Hops: Compare and Contrast
Last summer, I planted hops for the first time. Here’s a picture i originally posted on June 1, 2008:
Please note that the floor of my deck is about 5 feet or so off the ground, maybe a little less. The hops you are looking at are about waist high.
The picture below was taken this Sunday, May 31, 2009. One year later:
As you can see, the hops have formed a thick, almost impenetrable bower over my deck, and although you can’t see it because of the angle, they are in fact almost up to my roof. I haven’t done anything different from last year: same soil, and a fresh layer of the same compost mulch I used in 2008. They are just VERY aggressive.
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:05 am
Funny that for years people were syaing you couldn’t grow hops anywhere but the northwest!
funny too that when the great hop shortage came about people mocked me for saying people could grow their own in their yards to make up for the shortfall/cost in home brew stores…
Anyway, the big increase in growth is exactly what’s supposed to happen. They spend early years forming lots of rhizome/root mass. Then in the third year you get maximum production. Same thing is happening at the brewery–where this is their third year.
One thing, make damn sure you have a really strong support system for them, they will get very heavy. At PBC they started using steel cable for the main line that all the vines climb up to…
They will make a very cool natural awning for your deck!
Great Job!