it really hasn't been a problem for me.  Basically, anything biodegradable is your best bet, then you can just cut it down and throw it all in the compost pile.  Removing the bines is too much of a pain.  As long as it is rough twine the hops will have no problem climbing it.
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Offline alikocho

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Re: Hop String for hop growing. Any alternatives?
« Reply #3 on: April 06, 2011, 12:30:33 am »
I just use standard garden twine.
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Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Hop String for hop growing. Any alternatives?
« Reply #4 on: April 06, 2011, 12:34:30 am »
I just use standard garden twine.

A lot of those are made out of jute ;)
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Offline alikocho

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Re: Hop String for hop growing. Any alternatives?
« Reply #5 on: April 06, 2011, 12:37:29 am »
I just use standard garden twine.

A lot of those are made out of jute ;)

Huh. Who knew (other than you). That makes for an interesting link to India under the British Empire, given that jute was one of the major economic concerns of the British Empire in India (geeky I know, but I'm writing a book on something related at the moment.)
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Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Hop String for hop growing. Any alternatives?
« Reply #6 on: April 06, 2011, 12:40:51 am »
That makes for an interesting link to India under the British Empire, given that jute was one of the major economic concerns of the British Empire in India (geeky I know, but I'm writing a book on something related at the moment.)
Huh. Who knew (other than you). ;)
Tom Schmidlin

Offline alikocho

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Re: Hop String for hop growing. Any alternatives?
« Reply #7 on: April 06, 2011, 12:46:45 am »
That makes for an interesting link to India under the British Empire, given that jute was one of the major economic concerns of the British Empire in India (geeky I know, but I'm writing a book on something related at the moment.)
Huh. Who knew (other than you). ;)

More importantly, who cares other than me.  ;)
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Offline phillamb168

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Re: Hop String for hop growing. Any alternatives?
« Reply #8 on: April 06, 2011, 01:53:21 am »
My understanding is the most important thing to consider is that the bines have something to grab onto. I.e., silky nylon rope will not work, although I've got some artificial stuff that's roughed up and seems to work just fine.
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Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Hop String for hop growing. Any alternatives?
« Reply #9 on: April 06, 2011, 02:05:14 am »
That makes for an interesting link to India under the British Empire, given that jute was one of the major economic concerns of the British Empire in India (geeky I know, but I'm writing a book on something related at the moment.)
Huh. Who knew (other than you). ;)

More importantly, who cares other than me.  ;)
Actually, I'm kind of interested . . . I mean, why jute?  Was rope just that important for ships and shipping?  Or for some other reason?
Tom Schmidlin

Offline phillamb168

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Re: Hop String for hop growing. Any alternatives?
« Reply #10 on: April 06, 2011, 02:56:39 am »
That makes for an interesting link to India under the British Empire, given that jute was one of the major economic concerns of the British Empire in India (geeky I know, but I'm writing a book on something related at the moment.)
Huh. Who knew (other than you). ;)

More importantly, who cares other than me.  ;)
Actually, I'm kind of interested . . . I mean, why jute?  Was rope just that important for ships and shipping?  Or for some other reason?

I'm not the one writing a book, but my understanding is that Jute is to the subcontinent what Cotton was to the southern US in that it costs very little to produce and can be used in a broad range of applications.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jute#Uses
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Offline denny

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Re: Hop String for hop growing. Any alternatives?
« Reply #11 on: April 06, 2011, 09:44:46 am »
I grow mine up the wire deer fence around my garden.

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Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Hop String for hop growing. Any alternatives?
« Reply #12 on: April 06, 2011, 11:26:12 am »
I'm not the one writing a book, but my understanding is that Jute is to the subcontinent what Cotton was to the southern US in that it costs very little to produce and can be used in a broad range of applications.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jute#Uses
Ah yes, the google and the wiki.  I should have looked it up :)

I grow mine up the wire deer fence around my garden.
How high is that Denny?  It looks like a deer could just jump it, but maybe that's just the pic.  I guess I'm not picturing you standing on a ladder to take the picture.
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Offline denny

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Re: Hop String for hop growing. Any alternatives?
« Reply #13 on: April 06, 2011, 11:32:31 am »
The fence is 6 1/2-7 ft. high.
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

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Offline alikocho

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Re: Hop String for hop growing. Any alternatives?
« Reply #14 on: April 06, 2011, 12:22:07 pm »
That makes for an interesting link to India under the British Empire, given that jute was one of the major economic concerns of the British Empire in India (geeky I know, but I'm writing a book on something related at the moment.)
Huh. Who knew (other than you). ;)

More importantly, who cares other than me.  ;)
Actually, I'm kind of interested . . . I mean, why jute?  Was rope just that important for ships and shipping?  Or for some other reason?

I'm not the one writing a book, but my understanding is that Jute is to the subcontinent what Cotton was to the southern US in that it costs very little to produce and can be used in a broad range of applications.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jute#Uses

Jute is cheap to produce and hard wearing. The British East India Company heavily exploited Jute production in the 19th Century, and after the British Government took over the Dundee Jute Barons held a monopoly at one point. Jute mills, although widespread were heavily concentrated in Bengal, and during the First World War the British Empire placed a huge amount of pressure on Bengali's to produce material as a contribution to the war effort. This led to widespread resentment and the rise of terrorist organizations in Bengal, who took up against the British with some success. After the First World War, as Britain struggled to control a population keen on breaking away, jute production continued to be a major focus of both British economic desires, but also for the Indian freedom movement. Of the more than 1,000 strikes in the 1920s in India, a large proportion of them centred around jute mills.

My interest is actually not so much with the jute, but with the politics. The book is on the Soviet Union's attempts to destabilize India between the First and Second World Wars. Jute comes up quite a bit.  

My original link though was jute twine and hops, tied into IPAs
« Last Edit: April 06, 2011, 12:24:27 pm by alikocho »
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