The Dilemma

[ODA]

I’ve been a renter for years. This being the case, I used my parents backyard to start a hop garden three years ago. Right now, there are two third year Cascades and two third year nuggets along with two second year Centennials and two second year Chinooks in the garden. The plants went bonkers last year.

But now, my wife and I are planning to move into our first home. I’d like to transplant these hops to my own backyard but we don’t close on the house until May 10…….will that be too late? Bines have already broken ground in their current space. Part of the issue is that if they stay in the same garden this year, I will need to put together a temporary but more substantial trellis system ASAP to keep them an order…but the more perfect solution is to build a permanent trellis system in my OWN backyard and move the plants over this year.

 

[KegWrangler]

OK, not the perfect scenario but this should work, and you'll end up with hops at both locations...

1. Cut the shoots, cook and eat like asparagus.
2. Dig up the rhizomes and chop a 6-8" piece off each end. Put this in the fridge in a ziplock bag with a piece of paper towel to absorb excess moisture.
3. Replace the main "crown" of the rhizomes to continue growing for this year's crop.
4. When you get to the new place, pull the rhizomes out and plant them...they likely won't produce this year, but new transplants don't as you probably remember.

Option B. Get some planters (big) and put the crowns in those until you can move them to the new house.

 

[ODA]

Thanks for the input. Option B probably makes the most sense for me as my goal is to have hops just at my new place (so I don't have to manage beds in two locations) without losing the maturity of these plants. I will research digging up crowns...seems like it may be a little tricky to do so without damaging them. If output is affected this year, no biggie, but I'm trying not to start from square one.

Is it best two transfer for the crowns to a planter sooner or later? (i.e., I still have a month before they will go in the ground)

And when you say big planter, like the size of a sheetrock bucket?

 

[KegWrangler]

That would be pretty big. I would transfer them to the planter sooner than later.

I dug mine up and moved them around after the first year, then again the second year. They didn't go very deep or have a taproot or anything like that. I still got about a pound (dry ~6.5%AA estimated) from each plant after each transfer.

Here's how I did it: I just cut into the roots 12-18 inches from the center all around, loosened the dirt underneath, and picked up the whole bare root with my hands (I tried to just move the roots with dirt but it was too heavy and the dirt fell away anyway). Then I moved them to the new spot, covered with 3 to 6" of loose/de-rocked dirt, and gave them a good drink.

If you give them a couple inches of compost when you transplant them and they'll thank you for it.

When I lived on the dry side of the state, I had to cut all the shoots off in mid-May one year after a late frost, so you can continue to cut the shoots (maybe once a week) while your waiting to transfer them, and you should still have a long enough growing season.

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

Good advice keg! Test your soil at the new home. Should work fine.

 

[KegWrangler]

That fact that my hops are still alive is evidence that they are effectively idiot proof (or at least idiot resistant).

Last year a few of them sent runners out 3 or 4 feet from the main crown around June/July, so I did what anyone would do...ripped them up and transplanted by the columns of my deck. They didn't do much last year, but they are off and running almost as good as the established plants this year.

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

Cascade, Nugget and magnum are idiot proof, that is why I have so many!

 

[chemman14]

Check out these awesome pots. http://www.smartpots.com/ I currently have 2 45 gallon smart pots with a cascade and goldings. They seem to really love all the air these provide to the roots!!!