Time to trim 2nd year hops. Help!

[Bisco_Ben]

So my 2nd year plants (tettnang, williamette, chinook and cascade) have been shooting up for about a month now. The cascade and chinook have reached about 2-3 feet with the williamette at about 2 feet and the tettnang at less than 1 foot. The chinook and cascade have 7 shoots each, the williamette has 5 and the tettnang has I think 4. My question is, how should I trim and train each of these plants? I have read some people say to only let the 3 strongest bines from each plant/rhizome grow and trim the rest, while others say that you can get around 6 bines per plant as long as you use multiple strings. Considering that this is my second year, what do you guys think? Should I trim all but the 3 strongest bines from each plant and train them up 1 line? Or, should I put in an additional line per plant and let 6 bines go per plant with 3 bines on each string? I am looking to maximize my harvest this year since my first year didnt produce anything. Any helpful insight would be much appreciated!

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, I grew two strings with 2 bines each on my 15 second year plants, and 2 strings with 3 bines each on their third year. Stuffed the freezer compartment of one of my full-size beer fridges with dried/vac-bagged cones. I'm sticking with 2x3 again - and I'm almost afraid what's going to happen this year

Cheers!

 

[Bisco_Ben]

Anyone else? Day_trippr's advice seems good so im thinking of adding another line for each plant and doing 2 bines per string, which is a total of 4 bines per plant. Does this sound like a good plan for 2nd year plants? I was originally going to do 3 bines per plant on 1 string but this sounds better to me. I'd love to hear anyone else's advice as well!

 

[dirtyd90]

2nd year I would go 3 bines per rope, 2 ropes per plant.

 

[SPR-GRN]

FWIW: I'm doing 2 bines per rope, 3 ropes for my second year stuff - so 6 bines in total per plant.