HOPS – one month later

I know many (all) of you asked for an update when the hops start to flower, but I thought a one-month update would be interesting, given how fast they grow.

Winning the speed-growing contest

In the photos I posted one month ago, the hops were about 1-2 feet tall, measured in growth up their guide-ropes as opposed to laid out flat. Recall that hops are bines that like to wrap around anything in their path (poles, ropes, fences, grasses, each other) and so their actual length was probably double that. And truthfully, the photos were a few weeks old at that time, so the hops are now a good two months along in their 2024 growing season.

The hops have now grown all the way up the guide ropes to the tops of the poles. A quick bit of math suggests they have grown about 18-20 feet (or more) and again, this is measured in growth up the ropes, not laid out full length. That’s about 4 inches per day up the ropes. With a couple of months of growing season remaining, all the bines can do now is twist around at the top of the pole in a big tangled mess, putting a damper in my engineered plan for an easy harvest by lowering each rope individually. New plan in the works!

Timing is of the essence because once the bines start to wrap around something, it’s difficult to unwrap them. I checked on the field every day and endeavored to unwind bines from invasive plants and redirect them up the nearest rope. I’d say I was about 85% successful but there is definitely some ground-level crawling (note that this will be much improved once the unwanted grasses are removed for good). The photos below provide a close up look at how the bines wrap themselves around each other and the guide ropes.

Are those flowers?

It’s too early for hops flowers (also called “cones” which makes way more sense once you see how they form), but I have seen early signs of buds that might be immature flowers about to bloom or might just be additional leaves sprouting. The flowers pop out so quickly that in previous years I didn’t get a good look at their early stages. I have circled what might be flowers in the images below. If you zoom in on these pictures, you’ll also notice that the bines and the leaf branches are covered with what looks like tiny little hairs.

The Hops fight back

These little hairs are not at all soft and fuzzy like they appear, but are instead very coarse and “grippy” as they are used to help the bines climb. They also help the bines leave aggressive-looking scratches on your bare skin after you’ve been working hard to clear the patch of invasive grasses and help make sure all the little baby plants are climbing the ropes instead of the fences and wild flowers. This is what my arms look like after a day of working with the hops, just from the hops plants gently dragging across my skin. Hops are assholes.

Next Steps

It’s just maintenance at this point, which mostly involves pulling the invasive grasses over and over and over. The grass grows almost as fast as the hops, and once I work my way through the entire field I have to start over again at the beginning. It’s maddening!! I have given myself a pretty decent case of aggravated Carpal Tunnel from pulling grass, and so in a fit of semi-rage, I decided to uber-mulch each area that I mange to clear of grass. Hopefully this will slow the grass down and make it easier to pull out. At the very least, it looks prettier!

Next update when flowers emerge!