This past weekend my brother and father and I started our hop farm. The family owns a large section of land in PA and variety of tools. I purchased 18 rhizomes this year after reading up. They have been sitting around in the fridge for a while until everyone got off from work.
My father is into forestry and logging on the property so I took 12 of the straightest trees that had no use. Austrian pine I believe. We thought about using iron wood but I felt like that was a waste of a nice tree.
Saturday my brother and I cut up 12 posts roughly 21ft long each. They ranged from 7-6" at the base. We used the forest winch (8k pound dragging limit) to pull the logs out of the forest. Then we drug them to an unused grassland with deep dark soil.
Sunday my father used the plow to plow over the grass and then the disk to cut it up. We used the 12" pto driven auger to make the holes for the posts and made them 3-4' deep. The ends of the posts were de-barked and then coated with tar as a preservative. We put the posts in and ran galvanized wire through them. The ends of the wire were tied to cinder bricks and buried 3-4' underground for tension. Normally we would put a dry bag of cement around each pole, but I want to see how they work first.
We put fencing around each rhizome and spaced each crown four feet apart. Three poles are spaced 18' apart for a total length of 36'. Each row is 6' apart from the last. 8 plants per row. We will use the wood chipper next to fill in the area to stop anything else from growing. Bought some twine to let the bines to run up so that will be done soon.
Anyway, not planning for much the first year. Will try to keep them healthy and see how they do. I purchased cascade, centennial, ctz, chinook, tettnang and goldings. Total project cost right now is close to 30$. The hops were roughly 23$ and the twine ran me 7$/520ft. The rest was salvaged or stuff we had around. Gas probably was the next high cost.
I'll try to post some pictures as they grow. The poles need to be de-barked further so insects don't ruin them, and the chips need to be dispersed. Then we'll run twine from the crowns to the top.
My father is into forestry and logging on the property so I took 12 of the straightest trees that had no use. Austrian pine I believe. We thought about using iron wood but I felt like that was a waste of a nice tree.
Saturday my brother and I cut up 12 posts roughly 21ft long each. They ranged from 7-6" at the base. We used the forest winch (8k pound dragging limit) to pull the logs out of the forest. Then we drug them to an unused grassland with deep dark soil.
Sunday my father used the plow to plow over the grass and then the disk to cut it up. We used the 12" pto driven auger to make the holes for the posts and made them 3-4' deep. The ends of the posts were de-barked and then coated with tar as a preservative. We put the posts in and ran galvanized wire through them. The ends of the wire were tied to cinder bricks and buried 3-4' underground for tension. Normally we would put a dry bag of cement around each pole, but I want to see how they work first.
We put fencing around each rhizome and spaced each crown four feet apart. Three poles are spaced 18' apart for a total length of 36'. Each row is 6' apart from the last. 8 plants per row. We will use the wood chipper next to fill in the area to stop anything else from growing. Bought some twine to let the bines to run up so that will be done soon.
Anyway, not planning for much the first year. Will try to keep them healthy and see how they do. I purchased cascade, centennial, ctz, chinook, tettnang and goldings. Total project cost right now is close to 30$. The hops were roughly 23$ and the twine ran me 7$/520ft. The rest was salvaged or stuff we had around. Gas probably was the next high cost.
I'll try to post some pictures as they grow. The poles need to be de-barked further so insects don't ruin them, and the chips need to be dispersed. Then we'll run twine from the crowns to the top.