IMG_3259, originally uploaded by nateut.

Early last week, I spoke with my dad about how quickly my hop vines were out-growing the cages we used to support the initial growth and that I needed to find a more permanent solution soon. Always up for a challenge, he went searching the web and found some plans calling for a 20-foot tripod structure made out of 3/4" metal conduit. He modified the plans slightly (four legs instead of three and only 15-foot tall), and agreed to come up to Whitehouse on Sunday to get it into place.

Besides the heat, the building process went pretty smoothly and only took two trips to Menards to complete. Each of the two hop varieties (Cascade and Mt. Hood) have four lengths of twine to grow up. Since they had already wrapped themselves around the cages, we left them in place, but in the subsequent years we'll simply run the twine all the way to the ground to support the vine growth.

One of the cascade vines has already started to wrap around the twine; there was another already over the top of the cage, but it was damaged in the construction and may not grow further. However, there are two more vines within an inch of the top, and another one or two just a little bit lower. The Mt. Hood hops are a little behind in growth (even though they sprouted first), but a few vines seem to be slowly making their way up.

Big thanks to my dad for helping today! A few more photos are available on my flickr photostream.

IMG_3246, originally uploaded by nateut.

Nearly six weeks after planting, the Cascade hops have really started to grow. The tallest vine is about 26" tall, and has grown approximately 2" in the past 24 hours. It has about another 4" or so until it reaches the top of the cage... I'm going to need to come up with some way of supporting its continued growth pretty quick.

Another photo of the Cascade hop plant can be found here.