Training hop bines

After the pieces of twine are tied directly above each hop plant, it is now time to train the hop bines (yes they are called bines with a “b” instead of vines with a “v”) onto the twine. This is all done by hand and is one of the several labor-intensive tasks involved with growing hops. To do so, I will choose the most productive-looking 3-5 bines (there are 3 in the picture above) and manually wrap each one after another around the twine in a clockwise direction. It is important that they are wound clockwise in the northern hemisphere so they can follow the sun as they grow skyward. If they are wound counterclockwise, as is done in the southern hemisphere, they will unravel themselves from the twine from which they were trained.