I'm going to a hops growing workshop this week and it's making me itch to get in the hops garden I run for my home brewing club. The garden is dormant, so I took some photos of the PVC trellis instead.
This plot is in a community garden and I initially wanted a trellis that could be pulled up if needed. I also wanted something lightweight that I could install myself. If I recall, our club president at the time, Kevin, came up with this design and it's still standing almost four years later with only a couple of modifications.
We were constrained by materials that are available at our local hardware stores, so we decided on 10-foot trellises. This works out fine because the tallest ladder I can carry in my truck allows me to reach 10 or 11 feet in the air.
As it turns out, the coir twine I buy to string up the hops is just the right length to toss over the 10-foot wire. The relatively short height of the trellis may impact our yield, but for now we're focusing on good management practices instead. Besides, it doesn't do us any good to have hops reaching up to the sky if we have no way to harvest them.
This trellis is in no way heavy duty. There are nine plants that grow up it and it doesn't need to carry a heavy load. If you're looking for designs that require winches and telephone poles, click back to Google and on to the next site.
This plot is in a community garden and I initially wanted a trellis that could be pulled up if needed. I also wanted something lightweight that I could install myself. If I recall, our club president at the time, Kevin, came up with this design and it's still standing almost four years later with only a couple of modifications.
We were constrained by materials that are available at our local hardware stores, so we decided on 10-foot trellises. This works out fine because the tallest ladder I can carry in my truck allows me to reach 10 or 11 feet in the air.
As it turns out, the coir twine I buy to string up the hops is just the right length to toss over the 10-foot wire. The relatively short height of the trellis may impact our yield, but for now we're focusing on good management practices instead. Besides, it doesn't do us any good to have hops reaching up to the sky if we have no way to harvest them.
This trellis is in no way heavy duty. There are nine plants that grow up it and it doesn't need to carry a heavy load. If you're looking for designs that require winches and telephone poles, click back to Google and on to the next site.
Here you can see the basic concept. It's a 8-foot green metal fencepost (studded T-post according to the receipt) with a 2-inch, 10-foot PVC pipe sleeve. We drove the fencepost into the ground by pounding the pipe on the flared metal piece at the bottom of the post. (I should've worn ear plugs when I did this because it was loud.) The post is in the ground about 12-18 inches and that has held fine in our clay soil.
The upper cable is strung through the middle two poles by simply drilling a hole through the PVC. I capped the PVC to keep critters and water from getting in.
This is one of the end poles. I used an eye bolt that's long enough to thread through the PVC and secured with a nut and lock washer.
The cable is secured on the top of the 6-foot wooden fenceposts between us and our neighbor gardens. On the right side of the photo above, you can see one of the U-bolts we use to adjust the tension. I thought I'd lower the cable to harvest, but the different varieties mature at different times, so the only time the cable is lowered is when I'm cleaning up at the end of the season.
We used the fenceposts instead of securing the cable guy-wire style in the ground because of the size restriction of our garden. It would be a safety hazard (tripping and garroting) to angle the cable in the ground. The neighbors' fenceposts are cemented in the ground and are very secure.
We used the fenceposts instead of securing the cable guy-wire style in the ground because of the size restriction of our garden. It would be a safety hazard (tripping and garroting) to angle the cable in the ground. The neighbors' fenceposts are cemented in the ground and are very secure.
So, the picture above illustrates what you might expect with poles that aren't cemented in the ground. The hops-laden cable pulled the post a bit. This happened the first year before I had the cable secured on the wood fenceposts. Believe it or not, it's pretty stable. If it bothers anyone, they don't have to look at it. There's plenty of weeding to do instead.
The main drawback of this system is the cost. The green fenceposts we used were pretty heavy-duty and cost $15 each ($60). The PVC pipes were $7.40 each ($30) and the 1/8-inch cable was $18. All the other bits and pieces added about $10. Our wood trellises ended up being cheaper, even with using a bag of cement in each hole.
I was able to get all the materials at Kendall's Hardware in Clarksville, Maryland. I didn't go to a big-box store because Kendall's had the sturdy T-posts and they have an excellent selection of hardware (eyebolts, etc.).
This is a good system if you only have a few plants, you don't want to dig holes, you need to install it yourself, or you don't want a permanent trellis. As I said above, four years out, this is holding up pretty well and I think it's a pretty elegant design.
The main drawback of this system is the cost. The green fenceposts we used were pretty heavy-duty and cost $15 each ($60). The PVC pipes were $7.40 each ($30) and the 1/8-inch cable was $18. All the other bits and pieces added about $10. Our wood trellises ended up being cheaper, even with using a bag of cement in each hole.
I was able to get all the materials at Kendall's Hardware in Clarksville, Maryland. I didn't go to a big-box store because Kendall's had the sturdy T-posts and they have an excellent selection of hardware (eyebolts, etc.).
This is a good system if you only have a few plants, you don't want to dig holes, you need to install it yourself, or you don't want a permanent trellis. As I said above, four years out, this is holding up pretty well and I think it's a pretty elegant design.