Friday, August 26, 2011

How to kill hop bines

In planning our move to Salt Lake City for doctoral school, we decided to keep our 3-year-old hop plants; we figured they’d be difficult to transport (each planter has 90 pounds of soil in it) but it would’ve been a shame to leave them just after they started really producing.  They hadn't seen anything but ambient rainfall for the three weeks just before the move, as we'd been out of town, and they seemed to be doing just fine with that level of neglect; they seemed more than hardy enough to make the move.  We were towing my car behind the moving truck, so just before leaving, I put down a tarp in the back seat and lugged them all into it; at least there I could water them and they could get some sunlight.

After four days of travel from Chicago, though, the bines were showing some serious fatigue.  Particularly on our last day of driving, out of Colorado and across the arid Utah flats, they visibly shriveled in the driest air they’d ever experienced.  Once we arrived, our priority was unpacking, getting the new house livable, and taking all manner of entrance exams and placement auditions.  My car got pulled around back and out of the way, but it was several days before I had a chance to talk to our new landlord about putting them out.  Thankfully, he had no problems with the plants or their placement on the south face of the house, so I finally pulled them out of the car and put them back in the open air.

By then, though, the damage was done.  I’d tried to keep them pretty well watered before I was able to get them out of the car, but they were pretty fried from the dry heat and lack of full sun.  The bines were pretty well dried out, the hops all browned or browning.  I kept them pretty well drenched, but that didn’t do much for the crispy bines.  However, hope springs eternal: new green shoots appeared near the bases of the bines on all three plants.  Looks like the root systems are still doing well.  Yesterday, I cut down the dead bines to let the new shoots grow unimpeded.  I don’t expect them to produce any more cones this year, but it should be interesting to see how much they do grow before autumn really puts them out of commission for the season.  I’m looking forward to seeing what the Utah weather does for them next spring.  For now, it's time to get acquainted with the area, the school, and plan the first Utah batches.

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