My hop plants sprouted in late February and have been growing well ever since. This year, I am conducting an experiment in my hopyard.

In Texas, home hop growers have noticed that their hops always have a grassy aroma. One hypothesis about the cause of this is that cones here mature in the hottest part of the year. If you let your hops sprout and grow, they are frequently ready to harvest in late July to early August (sometimes sooner) -- a time of year that is always hot (often over 100 °F every day).

My idea was to let the hops grow awhile, then cut them back, forcing them to start over -- and also hopefully pushing back the day they flower, and hence when the cones begin to develop. Commercial growers cut their first growth back when it is couple inches high. My hops had grown to 8 feet before I pruned them on May 1st. Here's a "before" picture:

For the experiment, I had five pairs of plants, each pair grown from a split rhizome crown. I have two Northern Brewer, Chinook, Centennial, Nugget and Cascade plants. Each pair is growing side-by-side. 

I cut back the Cascade plant on the right, then the Nugget on the left and so forth, so that all the experimental plants were not on one side of the row. Here's an "after" picture:

I also cut back the hops growing on the side of my house, as anecdotal evidence from an "accidental experiment" last year convinced me that I could push back hop cone development and get hops with better aroma characteristics. Here's the "before":

And here's the "after." I had to get a rake to knock down the remnants of the tallest hop bine, which had almost reached the top of the roof. 

It's kind of nerve-racking cutting this much bine down, but at least the compost heap got fed. (It also got some barley straw recently, and will have a lot more in the near future.)