City Hops Project - Early September

Three varieties of Hops, Cascade, Centennial and Nugget, grown as part of Bellwood Brewery's city hop project. First year hop vines typically grow 8-10 feet, and rarely produce cones. These varieties shot up past 20 feet long, and produced heavily. Even though they seem to love container living, we don't know how they'll do over the winter. In the fall I let the vines die, cut them back, layered some compost on the tops of the bins, buried the whole bin cluster in maple leaves, and wrapped the whole thing up in a tarp. I'm hoping that this "dumpling," approach will prevent the freeze/thaw that damages root systems overwinter. Last year the chives made it through with less padding, but apparently it's almost impossible to kill them. Fingers crossed.