Hops Trellis Information

[normvjr]

This is kind of the beginning of a culmination of a fifteen dream this college buddy and I have had. I bought 20 acres of land with water rights in the lower Willamette Valley. Our dream is to start the "beer farm". Part one is two acres of organic hops, enough to easily supply our future 10 bbl. system and hopefully get us a bit of $$ to start our brewery with over the next four years.
So... we just bought 7,500$ worth of poles. The best information I've discovered is at the Crannog Ales website. Yet, parts are still quite fuzzy. Does anyone know any materials or sources on finding more information on creating a two acre size hop trellis???
Thanx
Norm

[Neckbone]

First off, I can't help you with what your asking. I'd just like to throw out that's a great plan. I'm don't know if you'll save money vs buying them from another source, but you will know exactly what you're getting and you shouldn't have the shortage problem that many other brewers are experiencing right now. In fact, you'll probably have people beating down your door in times like these trying to buy your excess.

[Moonlight]

Check out the Oregon Hop Commission, and visit your neighbor hop growers. Even check with your local hop suppliers for referrals to hop growers in your area. The USDA Hop Research station near Corvallis might be useful, too.

[cortlandbrewNY]

Check out Cornell Univ in Ithaca NY, they have a large hop program I have been told.

[canyon]

You are on the right track with Crannog- email Rebecca Kneen and find out how to get a copy of her 36 page Small Scale & Organic Hops Production. Better yet, go visit. Keep on the dream!

[normvjr]

Thanks for the advice. Rebecca Kneen has been helpful. Her book has been the only source for trellis construction I have found. Michelle at the Oregon Hops Comission helped hook me up with the poles. The big guys like John I. Haas and Yakima Chief don't seem to want to help. It would be nice to connect with a smaller hop farmer who would perhaps be willing to come on as a consultant or just be willing to help out with information on trellis building. I have had no success connecting with the hops research station in corvallis. I went there though. I tried to track down a couple names I pulled off the internet with no luck. Anyways... thanx for all your input.
Oh yeah, markets, my partner manages a Belgian Beer bar in Seattle called Browers and used to manage the bar portion of a little microbrewery in Portland Called The Old Lompoc. The brewers that we know and have contact with seem excited. We are going to grow certified organic hops. Everybody we talk to would like local organic hops. Sales seems at this point as if it will be relatively easy.
If anyone has anything to add please do.

[Gael]

Norm - what information do you need? Equipment? size of cable? Amount? or just a floor plan - how many hops/bed/row, pole spacing? be precise and I'll give you whatever info I can.

Rebecca

[SRB]

Right on NormVJR. Hows the hop farm coming?
We just put in the poles (flame treated ends) and rigged the first of hopefully multiple expansions of SRB's small organic hop farm in Emmett, Idaho! We run our drip system and plant 4 varieties next friday!! Next comes the chicken coop, and wire around the plot so they can roam from time to time and assist with the process.
:D

matt g

[jason.koehler]

Wow, looks great!

I'll be doing a some ground breaking for a pilot hop project this weekend, but I'm a few weeks away from planting...just a 6 variety, 24 plant test to see how well they grow over here. Kirin Beer used to have a big farm just down the mountain from where I'm trying this, so I'm hopeful...if it takes off, I'll go for the hail mary next year!

How tall are your poles? I'm going to use some sectional scaffolding because it is available really cheap here used, plus I like the idea of not replacing aluminum!

[AlexisScarlett]

Great pictures! Thanks SRB!

Hey where is your snow?

[SRB]

How tall are your poles? I'm going to use some sectional scaffolding because it is available really cheap here used, plus I like the idea of not replacing aluminum!
Thanks Jason. We couldn't wipe the grins off of our faces once we had the poles and rigging in.
Our poles are 21ft tall. 4ft of that was peeled and flame treated to maintain an organic rating for poles. Though the Oregon Tilth told us that before certification we can do whatever we want. Once we request certification they would require non-coated/chemically treated poles from that time forward. But this keeps us ahead of the curve. Though how long they last is anyones best guess. Not as long as the copper treated poles that do not meet organic standards I bet. Or aluminum for that matter! We did harvest these from a burned area in the Payette national forest so maybe a little flame treatment from mother nature helped increase the potential life of the poles. Anyways once the posts were in the ground we were at + or - 18 feet. We surrounded the posts with sandy loam and gravel for drainage and made sure + or - a foot of flame treatment was above ground.
The aluminum scaffold method sounds cool and viable to me. Use what you have for the right price right? Good luck Ill look forward to updates!!

I uploaded a log peel shot and a shot of the auger attachment on our CAT.
60 rhizome holes drilled and ready to go for planting Friday. We are going to also try 3 single trellis plots as well in another part of the farm.

Hey where is your snow?
Hey Alexis....Glad you dug the pictures too. I'll keep em coming. I attached a shot of my front porch in McCall. Snow bound still. We decided to jump on an opportunity to take advantage of land space 2 hours south (half hour by way of the birds) and 3000' feet below us in Emmett. We are holding off on our high elevation (5000') garden for now.
;)
matt g

[uptown brothers]

dumb question, I know, but:

if someone didn't care about being certified organic, would he still need these wood posts? Was doing laps in a city park and stretching next to a baseball backstop and just happened to notice the galvanized piping used to support the screen, doubted that these cost $160 or whatever apiece. Maybe they do?

Maybe not strong enough? But then, they're hollow, maybe you could pump 'em full of concrete with a piece of rebar inside too...(I live in an old house where a previous owner did this with their clothes line, I can assure you THAT son of a b**** was in there pretty solid....)

just thinking out loud about cheaper ways to do this...

[AlexisScarlett]

Actually the hops don't care much. Any upright and cable twine or wire will do. The olde style hopyards had the ever present and always useful baling wire. pretty rusty

You notice I am not posting pic's of hopyard one or hopyard two here because we started pretty hillbilly with fencing matter....oh those simpler times!

But SRB said Oregon Tilth which is the real, the luxe de luxe of organic and down the road everything matters and the price and the care will be worth it!

[Gael]

I don't know if any of you have ginseng farms around you, but they are a great source of materials. They use steel pipes, and I know one who is making a sleeve to join the steel pipes together to get the right height. They have hooks on top to run cable through, and mount to a base which is permanently in the soil (Which is how they can move yards so often without difficulty, I'd always wondered about that.). One could conceivably even take the whole works down to harvest, although you'd have to have a pretty skookum way to get it all up again and tensioned for that to be worthwhile.

The point about using posts not treated with CCA (copper chromium arsenate) is that they are supposed to leach arsenic into the soil. This ought to be a problem for anyone who cares about soil health. I'm not sure what the sustainability balance is between cedar poles and steel...

One word of caution: please don't use a loader to get you to the top of your trellis. Hydraulics fail unexpectedly, even on well-maintained machinery, and no-one needs a death or maiming because of hops. A warehouse ladder mounted on pneumatic tyres is one option, or a welded scaffold secured to a wagon or truck frame are considerably safer. They may cost more to start out, but the safety considerations are huge, and you'll need the gear over the long haul anyway. I had a neighbour whose chest was crushed by a loader falling on him, and I'd really hate to see it happen to anyone else.

That said, the yard looks great, and three cheers to you for bringing your dream to life!

Rebecca

[SRB]

One word of caution: please don't use a loader to get you to the top of your trellis. Hydraulics fail unexpectedly, even on well-maintained machinery, and no-one needs a death or maiming because of hops.........
Rebecca

Thanks for the safety tip Gael...:o We were shooting from the hip on that one. An appropriate orchard ladder or scaffold system is in our future.

matt g.

[Moonlight]

If you were to use galv poles of a smaller diameter, I would recommend a flat shield underground on the hop side of the poles. This plate of any design basically helps maintain the pole in the position you wanted it, because there will be a fair amount of weight and wind loading on the wire, tugging the end poles toward each other causing the wire to sag. Guy wire would likely accomplish the same result. Some way to accommodate wind loading from the sides will also be helpful. Imagine if your hops are in full growth and a wind plows at the wire from the perpendicular, it would be an excellent sail. Large yards have cross wires so the whole yard is a connected structure. Even so, I have heard of wind knocking down the yards.
I chickened out and settled for 10 foot trellises.

[wildcrafter]

A little heads up on the choice of poles- because I've been there done that.

We just moved some fire hardened juniper poles that were in the ground 2 years at the old hopyard over to the new hopyard. No rot, no damage.;)

We also grow greenhouse tomatoes and have a trellis issue for that as well. Massive weight. We chose 7' "t-posts" with a tube sleeved over it (4'-6") from chainlink fence supllies. Connecting overhead is a smaller diameter pole grid that all fastens together with saddle brackets. It's quite stable given the weight from all the tomaotes. The "t-posts" are hardly in the ground past the blade. This is a real easy setup and not too pricey. No anchors. Here's the problem. We also moved this whole setup to the new farm and ALL of the "t-posts" were very rotted, but maybe usable for 2 more years.

The cost of the fire hardened juniper posts and installation were a better deal than steel.

You get what you pay for?:confused:

[wildcrafter]

Here are a couple of picts of an alternative trellissing method. This trellis is to support the massive weight of tomatoes. Easy to install, not too pricey, and made from commonly available materials. "T" posts, chainlink fence supplies, and saddle brackets from Farmtek. This trellis system may not last as long as cedars and cables, but it's simple and quick.
Unfortunately, this trellis is only 9' tall. 150# of weight in a 10' span does not deform the tube or structure.

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