Starter guide
Plant a root in spring, pick fragrant green cones by Labor Day.
Hops are hardy perennial climbers that race up a string every summer, as much as a foot a day at their peak, and cover themselves in papery green cones that smell of citrus, pine and resin. You plant a piece of root called a rhizome once, give it sun, water and something tall to climb, and it comes back stronger each spring for 15 years or more. Most people grow them for homebrewing, but plenty grow them simply for a wall of green that reaches the eaves by July. The kit is small: a few rhizomes, rough twine, an anchor at each end and some compost.
The year has four jobs. In spring you plant rhizomes and run twine up to a high anchor. In early summer you wind the best shoots onto the twine, then mostly water and watch: the stems, called bines, climb by wrapping themselves clockwise and need no tying once they are started. In late August or September you pick the cones and dry them. After the first hard frost you cut everything to the ground, and the crown sleeps under a layer of leaves until next year. Planting, stringing and harvest are each an hour or two. The weeks between need a 15-minute check for water, wandering shoots and pests.
Free check before you order
What you can get done in your first month
A planted hill
A loose mound of soil and compost in full sun with a rhizome an inch or two under the surface.
A strung line
Coir twine running from a stake beside the hill up to a hook 12 feet or more overhead.
First shoots
Purple-green tips breaking the surface two to four weeks after planting.
Trained bines
The two or three strongest shoots wound clockwise onto the twine and already climbing on their own.
Twelve feet of string and something to hang it from
How tall
Give each plant 12 to 15 feet of twine. Bines can run 20 feet or more, but home plants crop well on less.
A house wall
An eye hook under a south-facing eave or gable is the easiest anchor. Keep the hill a foot or two out from the foundation.
A deck or balcony
A second-story railing gives the same height with easier access at harvest.
An existing pole
A flagpole, clothesline post or sturdy dead tree works as long as it does not shade the plant.
Not enough height
Run the twine at an angle. Fifteen feet of twine tied to a 9-foot fence or shed peak grows hops just as well as a vertical line.
Weight
A mature bine loaded with cones and rain weighs 20 pounds or more, so hook into solid framing, not trim boards or gutters.
Spread
Roots travel sideways. Plant where you can mow around the hill, and slice off stray shoots with a spade each spring.
Buy named, female plants
Only female plants make cones. Rhizomes from a hop farm or homebrew supplier are cuttings of female plants, so every one will crop.
Check the rhizome
A good one is as thick as a pencil or thicker, 4 to 6 inches long, firm, and has several white buds. Reject anything soft, moldy or dried hollow.
Match your summer
Varieties bred in the Pacific Northwest handle most of the country. In hot, humid regions choose ones listed as mildew resistant.
Rhizome or crown
A potted plant or field-grown crown costs two or three times more than a bare rhizome, but it is a year ahead and far less likely to fail.
Think about the smell
Brewers pick aroma varieties for citrus or floral notes and bittering varieties for punch. If you only want the green wall, pick for vigor.
Dogs
Hop cones, fresh or dried, are poisonous to dogs and can cause a fast, dangerous rise in body temperature. Keep a dog that chews greenery away from the plants, dry cones out of reach, and call a vet at once if any are eaten.
Hop rash
Bines are covered in tiny hooked hairs that scratch skin and leave an itchy rash. Wear long sleeves and gloves whenever you train or harvest.
Height
Stringing means working 12 feet up. Use a ladder on firm, level ground with someone holding it, or rig a pulley so the top of the twine comes down to you.
Digging
Call 811 a few days before you dig near a house, where buried utility lines usually run.
Shipping rules
Washington, Oregon and Idaho restrict hop plants brought in from other states to protect their commercial yards. Growers there should buy from an in-state source.
Free call before you dig
Expect little in year one
The plant spends its first season building roots. A handful of cones is a good result. Real harvests start in year two, and a mature plant gives 1 to 2 pounds of dried cones.
Expect pests
Aphids, spider mites and Japanese beetles all like hops, and downy mildew shows up in wet springs. Stripping the leaves from the bottom 3 feet of bine in midsummer improves airflow and slows all of them.
Too many bines
Letting every shoot climb makes a tangled mat with small cones. Two or three per string is the limit.
Soggy roots
More rhizomes rot than dry out. Water deeply, then let the top inch of soil dry before watering again.
Smooth string
Bines slide down nylon and plastic cord. They need a rough, hairy fiber to grip.
Cutting green bines
In the first year leave the bine standing after you pick so the leaves keep feeding the crown until frost.
Picking early or storing damp
Green, wet-feeling cones smell grassy, and cones bagged before the stem snaps go moldy in days.
University extension guides
Free, tested advice written for home gardens. Oregon State, Utah State and the University of Vermont each publish one.
Homebrew clubs
Members who grow hops give away rhizomes when they thin their crowns in spring, and they know which varieties do well in your town.
Online growers
Backyard hop forums are the best place to see what a trellis looks like on a lot like yours.
Your county extension office
Offers low-cost soil tests that tell you the pH (hops like 6.0 to 7.5) and whether you need to feed at all.
Free guides and growers to ask
The plants are the cheap part: rhizomes run a few dollars each and two are plenty to start. Most of the essential list is what holds them up and feeds them, and it assumes you already have a spade, a hose and a ladder. Gloves, pruners and a drying rack are worth having from the first season because training, cutting back and drying all happen in year one, even if the harvest is small. The optional lines solve problems that show up later: a pulley saves climbing at harvest once the bines are heavy, a scale takes the guesswork out of drying, and a vacuum sealer keeps a real harvest fresh in the freezer for a year.
Plants, string, feed and a way to dry the crop
The first line, the rhizomes, is not something you buy online, so it has no products under it. For the rest, compare the options on each line, then set your tiers and check out from the yard list. Clicking a card selects it there, and clicking the selected card again takes that line out.
The plant itself. A rhizome is a section of root from a female hop plant that sprouts into an identical one.
Not sold on Amazon · order from a hop farm or homebrew shop
Not sold on Amazon. Order from a hop farm or homebrew supply shop that ships refrigerated, named-variety rhizomes in March and April. Pre-orders open in January. Expect $5 to $8 per rhizome, or $15 to $20 for a potted plant or crown.
Bines climb by hooking tiny hairs into rough fiber. Coconut coir is coarse enough to grip and strong enough to carry a full plant all season.
400ft Hop Twine for Growing Hops Trellis(50ft x 8 Pack), Natural Coir Fiber Rope 5mm Thick, Biodegradable Garden Twine for Hop Plants Climbing Support
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You need about 20 feet per string. It lasts one season, so cut it down with the bines in fall and compost the lot.
One screwed into solid framing overhead is the top anchor for each string.
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Pick eyes at least 2.5 inches long with a closed loop, in stainless or galvanized steel. Drill a pilot hole first.
Holds the bottom of the twine tight beside the hill so a shoot can find it and wind keeps it from whipping.
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Look for steel stakes 10 inches or longer with a hook or eye at the top. Push them in at an angle away from the pull of the twine.
Mixed into each hill at planting, it loosens the soil so the crown drains and feeds the first weeks of growth.
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Plan on about a 5-gallon bucket of compost per hill. Worm castings are more concentrated: a few cups per hill does the same job. Finished homemade compost works just as well.
Hops put on yards of leafy growth in a few weeks and run short of nitrogen in June without a top-up.
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A tablespoon or so scratched in around each plant in June is enough. Stop feeding once the side arms and cones form.
Bines scratch like fine sandpaper. A cuff that covers the forearm stops the itchy rash that follows an hour of training or picking.
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Choose a snug fit so you can still wind soft shoot tips without snapping them.
Used all year: thinning extra shoots in spring, stripping lower leaves in summer and cutting tough bines down in fall.
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Bypass blades cut live stems cleanly. Wipe them with rubbing alcohol between plants if you see mildew.
Cones need air on every side to dry before they mold. Stacked mesh shelves dry a whole plant's harvest in a closet or garage.
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Spread cones one layer deep and aim a small fan past the rack, not straight at it. A clean window screen on two chairs also works.
For later, once the bines are heavy: hang the pulley from the top hook and tie the twine to the rope, and the whole plant lowers to the ground for picking.
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You need rope at least twice the height of the hook, so check the length in the listing. Tie the free end off to a second stake.
For later, when a harvest is big enough to brew with: fully dried cones weigh about a fifth of their fresh weight, so weighing a tray before and after tells you when to stop.
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One that reads to 1 gram is fine.
For later, once a plant gives more than you use in a month: air turns dried hops stale and cheesy, and vacuum-sealed bags in the freezer keep them fresh for a year.
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Until then, squeeze the air out of a zip-top freezer bag and freeze it.
