V3 · Sonnet

Lublin region · one bay in four phases

Four phases of the same supports. Only the plant changes.

Hop-garden landscape of the Lublin region

Bay 1: winter Two poles with taut wires at the top and three rootstocks in the soil. There are no bines or strings above ground. Beside them stands the silhouette of a 1.8 m person for scale; in the model the pole is 7 m tall. The silhouette appears only in this bay.
Bay 2: May The same poles and wires. From each rootstock two strings run in a V shape up to the top wire. Low green bines climb only the lower part of the strings.
Bay 3: July and August The same poles and wires. The bines reach the top wire along the whole length of the V strings, covered in leaves, and pale cones hang on the side shoots. A green wall hides the strings.
Bay 4: September, harvest The same poles and wires. The bines are cut low: short lower sections remain at each rootstock. The band marked with a dashed line shows the cutting height, from 1.0 to 1.5 m above the ground. The V strings are not drawn because V2 does not describe what happens to them after harvest; this does not mean they are absent.

Our own diagram (a model), not a photograph or a map. The height of the pole and of the person (1.8 m) share one vertical scale; horizontally the bays are shortened. The silhouette of the person appears only in bay 1 and serves as a scale. The dimensions (pole 7 m, rootstock spacing 1.2 m, V spread 0.8 m) are examples, not a measurement of any plantation. The four phases stand side by side here, but in reality a single bay goes through them one after another over the year. The periods come from V2 and depend on the variety and the season. No V strings are drawn in bay 4: V2 does not describe what happens to them after harvest, so an empty drawing does not mean they are absent.

  1. 1 Winter winter and early spring, dormancy

    The poles and wires stand; there are no bines above ground. The rootstock waits in the soil.

  2. 2 May training the bines

    The V strings are hung; selected bines twine low, on the lower part.

  3. 3 July–August peak of the growing season

    The bines reach the netting, and there are cones on the side shoots. A green wall.

  4. 4 September harvest

    Bines cut approx. 1.0–1.5 m above the ground (per V2); the cut plants go to the hall. V2 does not describe what happens to the strings after harvest, so they are not drawn here (this does not mean they are absent).

  • Permanent: poles and wires
  • Permanent but living: rootstock in the soil
  • Seasonal: V string (per V2)
  • Seasonal: bine and leaves
  • Cone
  • Cutting band at harvest

One bay at a fixed scale

The same framework can be calculated. Change the dimensions of the example bay: the drawing has a fixed scale (horizontal lines every 1 m, a 1.8 m person silhouette on the left), so a taller pole really reaches higher rather than the drawing simply growing.

Geometric model · example dimensions, not measurements of a plantation

Model of a single hop-garden bay at a fixed scale Bay 10.0 m, poles 7.0 m, 8 rootstocks spaced 1.2 m apart, V spread 0.8 m, 2 bines per string. The 1.8 m person silhouette is at the same scale.
Diagram (model) at a fixed scale: person 1.8 m on the left, grid lines every 1 m.
Rootstocks in the bay8pcs
Length of one string7.01m
Total string length (no allowance for knots)112.2m
Bines in the bay32pcs

Default example: √(7.0² + 0.40²) = 7.01 m per string; ⌊10.0 / 1.2⌋ = 8 rootstocks; 8 × 2 × 7.01 = 112.2 m; 8 × 2 × 2 = 32 bines.

The drawing shows the poles, top wire, rootstocks and V strings according to the given dimensions. The end guy lines are drawn only approximately; their angle is not calculated. The total string length excludes any allowance for knots. This is not a design or a plan of a plantation.

The drawing and the model sliders require JavaScript. Without it, the example result above and the formulas in the Explanation section remain.

Winter photograph from Wierzbica: four questions for the diagram

This page works offline and does not load images from the internet, so the photograph is not embedded here. Open it separately and check how much of the diagram above you can find in it. In winter nothing hides the supports, which makes it a good test.

Wierzbica, Urzędów municipality, Lublin Voivodeship. Plantation photographed on 20 February 2024. Photo: Karol Karolus, licence CC BY 4.0.

Open the photograph on Wikimedia Commons [4]. Full frame; the photograph does not show the surroundings of Krasnystaw.

The link and metadata are taken over from V2. The photograph was not opened for this version, so the questions below are not the result of viewing the frame.

  1. 1. Poles

    Do they stand in a regular row, and is there anything familiar in the frame to compare heights with (a tractor, a person, a house)? V2 spoke of wooden or prestressed-concrete poles; the diagram alone cannot settle the material.

  2. 2. End guy lines

    At the end of the row, can you see a leaning pole or a rope running diagonally to the ground? The diagram shows them only from the side; their number and angle do not follow from the model.

  3. 3. Wires at the top

    Can you see the horizontal wires, even if they are barely visible from a distance? This is the same top element that the V strings reach in summer.

  4. 4. Rows of rootstocks

    Do not assume that a rootstock can be recognised in a winter photograph. At most you can check whether traces of rows are visible between the poles. That hops grow here follows from the file description and V2, not from recognising the plant.

The result of such a comparison is your own observation. It does not confirm the type of structure, the variety or the phase of the plant, and a single plantation does not represent the whole region.

After cutting: hall, picking machine, drying house

According to the descriptions taken over from V2, the harvest does not end in the field. The cut bines go to the farm's hall, where a stationary picking machine strips off the cones, and these go to the drying house so that they do not heat up and spoil [2]. The field and the hall form a single chain of work; the diagram above shows only its first link.

Hop is a perennial plant: the above-ground bines are seasonal, while the rootstock persists in the soil [1]. Hence the double rhythm of this landscape: a skeleton in winter, green walls in summer. According to V2, production plantations grow female plants, because the cones develop from their inflorescences.

A trace in Krasnystaw

An archived description of the permanent exhibition of the Regional Museum in Krasnystaw lists tools for tending rootstocks, photographs of hand harvesting and posters of the hop harvest festival “Chmielaki”, which was first held under that name in 1971 [3].

The description contains neither a list nor a map of former plantations. Entering cultivated fields requires the owners' permission. The current status of the exhibition and the dates were not checked here.

Explanation and limits

What is what

The drawings are our own diagrams, not a map or a photograph. Poles, wires and guy lines are treated as permanent, with the rootstock separate, as it is permanent but living. V strings (according to V2 they are put up every season), bines, leaves and cones are treated as seasonal. The classification comes from V2 and needs to be checked against sources.

Model formulas

  • string length = √(H² + (w/2)²), straight string, without sag;
  • rootstocks in the bay = ⌊L / d⌋ (integer part, at least 1);
  • total length = rootstocks × 2 × string length, without allowance for knots, fixings and waste;
  • bines = rootstocks × 2 × bines per string;
  • when w > d, the upper ends of the strings of neighbouring rootstocks cross; the model reports this but does not assess such a layout.

Limits

This page does not encourage entering plantations: they are private land, and entry requires the owner's permission. It does not identify varieties or the type of structure, and it does not assess strength, wind or the amount of material to buy.

What was removed from V2, and why

  • Comparison of projected areas and “wind resistance”. V2 itself stated that this was not the force of the wind, and the coefficients in the calculation were conventional and unsourced. Without data from a specific farm it explained nothing, so it was dropped.
  • Local observation log (notebook). It is not needed to understand the topic; saving in the browser disappeared with it.
  • Embedded photograph with a point switcher. The image was loaded from the internet, which breaks the offline rule. A link and four questions about the photograph replaced it.
  • A main switch, four phases and four layers as separate controls. A single view toggle and four phases visible at once replaced them.

Retained from V2

Counting of rootstocks, string length and total string length, and bines, with the same ranges and default result (8 rootstocks, 7.01 m, 112.2 m, 32 bines). The rounding at the ⌊L / d⌋ boundary was corrected.

To check against sources

The division into permanent and seasonal, the periods of the phases, the cutting height of 1.0–1.5 m, the role of the hall and drying house, female plants, the year 1971 for Chmielaki, and whether the diagram matches a typical structure in the region.

Sources

Links taken over from V2. They were not opened while this version was built, so their content is not presented here as verified.

  1. IUNG-PIB: Metodyka integrowanej ochrony chmielu [Methodology of integrated hop protection]V2 attributes to this source the description of the supporting structure, the perennial rootstock, V strings and phenology.
  2. IUNG-PIB, Rolnictwo bez tajemnic: Zbiór chmielu [Farming without secrets: Hop harvest]V2 attributes to this source mechanical harvesting: cutting the bines, stripping the cones and drying.
  3. Powiat Krasnostawski: Wystawy stałe Muzeum Regionalnego w Krasnymstawie [Krasnystaw County: Permanent exhibitions of the Regional Museum in Krasnystaw]Archived description of the hop exhibition and of Chmielaki since 1971.
  4. Wikimedia Commons: 5 Wierzbica gmina Urzędów.jpgPhoto: Karol Karolus, CC BY 4.0, 20 February 2024. The photograph is not embedded in this page.