Gadenin日本語Get the appThe shape of the hop year
Hops are herbaceous perennials, which means the whole above-ground plant dies each winter and is rebuilt from the crown each spring. Nothing you leave standing carries over; there is no framework to prune, no old wood to manage. That makes the calendar unusually clean, because each stage follows the last in a fixed order and the whole cycle takes about six months.
The plant's year is driven by daylength as much as by temperature. It climbs while days are lengthening and switches to making side arms and flowers once the longest days have passed. This is why height is not optional: a bine that has not reached the top of its support by the time daylength turns will branch wherever it happens to be, and a short bine simply has fewer places to carry cones.
The whole thing also improves with age. A first-year plant will climb but crop barely at all; the second year gives a light picking; by the third or fourth year the crown is mature and cropping fully, and it stays productive for a decade or more.
| Stage | What the plant is doing | Your job |
|---|---|---|
| Late winter | Dormant crown underground | Cut old stubs flush, mulch, put up strings and check the top wire |
| Early spring | First shoots emerge | Let them reach 8 to 12 in (20 to 30 cm), then cut the whole flush off |
| Mid spring | Second flush comes up stronger | Select two to three shoots per string and wind them on clockwise |
| Late spring | Fast climbing, up to a foot (30 cm) a day | Feed, water deeply, cut off surplus shoots, start checking for aphids |
| Early summer | Bines reach the top wire | Strip the lowest 3 to 4 ft (90 to 120 cm), stop nitrogen |
| Midsummer | Side arms form, burrs appear | Water steadily, potassium feed, watch for mildew and spider mite |
| Late summer | Cones fill and lighten | Start the rustle test; pick over two or three visits |
| Autumn | Foliage yellows and dies back | Cut bines to a 12 in (30 cm) stub, clear debris, mulch the crown |
| Winter | Crown dormant | Leave alone; repair supports; divide crowns if needed |
Spring: the decisions that set the crop
Almost everything that determines the size of the harvest is decided in a six-week window in spring, when the shoots come up and you choose which ones to keep. A crown that is allowed to run all its shoots produces a mass of thin bines that shade each other and set small cones. A crown reduced to six or eight strong bines puts the same root energy into far fewer, far better stems.
- Get the strings up before the shoots appear Check the top wire, replace worn twine and set the ground anchors while the bed is empty and you can walk on it. Trying to rig supports over shoots already a foot high means treading on the crown.
- Cut the first flush When the earliest shoots reach 8 to 12 in (20 to 30 cm), cut them all off at ground level. The second flush is more even, stronger and later, and misses the earliest aphid pressure. Note the date of the first flush each year; it is the most useful single date in your records.
- Train the second flush clockwise Choose the strongest shoots, two to three per string, and wind each two or three turns around its string clockwise viewed from above. Do it in the morning while the growth is flexible, and wear sleeves against the hooked hairs.
- Feed while the plant is climbing Apply a balanced feed as shoots emerge and again about six weeks later. This is the only window where nitrogen helps. Water deeply in dry weather, since the plant is building the entire canopy in a few weeks.
- Keep cutting surplus shoots New ground shoots keep coming through late spring and early summer. Cut them at soil level every couple of weeks. Every one you leave costs cones on the bines you kept.
Summer: hold the line and watch closely
Once the bines reach the top the work changes character. There is little to add and a fair amount to remove and to inspect. Stop nitrogen, strip the lower stems, keep watering deeply through cone filling and check the undersides of leaves every few days for aphids and the upper surfaces for the pale stippling of spider mite.
Burrs, the small hairy pre-cones that appear at the side arms in midsummer, are the signal that the crop is committed. From that point the plant needs steady moisture more than anything else. A drought during cone filling gives light, thin cones that never come right, and it is the most common reason for a disappointing picking from a healthy-looking plant.
Late summer is the picking window, and it is a judgement of texture rather than a date. Cones are ready when they feel dry and papery, spring back when squeezed and rustle in the hand, and when the lupulin at the base of the bracts is deep yellow and sticky. Top and sunny cones ripen first, so pick a plant over two or three sessions rather than stripping it in one.
The one thing that cannot be fixed later in the season is height. If your support runs out at eight feet, the plant will still grow, but it will pile up on itself, shade its own side arms and hold damp air. Fix the support in the dormant season, not when the bines are already halfway up it.
Autumn, winter and the long view
After picking, let the remaining foliage yellow and die back naturally; the plant is moving reserves down into the crown, and cutting it green robs it. Once it has gone over, cut the bines down to a stub about a foot (30 cm) tall, strip them off the strings and compost or shred them. Rake up fallen leaves and take them away rather than leaving them at the base, since mildew overwinters in debris. Spread compost or rotted manure over the root area, keeping it an inch or two clear of the crown itself.
Winter is a spectator season. The crown is hardy in most temperate gardens and needs no protection beyond mulch where winters are severe. Use the time to repair supports and, every few years in late winter, to lift and divide a crown that has become congested, replanting the outer, vigorous pieces with buds and discarding the old woody center.
Keep a simple annual record and it will do more for the crop than any product: the date the first shoots appeared, the date you trained the bines, when the first burrs showed, the picking dates, the green and dry weights per plant, and the date you first saw aphids or mildew. Three years of those lines make the next season predictable, tell you whether each crown is still gaining, and let you act a week before a problem instead of a week after it.