Pinching tips?

Hey guys, I'm not new to the garden but i am new to hops. I planted some cascade rhizomes and they shot up my trellis with a single sturdy runner. In dealing with other plants ive learned that pinching the growing tip off, cuts off the growth hormone from the tip and distributes it to the rest of the plant, thereby making the plant grow outward not directly up. Well i went ahead and did this with my hops vines a couple weeks ago but it seems that they just stalled out completely after that. They are still very healthy just not growing at the fever pitch that they were before. Is anyone familiar with splitting the growing shoots of hops vines? I wanted them to take advantage of the whole trellis not just the very top. Any suggestions?

As far as I know you can't get hops lateral shoots to grow more by cutting the lead. They are a bine and want to grow straight up and you want them to do that as they produce the hops on the lateral shoots. By cutting the top you limited the ability of the bine to produce more laterals and thus limited the hop production potential.

Thanks for the input, I just hope i didnt permanently stunt them...

Chromebrew said:

Thanks for the input, I just hope i didnt permanently stunt them...

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Just that bines that you tipped...its early in the season yet, train up another shoot.

I'm not sure about this early, but once they are established they will generate offshoots at the next lower leaf cluster. I grew mine as a bush last year (still haven't gotten up a good trellis) and without being able to go vertical they naturally put out laterals at the highest stable point.

But as far as production goes, everything I've seen and read says that you get more cones from a single tall bine than a group of shorter ones. The more mass it has to provide life functions for the less excess energy it has to put into cones.

These are first year bines so im not too concerned about the yield this year. Either way this is great info. Thanks very much John!

Damn...i double posted. trying to figure out where delete is

For the first year I would just let them completely run wild, generate as many leaves and bines as possible. This way they generate a good root structure to support themselves. Then in future years when you limit to a few bines per plant they will have a large supply of energy (roots) to focus on a small number of bines and improve yield.