Hopyard

I planted some hops in my backyard in May of 2003. The varieties I have chosen are Liberty and Goldings. While I don't expect to be able to harvest any hops this year, I still decided to put up a trellis, just in case I am rewarded with substantial growth on the vines. My trellis consists of two - ten foot long galvanized steel posts, pulleys, tomato cages and some garden jute. The posts, which are generally used in chain-link fencing applications, were mounted tothe posts of my raised wooden deck, which sits about three feet off the ground. This places the top of the poles at about 13 feet off the ground. I mounted a pulley at the top of each pole and ran garden jute through them to the tomato cages, which I planted in the ground with the hop rhizomes. If in the future I find that I'll be needing more height, I can either add another pole vertically on top of the existing galvanized poles, or alternatively I could train the hops horizonally once they near the top of the poles.