Field grade hop plants on the way. No trellis up. Grow in pots? Help

[mcfire12]

Well I had a few too many home brews the other night and decided to order hop plants from great lakes hops. Well now I need to get them planted when they arrive. I don't want to build a giant trellis and don't have a ton of time. I saw a few pictures of potted hop plants. Are there any write ups on how to do this and make some kind of winding trellis that I can put into the pots? I have no idea where to start here.
Any advice??

 

[jtratcliff]

They'll climb a line... put your pots near your garage and run some decent weight twine up to the roof...

I screwed an eye-bolt into the end of the rafter tails... they climbed it just fine...

 

[mcfire12]

I have a spot I could run a wire up a huge tv antenna, but it's on the west side of the house. Wouldn't get a lot of sun at all. I would really like to keep them on the patio

 

[madscientist451]

Don't worry about it, set them in pots and plant them out in the fall if you can't get it together right away.

 

[JimWitted]

They'll climb a line... put your pots near your garage and run some decent weight twine up to the roof...

I screwed an eye-bolt into the end of the rafter tails... they climbed it just fine...

I'm planing on doing something similar to that with my chimney. I'll set up a hanger that rest inside the chimney and run the twine from there (no way I'm putting in any screws into the brick). It's about a 20ft. climb for the hops but they'll get plenty of sun that way.

I haven't tried it yet, but would be curious to see if anyone has tried that yet.

 

[solidbass]

http://immaculatebrewery.com/growing-hops-at-home/ I thought this guy had a ton of great stuff for container growing without needing 20 feet of vertical growth. I'm unsure about what kind of harvest he got but I'll be trying it this year!

 

[mcfire12]

http://immaculatebrewery.com/growing-hops-at-home/ I thought this guy had a ton of great stuff for container growing without needing 20 feet of vertical growth. I'm unsure about what kind of harvest he got but I'll be trying it this year!

I saw this one also. My issue with it is I haven't seen any other pictures of people growing it this way? Maybe i'll just try a trellis like the picture I posted originally and see what happens?

 

[GVH_Dan]

If you know where you want to plant them (eventually) and you don't care about a harvest for this year, plant them. The danger of leaving them in the pots is the potential of freezing them in the winter. I used to grow quite a few in pots but every winter, I would loose a couple.

If you leave them in pots too long (3 to 4 years) the pot just becomes a giant root ball and it almost chokes itself.

 

[mcfire12]

They should be out of the pots in 3 years. My huge dilemma is I can't find any type of trellis system that people are using while growing in pots? Do I just use one 12' pole with 3 wires going to the top? Do I try to zig zag them like in the picture I posted?

 

[solidbass]

They should be out of the pots in 3 years. My huge dilemma is I can't find any type of trellis system that people are using while growing in pots? Do I just use one 12' pole with 3 wires going to the top? Do I try to zig zag them like in the picture I posted?

You can make your own trellis if you want. As long as the bines can grow up (at some positive angle) greater than 20 feet you're good. Use garden stakes and twine if you want! Also, it seems like the bigger the pot the better. 5 gallon pots I hear are not big enough. You need somewhere around 24 inches in diameter.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=474201 This thread is using a trellis type system you could modify to fit into a pot.

I'll be using a different technique where I try to keep the middle of the pot clear to increase airflow through the plant. I'll be using a pot that is 24 inches in diameter making it's circumference 75.36 inches. If I make 3 wraps of twine around garden stakes that go around the circumference of the pot, I'll have about 18.84 feet of "vertical growth." Make a couple crosses at the top and boom you have over 20 feet for the bines to grow on.

A disclaimer: I'm new to this as well but I've been trying to research everything thoroughly!

 

[brewcat]

They should be out of the pots in 3 years. My huge dilemma is I can't find any type of trellis system that people are using while growing in pots? Do I just use one 12' pole with 3 wires going to the top? Do I try to zig zag them like in the picture I posted?

Do you have a good spot to plant them? What's the point of having them in pots? Your first year or two is all about root growth.

Anyway, here is my system I used to use. I bought a couple big shepherd's hooks. I then ran twine up and over to another shepherd's hook. Think clothesline. It was something like 6 foot upwards growth then I would train the bines sideways to the other which was probably another 8 feet.

 

[mcfire12]

I actually ended up with 3 half barrels that look pretty cool. These things are massive! Had my girlfriend pick them up and they barely fit in her little cruze. I still can't figure out the trellis for them. We had a big storm tonight with a ton of wind and i'm pretty concerned about wind at this point. The only thing I can think of is a 1" galvanized pipe, set it in a 3"pvc tube and fill it with concrete and stick it in the pot, and add soil around it and hope for the best. Put an eyelet on top of the pipe and run three strings down to the dirt with tent stakes. I really need some better ideas. Someone has to be growing hops in a pot... The reason I'm not sticking them in the ground is I'm planning on selling my home in the next year or two.

 

[thaymond]

Before I built the trellis my plants are in, I had 3 potted plants. Don't wear the pots, especially if you have barrels now. Put them on a southern exposure, run a line to the top of the house and let them grow. There's no shame in going cheap on a potted hop plant while you get your trellis system put together. Your first year is going to focus on developing strong roots to power crazy growth in following years.

 

[shellsbells]

The first year I grew hops, I found this article on BYO.com and used the instructions as a guide https://byo.com/bock/item/1872-growing-hops-in-containers
It was super cheap & easy, though this year I'm going to build something a little more decorative