I placed the rhizome in some miracle grow dirt, and put it next to the window. Sure enough, in a about a week, I had some sprouts.
Here is the first day that I noticed some activity.
This is two days later, pretty impressive. About an inch.
This is what I came back to after the weekend! About 6 inches of growth!
This is the very next day, it really picked up some momentum. Its growth rate is about 3" per day.
So, at this point it was obvious I needed something to support the vine, so I used a binder clip to fasten some hop twine to the top of the window blinds. The window is one of those tinted office building windows that have a mirror like appearance from the outside. I was thinking that with such a limited amount of sunlight coming through, the plant would most likely stall in growth any time now.
This was not the case...
It just kept growing...
... and growing ...
Well, it easily reached the top of the twine. So, if it can't go up any more, it needs to go over. My cubicle neighbor didn't mind so I attached the end of the twine to the top of his blinds.
Fast forward a couple of months.
The hop easily made it to the top of the twine again. It could have easily made its way back down the line too, if it were trained. Instead, I let it do want it wanted to do, form an ugly looking mess at the top.
I carefully took it down and spread it out on the floor for harvest and measurement.
For a first year plant, it put out some pretty nice sized cones.
.... and a total length of 21 feet!
Afterthoughts:
All of that growth from a small pot of dirt no bigger than the average coffee pot. Other than what came with the dirt, I didn't use any fertilizer, just straight tap water. It consumed about 2 cups of water per day.
