The Hop Picking Year
Spring Preparation
After the stringing was finished there were many jobs in the hop garden as the hops started to grow. There is a separate section on Hop Training so this section concentrates mainly on the tractor work. The photos below show how the ground in the hop gardens was cultivated.
Firstly the aisles would be disced as shown below.
The ground would then be rotovated (this photo shows Don Foster) ......
.... and then rolled ....
...and the first sprays applied. I'm not sure what this machine is doing - I never saw one in action. It might be a mechanised way of "donking". [Donking was a term in common use when I was dragged around the hop garden by my mother. I think we were applying copper sulphate or something similar. The powdered chemical was put in a sack and you walked the hop garden "donking" some powder on each hill]
