Hop Growing 2014 season (Part 1)

On our allotment I planted some hop rhizomes that I bought online from willingham-nurseries.co.uk. I have four rhizomes in total now, and this year will be their second year growing.

Last year I had them growing over a cheapo garden arch, and they all did quite well. however they did get a bit crowded and clumpy doing it this way.

I'm growing:

• REDSELL'S EASTWELL GOLDING
• TARGET
• CHALLENGER
• FUGGLE

This year I got a couple of flagpoles from ebay, nice sturdy aluminum ones and have put them up either side of the allotment site. They only stand about 5 meters high, and have 3 lines per rhizome going up to a cross line between the poles for the hops to climb up, but it will be a vast improvement to last year.

Not sure how many bines to run up each string as yet, was thinking of maybe two per string, but I'll see how it goes.

The Fuggle is the leader of the pack so far with the first bine now reaching the lines to grow up to the dizzy heights now available to them.