Container hops? Anyone successful?

[jason.loxton]

I have a surplus of rhizomes. Am doing a bed in my backyard and was going to build a bed in the community garden at Cape Breton University, but facilities isn't keen on the idea. I have a lot of (50) containers left over from a hedge I put in last year. They are below the 20" diameter that Chris Colby recommends in his BYO article on container hops, but they're free. Was thinking of building a movable trellis and planting a dozen of so rhizomes in the containers, since I may have a in ground location available in the future, but don't really have room for them now (well, I do, but I want more in my backyard than just hops!).

Anyone successfully grow hops in containers here? Want to describe your set up and any wisdom you have?

jason

[ottiscan]

Hi Jason,

I've been growing Cascade and Goldings in containters beside my backyard deck for the past few years. They are in Rubbermaid Rough Tote bins that have a false bottom and are self watering (that's another story).

The plants gave me around 6 pds of hops last year, enough for two 10 gallons batches made with fresh hop and supplemented with pellet hopss, they are quite tastey.

The hops start in the bins, then are trained up a piece of twine. The hops grow vertically to about 12 feet and then run out of twine. I resolved this by continuing the twine horizontially over my deck. In the end the were about 16 to 20 feet long from the bin to the tip of the plant.

[elreplica]

Cool! I was just looking that info up and a BYO mag article say that indeed it is doable. I've currently got three rhizomes that need moving - well two as my Saaz never reappeared this year after being dog trampled last season. My Northern Brewer and Cascade are up and crawling but need a better area. Hopefully, I can dig them out now, bucketize them and they'll start the crawl.

[mstead]

Hi Jason,

I've been growing Cascade and Goldings in containters beside my backyard deck for the past few years. They are in Rubbermaid Rough Tote bins that have a false bottom and are self watering (that's another story).

The plants gave me around 6 pds of hops last year, enough for two 10 gallons batches made with fresh hop and supplemented with pellet hopss, they are quite tastey.

The hops start in the bins, then are trained up a piece of twine. The hops grow vertically to about 12 feet and then run out of twine. I resolved this by continuing the twine horizontially over my deck. In the end the were about 16 to 20 feet long from the bin to the tip of the plant.

What do you do with them over the winter? Do they stay in the totes outside?

[ottiscan]

Once they're done in fall, I trim them back to 4 inches or so, then wrap the top with a tarp. I did loose one plant in the first year but they've done well since.
In the picutre you see many shoots coming up, I should mention that I only train two shoots from each plant to clime the twine. There are 3 Goldings and 3 Cascade. I suspect they are going to be too crowded this year.
I read somewhere that you constantly need to trim back the root ball to keep them the same container, or use big containers.