Hop Height

[rowan57]

Hi All,

Hops are well and truly native to this country so growing them isn't a problem! I am however a bit limited the length of posts I can easily obtain.

So, my question is. For those who are growing hops already, can I get away with 12ft posts (which by the time they have been buried will give appr. 10ft of climbing)? These are cheap and readily available. Anything longer than this is proving very difficult to source and quite costly.

Thoughts appreciated!

 

[grainbill]

We planted ours against the fence, 6 footer, then ran a cable from a couple of fence post to the eaves of the house (two stories) for a total of about 20 ft. Then ran strands of jute to where the sprouts were and let them climb....hops on the roof....

 

[lowelldw]

I have had them only 1 season but I used some dead pine trees that allowed the hop to grow about 16 feet high but they went higher and drooped down.

I think your 10 feet would be ok but would be good if they could grow horizontally to another post??

 

[Scotty_g]

I live in Wisconsin (short-ish growing season, ~44° North) and my hops typically want more than the 14' of vertical space they get. Liberty and Willamette do ok with that much pole, but the Cascade could probably get up to 18' without much trouble if I let them go higher. Instead, I go horizontal.

 

[rowan57]

Thanks Guys. I do have a 30 or 40ft wooden fence that I can utilise, maybe start one variety at one end and second at the other?

 

[thaymond]

I started a thread here

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=474201

I Made a low profile hop cage. It worked out so that everything was contained to 6 vertical feet, yet allowed for nearly 40 feet of growth. Here's a late July pic.

View attachment 1421297862875.jpg

Height was an issue for me because of HOA issues. So I solved that problem and ended up with about 4 lbs of dry hops from 4 varieties. Looking forward to this year's take!

 

[Scotty_g]

The fence will work pretty well, but the hops will twist around it. Also make sure that whoever is on the other side of the fence is ok with the hops hanging over; my dad has hops growing against his picket fence and the neighbor on the other side cuts the bines dangling into their yard. It sucks to lose 6' of growth because someone clips out a 4" section in "their yard".

Thanks Guys. I do have a 30 or 40ft wooden fence that I can utilise, maybe start one variety at one end and second at the other?

 

[rowan57]

The fence will work pretty well, but the hops will twist around it. Also make sure that whoever is on the other side of the fence is ok with the hops hanging over; my dad has hops growing against his picket fence and the neighbor on the other side cuts the bines dangling into their yard. It sucks to lose 6' of growth because someone clips out a 4" section in "their yard".

Well its a solid panelled fence, so they should hopefully (with some assistance) climb neatly along the top The other side is also my land so no worries there.