What to do when hops run out of growing room

[Phill]

Ive been growing my hops from the top of the trellis, along some string to the roof of my greenhouse. Now that they've got there what now?



I took this photo last week, the vines are now just flopping about on the roof. I've got nothing else to train them onto and they will probabley end up braking in the wind. Is it better to cut the tips out of the vines to make them stop growing? Or will this damage them in the look run?

[SiHoltye]

Without much crop growing experience think I'd do like Chris suggests. That's what you do to tomatoes to get them to concentrate on the flowers/fruits already present, pinch out the new main tips. With hops the cones are on the secondary bines anyway so as long as there's sufficient length on the main bines to allow secondaries to grow by halting their efforts to get longer they should fill out and fruit/cone more???

[edit1now]

I put some Netlon on the roof of my shed so the hops would have something to grab hold of, not that they really need it. I'd say don't worry, and they will look after themselves. If you're the sort of gardener who likes to fiddle with things then by all means have a go, but in my experience the hops will survive and produce a lot of cones while allowed to rampage across the the shed, the neighbour's garage roof, down the fence...

[WishboneBrewery]

The 'nipping out' of the growing tip works with Chilli plants, keeping them shorter more bushy and better cropping..... fingers crossed for the same with the Hop

[Phill]

Thanks for the comments, i've "nipped out" the very end of the hop vines and that seems to have stopped them. There are vast amounts of side shoots coming off the vines this year, they do look like they are turning into triffids. Hopefully the crop will be good.

[chris_reboot]

good luck with that Phil!
I just planted 3 out today, so don't expect anything off this year, but hopefully will be nicely established for next year, and if I can get anything like that growth I'll be pleased!

How many years have you had them in for?

[Phill]

They are both in there second year. I got a good crop last year but they have really taken off this year.

[flytact]

My second year plants are have been trained into two sets of vines each and are both well over 16 feet each. I've trained one down a set of steps and just may cut the tips off the others as they are trying to grow into the soffet.
Pictures soon I promise.

[Phill]

"Nipping out" update,

The vines have stopped growing, from the ends at least. They've put an extra couple of meters on and are now trailing over the greenhouse roof. There are now side shoots coming out at every possible opportunity, much more than last year. It would make sense that the planet is now putting more energy into growing side shoots and hopefully more flowers. Although I’m no gardener so couldn’t tell you that for sure.