Your Ultimate Gardening Guide.
Rules
Hello! Hope its okay to ask some questions here. I read you’re supposed to trim away the earliest sprouts on hops, as they’re usually bull bines. Bull bines are recognised by their large spacing between nodes as well as being hollow inside. These don’t look hollow to me and the nodes are rather tightly spaced I think. Should still cut them down?
How old and large is the plant?
The first few years as the plant mass grows you don't want to prune anything.
Once the plant is established, cutting the early vines helps with increasing and concentrating yield. Commercially the spray a dissicant on the early growth to knock them back.
Im so glad i finally started asking people here (after two years..!) Thank you for the answer! I think that perfectly satisfies my wonderings. Its only been in this location for about a year, making this its first spring not being in a pot.
Just realised the other pictures didn’t get included!
Bull Shoots will look abnormally large compared to regular growth. They grow too fast because they are using up all the stored nutrients from the dormant plant, and that's why they end up hollow.
If these aren't hollow, it's good growth.
Well, its not like i can cut them to see if they’re hollow. I added some pictures i failed to upload in the OP. I planted them here last year on top of a good chunk of compost so they should have plenty of that.
I also heard a claim that diseases will hide in the early sprouts, or was it in the old growth? Do you know if this plays any role?
I actually only cut last years stems down earlier this year as last year didn’t have any harvest anyway. Perhaps I should have cut them deeper down?
Sorry for the bombardment of questions, hope its okay.
Diseases can be anywhere, so I'm not sure the context of what you read. Just imagine it can be anywhere and everywhere 🤣 I'm not familiar with what Hops in general are more susceptible to though, but just look for abnormal leaves or stunted growth.
Hops works kinda like Grapevines in that only old growth will spawn viable shoots for the current growing season. This is why you wouldn't have had a crop if you just planted last year. This year just pay attention to the new shoots off the old growth, and that's where your crops will come in. At the end of the season you can train your vines and cut back the new growth however you want, or leave it in place to train on alyoir trellis of choice so next year new growth will come off those.
Hope that makes sense.
I have watched video after video trying to get my teflon brain to hold onto anything relevant. Multiple videos claim you cut down the first set of shoots because they’re always bull shoots. And that the disease hides in the old shoots. So if this is all bullshit, I am in disbelief and grateful for your correction! Who would go on the internet and just lie! Thanks, mulch appreciated!
For now, I will just not cut anything yet.
Well if they are making video content, they make it to maximize likes and engagement, not necessarily accuracy 😂
All plants are susceptible to diseases at anytime is my point. Again, I'm not super familiar with Hops specifically, but if someone is claiming diseases are hiding in old growth, I'd take that with a grain of salt and find further reference to that. Doesn't seem quite right to me.