Planting Day

While cleaning house with my wife and listening to a full orchestra perform retro video game music (I am very aware I married well), I noticed a small brown package on my front stoop.  I had no idea what I had ordered.  "J, there's a box at our front stoop.  Did we order something?".  J- "Just go see what it is".  I sprang into action.


My Hops had arrived!


The little box contained the true beginning to my little project here in Elgin. I pulled out six sealed baggies containing:


Cascade      x4
Mt. Hood    x4
Centennial  x4
Nugget       x4
Willamette x2
Chinook     x2


I immediately forgot all of my other responsibilities for the day like the excited child I had suddenly become, and went to find my boots.  ("J, do you know where I put my boots?" J- "They are just where you left them, out by the gara- .... and he already left")


I started with anchoring the twine.  I strung out 20ft lengths of twine, tied the ends at 3ft intervals along the trellis wire and secured the other ends to short stakes.  20 twine lengths in total, one for each hop rhizome I will be planting.  I tied each end to a stake by cutting small notches around each stake and tying a clove hitch (remember the safety knot!) fitted into the notch. I then tightened the twine and hammered the stake into the ground.


So, planting the hops was super easy once the lines were all in place.  I brushed away the top straw cover under each line and used a simple hand trowel to loosen the soil at a depth of 4"-6" and width of 6".  I laid a rhizome flat at ground level, (white sprouts pointing up, brown roots down, if you can't tell don't stress to much) and then put a mound of soil over top.  I put the straw back over and moved on to the next line.  I tried to keep all of the clover sprouts intact on the top layer.  I was somewhat successful, I may reseed these small areas.  All 20 hop plants in the ground!


Let's see if anything happens.


Pics will be up soon.  Thanks for reading!


-EHP