How to Root Hops from Stem Cuttings

Photo by Michael Styne

A few years back, I was gifted some Humulus Lupulus 'Cascade' hop rhizomes to plant in an empty space in my yard for use in future beer brewing. 

We tended them so carefully and marked their spot in our yard so as not to mow over  any newly sprouting hop tendrils and then watched with excitement as they appeared, and grew, and grew some more until we had more growth than we ever expected. 

Hops grow fast and even are even considered invasive by some gardeners but it is not listed on the USDA Invasive Species List. (https://www.invasiveplantatlas.org/subject.html?sub=12189) They are a perennial bine that grows easily from 10 to 20 feet high in full sun with plenty of water and in good soil. Yes, a reliable means of asexual propagation is by splitting off some of the rhizomes that grow outward from the central root mass, but there is another way...

Did you know you don't have to do any digging? You can root cuttings from actively growing hops. 

Hops

My procedure is pretty simple.

1.  I remove a section of the bine, usually when I am pruning the plant in the spring and early summer. 
2. Trim the section into smaller 6-8 inch pieces that each have three to four growing nodes. 
3. Trim extra leaves, leaving one leaf at the top to photosynthesize carbohydrates for the cutting.
4. Place the cutting into a prepared rooting mix of dampened coco coir and vermiculite mix so that the top growth node is sitting on the top of the mixture.
5. Keep the cutting moist but not wet  and in a shady but warm spot for the next two weeks or so or until you notice the new roots.
6. Transfer the cutting to a plant pot filled with regular potting soil  and keep moist until you are ready to plant it outside in a permanent location.

Freshly sprouted hop plant

Note: These plants are so easy to root that I have just stuck my pruned cuttings into a bucket of water and forgotten about them for a couple of weeks only to find they had rooted themselves, so don't be too intimidated by the details.

If you would like a more in depth article on this process, you can click here. 

I hope you give rooting a hop vine a try, as I think you will be happily rewarded for your efforts.

Just make sure you are not propagating a patented vine. You can just insert the variety of the hop name on the Google Patent Search page and find out quickly whether you can proceed legally.

Sometimes in the early spring, I sell Cascade Hop cuttings on my Etsy page, Wildflower Run.