Home Trellis System

I'll post a picture later... I used zip ties to attach wire fencing between pairs of 8 ft tall posts I anchored in our raised bed hop boxes. The fencing provides a grid work for the hops to be trained up, across and down.

We also have some first year rhizomes in pots with 30 ft fishing line connected to our garage roof and back down to the ground that the hops can climb up and down.

 

Anything that goes up at least 8 or 10 feet and gives the bines something to wrap around will work...homegrowing hops is not a money-making proposition and labor intensive when harvest arrives. I prefer the Jethro Bodine hop trellises (hog wire and 2x4s) : ) I will also post a pix mid-season if the new format allows easily.

 

Im going to take an eye lag bolt and put it at the top point of my house and run some jute/bailing twine up to it. Prob be 4 lines in total going to the eye at the top and anchor the bottom with a heady rock buried in the ground at the base. I saw Allagash used balling twine last summer to run the hops up.

 

I was searching this today on google. Plenty of ideas, give it a search.

 

I'm actually still working out the kinks in my design that I am going to build here in a few weeks. The plan is to build a raised bed 2' deep by 2' wide by 24' long (extends along the back of the house) and put 4X4X16 p-treated post in the front corners of the planter. I will attach the posts to the roof overhang for wind-and-bend control, and then run a wire between the eye-bolts at the top, and string up 3-4 pieces of twine from each plant (8 in all) to the guy wire for the hops to climb (still trying to figure out what to affix the twine to at the base though).

 

Here's the setup on one side of my house - you can just make out the vertical sisal twine, attached to a 2x4 that is pulled up using two pulleys and nylon rope. I have that tied off to a railing off to the side. When I harvest, I lower the unit. The sisal twine is tied to stakes near the mounds (2). Other than the obvious benefits, it also adds some lush greenery to an otherwise featureless, 15' wall with southern exposure.

 

Found one from last summer. Crystal on the left, Nugget on the right. Both second year.

 

I have two big posts in the ground that I attach 16' 2x4s to with carriage bolts. Then I run a main line between them and two guy wires on both ends. So it is actually close to 20' tall.

It's a bit of a hassle to put up/take down, but the hops love it.

Ok, somebody please explain to me how to post a pic?

 

[quote="
Ok, somebody please explain to me how to post a pic?[/quote]
I uploaded my pictures to a file hosting site (imageshack is free), then there is an option to copy the picture link, then I hit the "insert/edit image" button in the tool bar up top in the reply box, then I pasted the picture link.
Frankly I was shocked when it worked.

 

Also, for a site like Flickr, get it to the original image, right click, and select copy image location. Then paste that URL into the insert image option here on BA in the reply area.

 

I use a teepee style trelis. The center post the longest peice of electrical conduit (12ft?) I could get at home depot. Then I tie bailing twin from the top and spike it in the ground. Just make sure you only use one hop type per teepee otherwise they will get all mixed up. Works great

 

This is what I do on the side on my garage and it works very well. I use clothes line as my twine though.

 

Ground anchor with five strings attached to the fascia on my house.

 

Here is my hop trellis. Made of redwood and cedar. The hop bines grow up strings between the top of the fence and the trellis. There are also strings that go between the trellis and pergola.

 

I set two 15' treated posts in the ground, and slid a length of pipe through holes I had bored. I made sure the pipe running across was level, and filled the holes back in around the posts. The center is supported with another length of pipe with a fork at the end. I run plastic twine from a post hammered into the ground by the plant up to pipe clamps at regular intervals along the pipe.




It works well. It provides more than enough support for the vines when they're at their growth peak. The posts are actually slightly bowed due to the support in the middle, but it's not a big deal.

 

I just planted my hops last week. I'm planning (i think) on a-frame styke with 16 foot pressure treated, with a 12' cross bar.

 

Beautiful set up.
My ghetto rig is is a 3' piece of rigid 1" conduit pounded flush into the ground, into which is placed a 3/4 stick of rigid conduit with a threaded coupling, and 3/4 x 1/2 threaded reducer, which has a stick of 1/2" rigid conduit threaded into in it. This provides a 17 foot height. Two stakes support 3/8 rope guy lines to create tension. The bine support rope goes between my "mast", and a threaded eye bolt into a tree. The jute string is staked to the ground, and runs upto the support rope.
Your set up could be on HG TV,

 

My neighbor planted bamboo, so now I have bamboo. I dug a 60 foot/2foot deep trench and set a heavy-duty plastic barrier to stop its progress, leaving 2-3 feet on my side of the fence. I now have a contained bamboo crop which I harvest for hops and grape trellises and bean and tomato poles. I use 4 12-15 foot bamboo poles interwoven with pear branches for each hop variety.

 

Basically what I was planning as well..