Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

I was fortunate enough to get a couple Cascade rhizomes from Eric (Econ_guy) and rigged up a two string trellis.

Everyone has said they grow in a clockwise spiral (actually a helix).  Uh...    I presumed that meant that "looking from the start of the vine, towards the direction it's growing they wrap clockwise. 

Well, the one vine big enough to wrap around the string didn't like that.  It unwrapped in two days and is curling
around the trellis string the other direction.  This IS clockwise IF you look down onto the vine toward the ground.
The other vine (not long enough to train, yet) is starting to spiral (helix) this same way.

Did I not understand "which clockwise" in the first place or are my vines Southern Hemisphere wannabe's?

Jim

I'm chuckling right now because I have wondered the same thing.  The good news is that it just doesn't matter.  I've training the vines up the ropes for years and I always forget which way they are supposed to go.  It doesn't matter because they always correct me and do what they are supposed to do and like they are supposed to do it.  If you get it wrong, unwind them and wrap them up again they way they were going at the end.  It will all be good.

Help them start and they can take it from there.

 

Slightly off topic, but we have a mixture of new and old hops growers on the board with new and old vines.  Our vines will be of differing heights for a while.

To put things in perspective at my house, my established (~5 year old) vines are climbing their ropes and they are up to my chin right now.  The new cascades I planted last week have not broken ground yet.

Share where yours are, but don’t fret about measurements.  Except for the new plantings, they will all be at the top of your trellises in the next month and change.
 

I need to stop by Lowes and by some course string or twine to start stringing mine up.  The fuggle plant is beating the cascade plant right now by a couple of inches.  I would guess that the fuggle is up to 10 inches now.

Martin's Hardware.  "Garden Twine" is really coarse.  It also comes in GREEN! 

Howdy,

The tip of the vine follows the sun...so it wilbe clockwise looking down the string.  They'll figure it out, even if you don't

My cascades are about 6 feet right now, so my 9 foot trellis is making me feel very inadequate.

I oriented mine clockwise. They don't seem to object to this.  LOL

Doc, I'm guessing that this [apparent] obliviousness to the fact that clockwise is determined from your point of view -- which is the WHOLE POINT of the original post -- is meant as humor from someone (ie., "LOL") with a Doctorate in something [assumed] other than Liberal Arts?

You understand that water spiraling down a drain , due to the Coriolis Effect, DOES NOT spiral in the opposite direction in the other (northern vs southern) hemisphere?  It's only a matter of point of reference.
Come to the next meeting and I'll explain it to you --- it's much easier visually than just through words.

Yeah, okay.  Thanks for clearing that up.  I have some vines that try to grow back counter clockwise if you are looking head on at the vine.  You can place them anyway you want and they will grow. I guess I should have posted an "LOL" on the end of my post so you would have picked up on the irony.  But thanks anyway for that insight.

Ladies and Gentlemen please direct your attention to Exhibit A. 

Doc - see personal message.


From this photo, and my tiny sample of two plants, hops grow conterclockwise as they proceed away from the root/rhizome. 

That's the thing, you can string them up however you want and they will grow. If you are looking up the vine - that is counter-clockwise, but if you look head on at the vine it rotates in a clockwise fashion. This is too funny.  I have stray, late sprouting vines that grab on to the rope by themselves and grown in this fashion, so I assume that is they way they prefer. But they get chopped as suckers.  I try not to have more than 4-5 vines per line, even though they say no more than 3 vines per line.  One thing I have figured out, this is not rocket science.  I would say that the toughest thing about growing hops, is knowing when to pick the mature cones. Hopefully this harvest I will get better at that.  Cheers.

Hey I found this on the net.  "Looking down" is the key word.

"As the vines grow over a foot tall they should be trained to grow up a twine. This can be done by twisting the vine around the line. This may have to be repeated for a few days before the vine gets the idea. Hops will have a natural tendency to wrap clockwise looking down."


So yeah you are right, it IS counter-clockwise if you are LOOKING UP.

I think the key to the twisting spiral, whether it be clockwise or counterclockwise, is the fact that hop plants can grow so fast in one day that they'll make a complete turn around the twine. So the vine follows the sun as it grows going east to west.  If your plants are facing north, this would mean your plants would grow clockwise (looking down at your plant).  If your plants are facing south, this would mean your plants would grow clockwise (looking up at your twine). If your plants are facing due east or due west, this would mean your plants would grow clockwise (looking down at your plant in the northern hemisphere, or looking up the twine in the southern hemisphere). So you see, anyway you plant your plant it will grow clockwise.   Now, what I'd like to know is what happens to your rapidly growing hop plant when there is a series of overcast days so there isn't a sun for it to trace across the sky?

I imagine that it gets confused.  Then it follows Papazian's advice of "Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew."  Maybe you should pour a bit of homebrew into the soil for your hop plant to drink, as it would probably reduce hop plant stress levels.