How to Grow Hops? The Latest Planting Techniques and Methods Tutorial
Hops is a perennial climbing herbaceous plant in the Cannabaceae family. As the name suggests, hops is the main raw material used to make beer. Moreover, the female flowers of hops also have medicinal effects such as calming the nerves, promoting urination, strengthening the stomach and aiding digestion. They can be used to treat problems such as abdominal bloating and edema. Originally a wild grass, after its value was discovered, it is now grown everywhere in our country. So today, the editor has brought you the planting techniques for hops. Let's take a look below!
1. Site Selection and Land Preparation
Hops was originally a wild grass and is distributed throughout our country, so its adaptability to soil is relatively strong. However, when planting hops, the yield and quality of the hops must be taken into consideration, so when planting, we should choose deep, fertile soil and ensure convenient transportation for easy shipping. Then the land preparation work should be done well, plowing the soil about 28 cm deep. Then dig trenches, keeping the depth and width of the trenches at about 50 cm. Then apply about 3000 kg of decomposed farmyard manure per mu. Apply it into the trenches and mix it thoroughly with the soil to improve soil fertility.
2. Building Trellises
Because hops is a climbing plant, when planting hops we should also build trellises well. Trellis construction is divided into low trellises and high trellises. When building low trellises, the spacing should be controlled well, with the height of the frames controlled at about 3 m. Then about 1 m of it goes into the soil, maintaining a certain tilt. Then fine iron wire is stretched across the top of each support post, allowing the hops to climb and grow freely. This trellising method has low investment and strong wind resistance, but its permeability is relatively poor and management is more laborious. On the contrary, high trellises require a large investment, but the growing environment is good.
3. Timely Planting
The planting time for hops is generally in early spring. Usually, when the spring temperature rises back to about 11 degrees, planting can begin, mainly depending on the region. We should control the plant and row spacing well according to climate, variety and trellising. In the year of planting, the plant spacing should be controlled at about 50 cm, and the row spacing should be kept at about 2.8 m. Then in the second year, every other plant should be thinned out, expanding the plant spacing to about 1 m. Before planting, the seedlings should be disinfected with Bordeaux mixture to prevent infection. When planting, place the young seedlings in the center of the trench pits, keeping the distance from the top of the seedlings to the ground at about 11 cm. Then fill in the pits, cover with soil, and water after planting.
4. Covering with Plastic Film
After the young seedlings are planted, we should also do a good job of covering with plastic film. After the hop seedlings are planted, when there is no standing water in the planting trenches, the film should be applied promptly. To improve the effect of film covering, a wooden stick should be erected as a support at certain intervals along each trench. After covering with film, press down all the edges around the film with stones. Then, when the seedlings in the trenches grow to about 20 cm, the work of releasing the seedlings should be done well, and care should be taken that the film openings do not let wind leak through. After June, when the seedlings grow to about two meters, break the film and recover the plastic covering.
The above is a brief introduction to hop planting techniques. Growing hops is actually very simple. As long as the management work is done well, the normal growth of hops can be ensured. That is all for today's introduction. This article is for reference only, and I hope it can help everyone!