Hops Yard, 2013

[JohnQ]

Planning on posting regular update photos on the Hops Yard this year with images of each of the 8 cultivars as they progress.
First, the changes for this year...
We've added the extra 2 poles for the second cable, we've re-run the first year cable and added a winch and pulleys to allow us to lower the cable for both tying on and harvest.
The second cabling will be done on Tuesday.

Here are some images...

[JohnQ]

Week 1 images,

[fakr]

Very nice Senior!  Would love to do the same in my back yard.  I do have a telephone pole on the edge of my property...could always plant around it and run ropes up it I suppose

[JohnQ]

Week 2 and quite a bit of growth this week, as you'll see.
Going to get brutal with them this week and cut out all the losers, leaving the winners to thrive and get ready for the lines.

JQ

[fakr]

Very nice Senior.  I trimmed mine last week and one of them is already almost 4 feet long...they sure grow fast!

[JohnQ]

Week 3,
We did some serious pruning this week, picking all the winners, 4 per hill.
The growth is quite astounding, and though we wanted to wait for the actual hops clips and the hops gun to fasten the lines, looks like we'll have to string them up before next week, so we'll do a temporary fastening of the lines some time this week and get most of them trained.

[JohnQ]

Week 4,

All the trimming done, all the training done where it can be. Lost a few while training.

JQ

[Chris Craig]

Coming along nicely!  Should be a good harvest.

[Richard]

Very nice. I think I'll be putting some ropes up soon too - trellis probably isn't good enough.

[Kyle]

There's a guy up by the Pic's brewery that makes very nice looking trellises, (trelli?   :? ). I'll probably get one of those for a hops holder

[JohnQ]

Week 5, Willamette has really taken off on one of the bines and is well over 8 feet already.
Not the one shown, I'm sticking with the same mound for all the photos for better comparison.
Some of the bines that I thought were toast from the stringing (folded the bine over on itself and seemed collapsed) have actually recovered and are now growing aggressively.
New shoots coming up a foot away from many of the mounds that need trimming off.
Definitely some lively rhizomes down there. We'll absolutely need to trim back the Rhizomes next year!

JQ

[Roger]

Yea those buggers grow fast! A little water and sunlight is all it takes. Some of mine are a couple of feet over the roof already!

[JohnQ]

It got impractical to take the single bine photos, so I gave up and here's a shot of what the whole yard looks like 3 months on...

[Richard]

[fakr]

it's a beautiful thing Senior!!

you make me want to be a better....hop grower!