Hop Trellises

In a recent post, I lamented the loss of my established hops due to a poorly executed move. In that same post, I also spoke of planting my new rhizomes. As I eagerly awaited bines to sprout, I contemplated trellis possibilities...

At my old house, I strung twine from my roof down to the ground - this gave me about 10' vertically. At my new place, the hops are planted away from my house in an area of raised garden beds. The trellis issue presented two problems. Of course, the first problem was the trellis system itself -what was I going to do? Secondary, and possibly more importantly, whatever trellis system I decided upon had to meet my wife's approval, since she is in charge of the aesthetics of the garden area.

What I really wanted to do was weld up a sturdy, permanent trellis... I felt that the unfinished steel would rust up nicely and complement the rustic wood of the raised beds and fenceposts. My wife thought that this plan would result in a "rusty monstrosity" which would undoubtedly be an "eyesore." (the quoted parts are her actual words) Likewise, any wooden trellis structure was likely to be a visual distraction.

I reluctantly concurred, putting off any truly permanent construction until next year when I plan on putting the hops into the ground (or at least planted more permanently).

In the end, I opted for simple. Material-wise I purchased two long 5/8" pieces of re-bar, 4 u-shaped 1/2" conduit brackets, two 1" screw eyes, 2 worm-drive hose clamps, and a spool of natural fiber twine. Planning-wise, I did not consult my wife (this simplified things greatly).

I used the hose clamps to fasten one of the screw eyes to the end of each piece of re-bar; tightening down the clamps as tight as they would go (along with a little bit of shaping of the clamp strap) added a sturdy circular eye to the 'top' of my trellis rod. Next, I test-fit the conduit brackets, and bent them to insure a secure and stable fit. I began by fastening only one side of a pair of conduit brackets for each trellis rod to the end boards of a raised garden bed. Before I mounted the re-bar to the garden box, I threaded 4 strands of ~20' of the natural twine through the eye at the top (this way, I avoided having to climb up a ladder to do that later). Finally, I fitted the re-bar into the conduit brackets and finished screwing them in. This resulted in a trellis that will be plenty sturdy for the hop bines, and hardly noticeable in the garden area.