damaged hop vines

[amartin]

To all of the hop growers here, I need a little help. I went out to see how much my hops grew today (not enough), and I noticed that 2 of the 5 vines growing from my cascades had the tips broken off. I guess they were a little too close to the deck and the got smashed up in the wind. Anyway, they're not going to grow anymore, so I'm not sure what I should do with them. They're about 4 and 5 feet tall (the shortest, fortunately), so they're not going to grow any hops. Do I cut them down to the ground, or should I leave them be to grab more sun for the rest of the vines? I don't think I'll let more grow in their place, I think letting 5 vines up on a three year old plant was probably greedy.

[akr71]

The bines that have been clipped will start to throw out laterals at the same spot where the leaves are. Its OK, you might not get as high a yield as if it hadn't been topped, but you should still get cones.