Moving...what do I do with my hops?

Mon Apr 01, 2013 7:56 pm

I am Moving at the end of June a few states away and was wondering if anyone has any ideas on what I should do with my hop plant. I have 1 going on 3 years old Centennial hop plant that I am growing in a 20 gallon Smart pot on the deck.

Should I just let it grow wild and Cut it back before I move? keep cutting it back until I move? I usually grow it along my balcony railing which I cannot do if I want to move it. Should I just scratch it and start over next year? would suck to lose 2 years of growth...

any ideas are helpful Thanks!
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Stinkfist
 
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Re: Moving...what do I do with my hops?

Tue Apr 02, 2013 12:15 am

I'm putting in my first hops this year, so I can't speak from experience but this is what I've got.

From the info that I've gathered it doesn't sound like you want to cut the bines early since a lot of nutrients flow back into the rhizome system before it goes dormant for the winter. Of course they were talking about harvesting, but I would think that cutting off bines in the middle of it's growth cycles could be rather detrimental. Since it's already in a pot for easy transport, my first thought would be to pinch the bines off as they emerge & just don't let it send up bines until after the move (if it still will, lack of experience so I don't really know how it would behave at that point), which would still give you a little bit of growth & let the plant get back into it's annual cycle by next year.

The other thought would be to do put a wooden dowel 4-6' long in the pot, tie your string off as normal at the bottom, hook the first 4-6' of twine to the top of the dowel, leaving all the extra twine you need coiled up. As the bines climb the string, you simply loosen the knot & feed it more string, eventually causing the bines to coil up. I've heard of others using this method for apartment balcony/small space grows. The biggest thing is to make sure the coil is able to dry out after it rains & such, but from those I've heard doing it, it sounded pretty simple.

Best of luck however you go about it!
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Re: Moving...what do I do with my hops?

Tue Apr 02, 2013 7:24 am

how far is the move? I was thinking you could let it grow until june then work on detaching the bines from your balcony railing and putting them neatly into a container/bag of some sort. when you get to your new place try to train the bines to climb up something new... No clue if this would work or not, growing hops for the first time myself also.
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