Sunday, May 3, 2009

Hop Trellis

Two years ago I started growing my own hops.
I planted six rhizomes and only two survived - Willamette and Galena.
My first harvest was a meager 10 oz, but it was fun to watch them grow up to my second floor bathroom.



I enjoyed it so much that I started studying hop production methods.
After getting permission from SWMBO, and inspiration from BYO magazine, I worked with my father to design my own trellis system.

Rather than buy a ladder, or have to cut down the hops for harvest, we opted to use clothesline elevators. They'll allow me to lower the hop bines bit by bit for harvest and then raise them again for the greenery. I may even get two harvests.

The 6x6 posts are 15.5' in the air, supported in 12" diameter postholes 4.5" deep in 5.5 bags of Quickcrete each. That's almost 300 pounds of concrete each, before water. I'll be paying my friend Darren in beer in perpetuity for his labour. What a tonne of friggin' work!



...I hope that's enough to support them. If the hops acts like a sail and pulls at the posts in high winds, I suppose I can lower them temporarily.

Each hop rhizome will have two bines, and in their second year should produce three pounds of hop flowers, dry weight.



Some have already sprouted: (2) Magnum, (1) Chinook (2) Galena (2) Stirling (2) Willamette plus my original Willamette and Galena.



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