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Managing the growth
Hops are notorious growers, not only vertical, but also lateral. I am not sure after which year, but eventually the crowns of the plant will produce rhizomes in order to expand laterally. In such a case you get more hopshoots from unexpected places, but you won’t be able to tell which variety it is. Also, you might want to contain the hops in order to get the most effective yield and neighbours happy. Therefore I built several hopc ontainers that will contain the crowns to a respectable and managable size. Shout out to the guys from Chop and Brew on how to build such a container. Thanks!
I had some spare wood laying around:
The guys from Chop and Brew advised a size of 2 feet (60cm). Eventually I made a mock-up from palletwood from 40cm (too small) and increased that to 50 cm. This way I had just enough wood to make one box more.
The 50cm box with enough room to still work in it with a shovel. Should I have move my crowns or give them away as a present I have room to dig them out.
And he end result of day 1. The smaller less quality wood boxes I will use for thyme, rosemary or other herbs.
Erik Guldenaar
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