How To Rid Your Garden Of Hops?

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Alas, over time, such a garden or ornamental plant, like hops, can fill up half of the plot in the country or in the garden. Such an incident can occur if no attention was paid to the growth of hops, if the plot was purchased with such a “gift of fate”, if the owners rarely showed up in the garden or at the dacha. How to deal with wild predatory weed?

The double life of hops

A bindweed, a dandelion, an overgrown purslane in the country could still be dealt with. And in the light. But the hop, growing on the backyard, begins to abuse hospitality, thanks to its powerful root system, its rapid spread and strengthening in the ground. Moreover, the plant is quite capable of self-healing its ground damaged parts.

If you do not look after its development, hops will quickly take up the lion's share of the plot in the country. Also, such garden and summer cottage plants as raspberries, blackberries, horseradish, strawberries, lily of the valley "work".

Yes, at one time the owners of the dachas chose this plant for planting it, so that it would perform a decorative function in the form of a hedge, braiding of arches, gazebos in the country, the walls of a house. That is, for decorative gardening of a summer cottage, outbuildings and shading of a house, which hops may well provide.

This is the first life of hops. And his second life begins when it grows violently, and the summer resident is no longer happy with his choice of an ornamental plant in his time, as he sees that it is quite difficult to deal with it.

Hops are different

The concept of hops is firmly associated with people far from their dacha life with beer and similar foamy intoxicating drinks. In fact, there is a difference between hops and hops. Not every plant is suitable for making these drinks. Real cones for the intoxicating drink are provided only by the plants of the female hop.

There are actually two main types of hops. The first is ordinary curly hops. The most common in our region. It is a perennial. In length, its vines can reach up to 17 meters or more. By cold weather, the green part of the plant completely dies off. The fruits look like scaly cones. Such bumps develop on female plants. Seeds are scattered around the garden with just such cones during their ripening period. Having planted such a plant in the garden once, it will be difficult to get rid of it further. Gardeners recommend ordinary hops to be planted away from garden crops, if they have already chosen it as an ornamental planting.

Another less common type of hop came to us from the Far East. It is called Japanese or climbing hops. It also has a green ground part that grows rapidly. Vines reach in length or height, if planted near the walls of the house, up to 4 meters. The aesthetic value of this hop species is in its intertwining vines with large, numerous leaves. Knowledgeable gardeners prefer to plant this type of hop for decorative landscaping, as it is annual, compared to perennial ordinary hops. That is, the plant, having pleased with its rapid development and green appearance during the summer season, fades and withers by autumn. All that remains is to compost its foliage. Next year there will be no hassle with its plantings. The only thing you need to know is that this species loves sunlight. If you plant it, where there is often shade in summer and in darkened areas of the garden, then you will not wait for juicy bright foliage from it.

Methods for removing common hops from the site

So, in order to get rid of wild hops in your summer cottage, you can resort to the following most common methods.

Method with drugs. Suitable if you need to remove a plant from a large area where nothing useful and necessary for the gardener grows next to it. In a garden store, ask for such a drug against hops on the site and use a spray bottle to process the green mass of the plant and spill the chemistry into its root system.

The salt method. Even weeds do not grow on salted soil. Sprinkle a good layer on the soil where the hops are growing and sprinkle it with water. Of course, unless other important garden plantings grow next to it.

Method with "over-fertilization". An overabundance of other fertilizers in the soil leads to the death of plants on it, their poor development. Try to "over-fertilize" the hop-growing soil with fresh droppings, undiluted mullein, and plenty of saltpeter. The plant with such "fertilization" will wither very quickly, as they say "on the vine."

Ice method. In the autumn-winter period, holes are pulled out at the root system of ordinary hops, water is periodically poured into them (you do not need to bury the holes). The hop roots will ice over over time. They obviously cannot withstand such a cold wintering and the plant simply will not develop in the spring.