Week 6

Well it's been six weeks and this Saturday was time to train the hop bines. I setup the trellis last weekend, but the hop's weren't long enough to train yet, but this weekend they were. I decided to add a few more eye hooks so that I can run two bines on a single piece of string and give each bine a bit of breathing room.

Willamette (Organic)


Mt Hood (organic)


Cascade


I used Jute twine (so that I can compost it in the end) and some platic pegs that I bought at Home Depot. I ran the twine so that the middle of it hooked onto the peg closest to the plant (forming a V) and then ran each end into a different eye hook to provide some space.



I'm not 100% sure about what I'm doing but the hops seem to be growing and I'm of the mind that when you're doing something like this for a hobby it doesn't pay to worry too much about it.



All that being said I probably check on my hops at least twice a day.

Week 5

So I decided to erect a temporary (well it may be temporary) trellis this weekend, so that I can train my hop bines when they get large enough:





As you can see the design is pretty simple and it took me no time at all to build once I had all of the parts together. I don't know if it will be sturdy enough but I need something in place now because I won't have time to work on it for a few weeks and this was much cheaper then buying three small trellis' at Home Depot. It should be able to support my three hop plants for the time being, and allow me to swap it in the future when I want to build a larger "more permanent" structure.

The hops are all coming along with the Mt Hood being the largest so far.

Willamette (Organic)



Mt Hood (organic)



Cascade

Hop Sprouts After a Month

Well a month after planting the hop rhizomes and I've got sprouts from all three varieties that I've planted:

Willamette (Organic) This was also the smallest rhizome.


Mt Hood (Organic)



Cascade


Now I need to start on the trellis before they get too big (no a huge rush just yet). I was waiting to make sure that the hops would actually grow, no sense erecting a 15 foot high pole in your backyard for nothing.

In case you are wondering I've used: newspapers, leaves, and grass clippings as mulch around the hops. So far it's been pretty effective at keeping the weeds down.

Hop Sprouts

Three weeks after planting the rhizomes I think I have some hop sprouts. I say think because I'm not sure (first time planting hops) and the garden tends to attract a lot of weeds. I'm still waiting for the Willamette to show any signs of life.



Cascade srpout


Mt Hood (Organic)