Topic: Growing Hops

[RenishawPhil]

We were given some hops last year and planted them, thinking they would rot in the wet winter.

But they havent done !, they have done very well and some are now at the top of very long canes

Do i now cut the ends of or try and train them in a different direction?

[Nomspatch]

Attempting to grow hops any way but up is a full time job...I grow one (well it was one, it is now a mass of shoots every year) and have attempted to grow it along a fence, its growth rate is phenomenal and its lead shoots I call snakes, as they relentlessly try to go UP every day I bend them down and tie them in, it is a fight but they are progressing the way I want them to, if with a fight!
A flagpole would be useful...the hop fields of kent were all 20+ft poles and then wires and were picked by blokes on stilts...perseverance will get you there, it gets them where they want to go that is for sure!