To cut or not to cut
To cut or not to cut
Hi, a few years ago I found a wild hop plant that turned out to be a male plant, since then I have realised that each year the leaves just grow again from the same bines, this has got me thinking if I didn't cut my hops bines off after harvest and just left them would I get a lot more hops to harvest as the plant wouldn't have to put as much effort into growing the bines in the first place ?, the wild hop has been fully leaved up for months now at about 20 foot high and has at least 20 bines growing from the ground, if I was to allow my hops to do this could I also have lots a bines with lots of hops ?.
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Meatymc
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Re: To cut or not to cut
If the only hop you're talking about is a male there won't be any hops - only come from the female plant as far as I'm aware.
And no (leaving the bines), the plant dies back to the rhizome and starts again from scratch each year so no logic in leaving the previous years bines on. In fact, I seem to remember it potentially increases the risk of disease over-wintering Finally, usual practice is to restrict the bines to 4 or 5 - removing any others that start to grow. This pushes all the energy into those few bines and increases yield overall - at least that's the recomended route.
And no (leaving the bines), the plant dies back to the rhizome and starts again from scratch each year so no logic in leaving the previous years bines on. In fact, I seem to remember it potentially increases the risk of disease over-wintering Finally, usual practice is to restrict the bines to 4 or 5 - removing any others that start to grow. This pushes all the energy into those few bines and increases yield overall - at least that's the recomended route.