This is a Hoppy Time of Year

With the hop rhizomes spitting out new vines, it is time to remove the old vines from last years crop. Now that these vines have seen the light of day, they will start to climb to the heavens at an unbelievable rate. It is imperative that the old growth is removed before the new vines start to encircle the old growth like a Barber's Pole.

You can see all of the new shoots as well as the old growth that will be removed at the base of the plant.

All old vines have been removed, along with the old twine. We are ready to restring the canopy.

This picture was taken with the camera parallel to the ground. As you can see there are hundreds of vines ready for something to encircle.

New string will be put in place that will start at the ground and make its way to the top. When the vines reach the top guide wire, they will have grown about 20 feet, and will be looking to go higher.
Although it rained cats and dogs last night, the skies are blue now.

Two hours later, with the entire canopy restrung, the skies had clouded over.

Well, we're ready now, grow baby grow.

Prepping the ground on the other side of the canopy. We will be planting this area with new rhizomes. The new rhizomes will come from some of the existing plants that need to be thinned.

I hope you enjoyed, and if you did, when the new area is ready for planting, I'll keep you informed with some pics.

thebigsweed