How to grow hops in the country - creating a decorative hedge with aromatic cones
Hops are a powerful and attractive vine whose buds are used to make alcoholic beverages. Many gardeners are interested in how to grow hops in the country, because it is widely used as a hedge. With the help of fast-growing hop vines, you can beautifully decorate fences and gates, various buildings and arches, gazebos and a veranda.
Botanical description and distinctive features of hops
The main features of hops:
- The hop has a powerful root system, numerous roots are located in the upper layers of the soil.
- The plant has curly stems, the length of which can reach 6-12 m. The stems are light red or green in color, covered with small and dense fibers.
- The leaves are heart-shaped, large, dark green in color, with thick and pronounced veins.
- Inflorescences form only on female plants. They consist of 40-50 small flowers. Hops bloom in June-July, depending on the variety.
- After the end of flowering on the hops, fruits are formed - small brown nuts with seeds, ripening from late July to early September.
- The life span of a plant is up to 25-30 years.
One of the most important characteristics of a plant is how quickly the hops grow. This climbing liana is characterized by rapid growth - in just 1 month it can grow up to 5-8 m, entangling an arch, porch, veranda or gazebo. Due to the extremely fast growth, hops definitely need a strong support.
How to grow hops in the country
There are two ways to grow hops in the country - seed and vegetative. Some gardeners prefer to use young growth of the plant, which appears in abundance in spring.
The simplest and most effective is the propagation of the hop plant by cuttings or young shoots. If you can't get them, you can use the seeds. Most often, the seed method is used if the gardener wants to get a new and unusual plant variety.
For planting hops, it is best to choose an area with loamy, soddy soil, well-drained. Groundwater should not be close to the ground surface. The territory should be isolated, as the vine grows extremely quickly and can interfere with other plants on the site.
The hop root system is prone to very rapid growth, so when growing it, special restraints are necessarily used. These can be sheets of metal or slate buried 50-70 cm in the ground.
Planting with seeds
Hops are planted in spring in the second half of April or early May, when the weather is stable and the risk of frost disappears. Hop seeds can be harvested on their own, after flowering vines, or bought at a seed store for gardeners. They can be used to grow seedlings or sow directly into open ground.
The main stages of growing seedlings of hops from seeds:
- First of all, seed stratification hops.For this, seed material stored at room temperature, 10-14 days before sowing, harden at a temperature of 7-8 °.
- Prepare the soil - for this purpose, you can use a ready-made store-bought substrate or a self-prepared mixture of garden and leaf soil, as well as humus in equal parts.
- Pour the substrate into peat pots and sow seeds to a depth of 0.6-0.7 cm.
- Cover the seed container with plastic wrap or a sheet of glass and leave in a well-lit place, but not in direct sunlight.
- Water your seeds regularly.
- After the first seedlings appear, remove the film cover or glass for 3-4 hours daily.
When real green leaves appear on the sprouts, remove the film or glass. As soon as the seedlings reach 4-6 cm in height, they can be dived and transplanted into open soil (around June). Growing hops from seeds at home using seedlings ensures good germination and excellent rooting of plants.
Sowing seeds in open soil
One of the ways to plant hops in the country is to sow seeds directly in open ground, without first growing seedlings.
Sowing technology:
- Prepare a hop-growing area in the fall. Keep in mind that this plant “prefers” partial shade and does not tolerate drafts and piercing winds.
- Hops grow best in areas with loamy and moist soil.
- Dig up the site and apply complex mineral or organic (rotted manure) fertilizers.
- Prepare hop trenches or planting holes up to 40-60 cm deep.
- When spring comes, re-loosen the soil and sow the seeds.
After sowing, sprinkle the hop seeds with a thin layer of soil and water liberally. Mulch the topsoil with sawdust or chopped straw. Hops take root well - the first strong sprouts appear in 14-18 days.
How to grow hops in the country from cuttings
Hop propagation by cuttings is considered one of the simplest and most effective ways to grow a plant. It does not take a lot of time and effort and ensures good rooting of the vine. For the preparation of cuttings, it is best to use a plant over 3-4 years old.
Cuttings need to be prepared between late March and May. Divide the root along with the seedlings and plant them in the pre-prepared planting holes. When planting cuttings, you need to ensure that the distance between the holes is at least 100-120 cm.
When planting and caring for hops in the garden, a support for the fast-growing liana must be equipped. As a support, you can use a wall of a building with a stretched rope, a fence or a decorative arch.
Beautiful and neat curly hop shoots can be launched both horizontally and diagonally. This greatly expands the possibilities of using the plant in landscape design.
Hop care
Proper care of hops consists of watering the plant in time, pinching it and removing excess shoots, preventing and combating diseases and pests. After the vine shoots reach 20-25 cm, they are pruned.
During the procedure, you need to leave up to 4-6 strong and strong shoots on each plant. After their length reaches 40-60 cm, the shoots can be placed on a support. It is best to plant no more than 3-4 stems for each support.
To ensure that the hop plantations do not turn into thick, impenetrable thickets, the growth of the vines must be constantly monitored and excess rapidly growing shoots must be removed.
It is also advisable not to forget about pinching - shortening the side stems. Such a procedure is necessarily carried out to increase the yield of the crop.
Hops are moisture-loving plants, so they need frequent watering. The best option would be automatic irrigation system... But you need to ensure that there is no stagnation of moisture in the holes - this can lead to rotting of the hop root system.
Hop feeding
Regular feeding of hops ensures full growth, development and high yield of hops. Fertilization is carried out both in spring and autumn. In the spring months, the plant is best fed with complex mineral fertilizers, in the fall - organic, compost or rotted manure. Organic matter must be applied to a depth of 15 cm so that it can completely decompose during the winter.
Fertilizers for hops:
- nitrogen-containing - ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, urea;
- phosphoric - superphosphate, phosphate rock;
- potash - potassium chloride and sulfate, potassium salt.
Hops do not need frequent feeding, it is quite enough to add additional feeding in spring and autumn. An excessive amount of trace elements reduces the immunity of a plant and makes it vulnerable to fungi, diseases and pests.
Hops are a beautiful and unpretentious plant that can be a great decoration for any summer cottage. Weaving vines are used as an original hedge, for decorating various arbors, fences, outbuildings and a veranda. Hops are distinguished by good disease resistance and unpretentious care, so even novice gardeners can be engaged in its cultivation.