Our Goal for this Blog

Over the years we have received and continue to receive numerous phone calls and emails asking many different farm related questions. Our thought is that we would try out a blog to keep people up to date on what we are doing here on Puterbaugh Farms and at Hops Direct.

We will just jump right into where we are at in the growing season with a very brief look at what it took to get the hops to the stage they are in now. If interest is actually shown and people are looking for more information we will continue through the winter and pick up the beginning next spring, which will allow everyone to get a feel for what a full crop year looks like from a hop grower's perspective and all of the many challenges involved. We hope you enjoy.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Hop Yard Height/Size

We have received a few questions regarding the height and size of our hop yards. All of our trellis systems are built with 21-23' lodge pole pine poles, which are placed in the ground to a depth of about 3-4' each. This gives us a ground to top wire height between 18-20' for all of our hop yards. The hop yards themselves range between 9 and 20 acres. During the winter and in early spring we will post more about our trellis systems as this is when we do most of our maintenance on them.

Me standing at the edge of a hop yard, I'm 6'1" just to give an idea of how tall the trellis is.


Strings going into the hills nearby where I am standing in the photo above.

Close up view of how the coir strings are tied off to the top wires. These knots are tied single handed so that two coir strings can be attached simultaneously.


Here is a link to maps showing images of some hop yards, the picture above show me standing in the hop yard (20 acres in size) directly Northwest of the little red pointer tag on the map. The yards located to the north are all square 10 acre yards:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=400+Green+Valley+Road,+Mabton,+WA&sll=46.25828,-120.008769&sspn=0.008427,0.018518&ie=UTF8&ll=46.25831,-120.009713&spn=0.008427,0.018518&t=h&z=16

6 comments:

Zulu said...

Great Site, I am a regular customer and also have a hops growing blog - we are running a club project on 1/2 acre in NC.

http://zenzele-brewery.blogspot.com/

Rick
Greensboro NC

Brett said...

this is a great blog, i will be subscribing and looking forward to buying some 08 hops

Hopsdirect said...

Zulu - I enjoyed reading your blog, and wish you a good growing season for your hops.

Brett - Thanks for dropping a note. I'll do my best too keep it interesting here, if you have more questions keep firing them over.

Tyler

tracysrocket said...

Dear Tyler,

I love the idea of the blog. As a Hops Direct customer, homebrewer and a gardener, I love growing my own hops. The Rhizomes I purchased from your farm were the biggest and best I've ever purchased.

I'd love to visit the farm one day in high season, but I am half way across the country. The Google Maps link was a great idea. How many of the hop fields in the immediate area belong to your farm?

Typically, when do your hops sales begin to the general public?

Will check here often to see your posts - thanks for this.

Dwayne - OKC

Hopsdirect said...

Dwayne - Thank you for the comments on our rhizomes. Most of the yards touching Green Valley Road between the Highway and Midvale belong to Puterbaugh Farms. We also have numerous other yards spread throughout the surrounding area.

Typically our sales of a new crop will begin shortly after harvest ends. Harvest is looking like it will be starting around August 20th now and running through the end of September.

Tyler

Unknown said...

The photos you post with your blogs are so helpful in visualizing the surreal hopfarm!

I am looking to plant about a half acre hopyard but the area I am looking to plant is on a moderate slope and wonder what sort of limitations the trellis system has on for sloping land.
Thanks!