Below is the first plant I moved. The variety is Fuggles used for ales. I moved this here 3 years ago. I have done very little to it. Pour some fertilizer on the crown each spring and thats about it. It's grown very well and produced very well until a wind storm came along and stripped most of the cones off it.
This is the second plant I moved. East Kent Goldings. More about that below.
Here is a rhizome. These grow off to the side form the main crown. If you picture the main crown off to the right, you can see how the plant expands. These are right at and just below the soil surface. Notice the new growth and the roots. Last year, this was a bine. If you look at the dried brown end on the left going to the top of the picture, imagine this as the growing shoot last year. The bine itself was in contact with the soil and it sent out roots over the winter and new growth this spring. Drop this in the soil and you've got everything you need for a new hop plant.
This should give you an idea of two things, the size of the crown and the size of the roots. Look how big around the root is next to the shovel. There were at least 6 roots of this size on this crown and they grew on average 5 feet long (Probably longer, but they would break off when I pulled them up). Some of them I had to cut with a saw.
After a good 45 minutes of digging I finally got this monster out of the earth. Here it is next to a 5 gallon bucket to compare.
Here is the bottom. It looks like there was no one main taproot and instead it sent roots out in all directions. The roots are easy to distinguish from the rhizomes.
Here's a closer view of the crown. Look at all of the shoots. I divided this thing up and replanted it. I would guess I trimmed about 75 percent of it off. I planted one large section of the crown and will use the rest to trade or give away.
Here are the rhizomes I harvested . I didn't bother to count but as you can see, there's a lot. Place one in the ground and 4 years later you can start the process all over again.
Here's a closer view of the rhizomes. Look at the new growth on each piece. These things are ready to be replanted.
For the time being, I planted them in this container. I will leave them here until I can find a new home for them. I'm going to take them to my next homebrew club meeting.
Here is the next plant, the East Kent Goldings. Another good one for ales. This one grew completely different from the Fuggles. I attribute that to the location. This one grew on the east side of my deck. It only got morning sun and hardly grew at all for the first 2 years. One other thing; the bines tended to grow under the deck and the come out the side. I found rhizomes 6 feet away from the main stem on this one. Also, I was able to pull most of it out with my hands. No hard digging required.
A short time spent trimming and here's another batch of rhizomes ready to plant. Each of these are around 12 inches long and as thick as your little finger. To compare, I started with something about 3 inches long and maybe as think as a pencil.
Here is the new home. The south side of my garage . They will get a full day of sun. Notice the twine and string I will use as a trellis. Hops need support. You'll see a picture below of how these 2 plants did last year. First year hops don't grow or produce as well as established plants. Second year plants do better but still are lacking when it come to hop cone production. When they get to their third year, they really take off.
Just a picture to show the twine string trellis. I have always let them grow up my deck and have never had to trellis them before. Oh well. Something new to learn about.
Here they are last year in September. Pay no attention to the steps on the ground. We had a small tornado blow through and my steps fell down. From the ground to the top rail of the deck is about 12 to 14 feet. I routinely trimmed the hops when they got to the top of the rail.
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