Growing Hops in Containers

Growing my own hops is something I've been wanting to tackle for a while. Unfortunately, living in the city and renting, rather owning my house, has been an obstacle. I figured landlords and gardeners at apartment and condominium complexes probably aren't super fond of hop vines taking over their landscaping beds, so I haven't been able to try it out in the past. My wife and I finally live in a place that has a decent-sized porch, so I wondered if growing those sticky, little green beauties in pots might be a possibility. I did a little research and found some really helpful info (mostly from this great BYO article by Chris Colby), and it turns out it can be done. Yessss.

Hop plants have pretty serious root systems that need a lot of space to grow and take hold, so planting in the ground is the ideal situation, but it seems that growing in containers can work if you follow some guidelines. First off, you need large pots to allow the roots to grow. I found some large 20-inch pots from Home Depot that will hopefully do the trick. It's also important that the pots have drainage holes so the soil is allowed to dry out between waterings. Otherwise, the roots will get too soggy and rot over time. 

To give the hops bines some space to grow, I decided to put two 6-foot stakes into each pot and run twine around the stakes in a zig-zag sort of pattern. As the hop bines emerge, I will attempt to train them to run along the twine. I went this route so that I can grow longer bines than if I grew them directly vertical, hopefully resulting in more hop cones. As the plants emerge, I will probably run a second string on each set of stakes, making an 'X' pattern all the way up. 

For the hop varieties, I decided to try Cascade and Centennial as they are supposed to be two of the easier varieties to grow. They also are supposed to do well in almost any climate. There are some other varieties I would have preferred to try instead, but since this is my first time growing hops and I'm growing in containers, I figured I have enough going against me, so I'm taking the easy route (hopefully). I ordered my hop rhizomes through MoreBeer and planted one in each pot, a few inches below the surface of the soil. They were planted on April 9th. I followed the advice in the article to keep the soil most until the first sprouts appeared. 

April 25th update:

I'm proud to say that just about 2 weeks after planting the rhizomes, these little fellas popped up to say hello. Sweet - it actually worked! Following the advice of the BYO article, I hit them with some liquid fertilizer diluted to one-quarter strength to help them along. I would prefer to grow them 100% organically without fertilizer, but from what I've read, fertilizer is pretty much a necessity when it comes to growing in containers. I'm planning to feed them with fertilizer about once a month or as needed. 

May 8th update:

Things are coming along nicely. There are multiple bines growing from each pot and the leaves are looking nice and green. Some type of insect seems to feeding on the leaves as there are small holes in a lot of them. I'm not too concerned right now, but it if gets worse, I will see what options are out there for organic insecticides. The Cascade plant is definitely growing faster than the Centennial, so we'll see if that continues.