Hops, as you probably know, are the raw material for beer. It is also a very beautiful flowering liana, a climbing plant capable of reaching more than 33 feets. It is a very hardy plant, down to -22° F. The hop is very well suited to shady and semi-shady and even sunny exposures.
Hops can be planted in spring as well as in autumn in soil mixed with potting soil and possibly organic amendment.
Hops can be grown in pots for climbing on a terrace or balcony.
Contents
The hop rhizome
The hop rhizome resembles a large root with a node from which jets emerge and surrounded by small roots. The rhizome is a storage space for the nutrients necessary for the plant to flourish. This rhizome will develop gradually and each year it will grow larger.
The rhizomes provided are therefore derived from a plant from which part of the rhizome has been cut in order to duplicate it. With the nutrients, the rhizome is able to resume by itself. It is therefore essential to give it sufficient space to develop, but make sure each year that it does not expand until the root system is impossible to control.
Planting the hop rhizome in pots
To plant it’s quite simple, if it’s a rhizome make a hole 12 inches deep and put the rhizome at the bottom, cover it with soil and water. For the potted plant, make a hole the diameter of the pot and put it in the hole. Here again water, but avoid the leaves so as not to encourage the proliferation of fungal diseases.
Planting hops in pots
- Opt for a wide and deep pot: minimum, 15 inches wide and 25 inches deep.
- Mix some soil from your garden with a planting or horticultural soil.
- Position your plant
- Cover it with soil
- Water abundantly
- Place your seedling near a trellis, an arbor or a wall: it will be used to grow.
- In case of aphid attack, treat with nettle manure or a decoction of horsetail or black soap.
- In case of verticilliosis, a disease attacking the sap and due to a fungus present in the soil, Bordeaux mixture will be effective.
Hop harvest in pots
Hop cones are harvested just before they open.
For beer production they are first dried before being sent to the brewery.
You can also make nice bunches of dried flowers out of them because they have the advantage that they remain fragrant for many weeks.
The multiplication of hops in pots
The multiplication of hops can be done by sowing, cutting or layering.
Sowing
Simply collect the seeds from the female flowers in late fall and sow them the following spring. Once seedlings appear, put them in a pot and after a well conducted growth, the plants can go into the ground.
The cutting
This consists in recovering 7 to 8 inch stems during the summer and then letting them rest in a rooting powder, all wrapped in an insulating film. Once the first roots appear, you can put your hop cutting in a pot. Once spring arrives, it can be planted in the ground.
Layering
Several layering techniques exist. The simplest is to select a stem of the mother plant, remove all its leaves and bury part of it in the ground in order to generate rooting.
Summary
This climbing plant is usually grown on a trellis, an arbor or a pergola.
It offers a very beautiful bloom during all the summer.
Its spike-shaped flowers are fragrant and are even used to flavour beer.
Also called northern vine, you will appreciate this plant all the more if you install it near a place of life because it is scented.
In fact, it is in the north that it is cultivated industrially for the production of beer.
