Golden cone hop growing from seeds. Common hops: planting and care, propagation, diseases and pests, description and history, varieties

COMMON HOPS

Almost all of us instantly associate the common hop plant with the epithet “hoppy,” but it is used not so much by brewers as by masters of poetry. Intoxicating aromas turn the heads of lovers, evoke philosophical thoughts about the meaning of life, touch, delight, conquer, bewitch, enchant. But in fact, that same ordinary hop has almost no smell, and its appearance is also not particularly charming, although it does have some zest of its own. Photo: Common hop (Humulus lupulus)

origin of name

Common hops grow both in the wild and carefully cultivated wherever it is not too hot. You can even find it in North Africa. No one can say for sure where the name “hop” came from; they only assume that it is either Slavic, or Chuvash, or German, or someone else. Each of these peoples has a word that sounds like “hops” and denotes some of its characteristic feature. For example, among the Germans it is “hummeln”, that is, “groping, feeling”, as if crawling and entwining everything that comes in its way, and in Latin it is “humus”, which means “earth”, a plant spreading along the ground . In Russia, common hops are found everywhere, with the exception of regions with a very harsh climate. We call this plant differently - hop flower, beer flower, wild grapes, bitterweed, beer cone.

Botanical description plants

Common hops can be described as unusually tenacious, creeping, twining, and very tenacious. This plant has interesting feature- in the fall, its entire above-ground part dies off, and in the spring, new shoots develop from the overwintered rhizomes with fantastic speed, stretching to a length of more than 6-7 meters. These herbaceous vines grow literally before our eyes and in just a month they are able to climb several meters up the supports, weave around a fence or gazebo. Moreover, it wraps around supports and obstacles only clockwise. Its stems themselves are hollow inside, tetrahedral. The rhizome is also long, and also creeping, only underground. Common hops are attractive with their rich green leaves, a bit like grape leaves and creating thick veils. Interestingly, lower leaves it has three or five blades, and the upper ones, slightly smaller in size, are solid, similar to hearts.
Not everyone knows that the cones, thanks to which common hops are so valued, are female flowers, more precisely, cone-shaped inflorescences. The flowers themselves are hidden under the scales. They, as expected, have a pistil, with the help of which fruit ovaries are formed in all plants.
In addition, these unusual flowers nature has endowed with special glands that contain the substance lupulin, which has the richest chemical composition, thanks to which common hops are used in medicine and brewing. And here male flowers The plants are completely inconspicuous, looking like small green panicles, but they cope with their role of pollinating females and producing fruits perfectly. Common hops belong to the group of dioecious plants (male and female), that is, in order to get fruits, they need to be planted side by side. Hops bloom in the second half of summer, closer to August, and its small fruit-nuts ripen in about a month.

Just a little history

Despite its modest beauty, common hops have long been honored by many peoples. What impressed people most of all was the plant’s extraordinary endurance and vitality, its rapid growth and ability in the spring to seem to rise from the dead. Thanks to this, even in the times of paganism, common hops became a symbol of fertility, well-being, resilience and vitality, and later they added flexibility, wisdom, and the ability to cement a union. Therefore, in the old days, newlyweds were showered with hop cones, and huts were decorated with twigs on holidays and weekdays, and girls wove them into wreaths.

Photo: Common hop, vine leaves

The first historical mention of hops dates back to the reign of Prince Vladimir. The oath when he concluded peace with the Bulgarians states that if it is suddenly broken, the hop will sink and the stone will float.
In that era, our ancestors had a very bright ritual deity Yarilo, that is, a symbol of fertility. It turns out that common hops were often present with this Yarilo in the same company, it was even called Yar-Khmel. With his participation, ritually of course, our glorious ancestors organized festivities in honor of harvested, sang songs until the morning, danced around the fires. They had a belief that the guy or girl who Yar-Khmel looked at would definitely fall in love. Hops were also favored by players who were not afraid to risk their fortunes. They firmly believed that the plant, symbolizing well-being and prosperity, would definitely help them become rich. And ordinary hops “saved” honest people from the machinations of witches, ghouls and other evil spirits, so hop cones were always carried in the pockets of clothes, in boots and bast shoes, and of course, hung from front door.

But our ancestors did not use hops as the main component of beer - they did not know that it was an assistant in this matter. In general, the ancient Slavs drank little (according to historical data), they used intoxicating drinks mainly on holidays, so they saw nothing wrong with glorifying a plant that intoxicates the head. Later, when these almost fabulous traditions were broken and people began to drink a lot, common hops fell into the category of plants given to people by devilish powers. It must be said that the ancient Romans and even the wise Greeks, who preferred grape wine and relegated beer to the role of an unworthy drink, were biased towards hops. The Bible also mentions hops as an unseemly plant, because at the instigation of the insidious serpent it helped to drug Noah and destroy his ark. But the ancient Jews, on the contrary, it was thanks to beer with hops that they saved themselves from a terrible disease - leprosy, which was once a real punishment from God.

Hops and beer

Be that as it may, ordinary hops, having lost their significance in Rus' as an aid to fertility and a protector from evil spirits, gained new recognition as a component of the drink beloved by many - beer. They cooked it in Rus', as they say, even under Tsar Gorokh, but they didn’t know how to preserve it for a long time. That is, it was only a seasonal drink. Only when the ancient brewers came up with the idea of ​​adding ordinary hops to beer recipes did things start to improve. Now this plant is used everywhere in brewing. It turns out there are many varieties of hops. The type, strength, taste and aroma of beer depends on which one is used in recipes. So, there are Alpha hops, Aroma hops, Bitter hops and others. It is added to both hot and cold wort, which also affects the quality of the final product. Nowadays they have learned how to make extracts and compressed concentrated tablets from hops, which are increasingly used in breweries, gradually replacing the original raw material - hop cones.

Photo: Common hop, female cone-shaped inflorescences

Hops in landscape design

Gardeners and summer residents use common hops not to make beer, but to decorate their plots. This amazing and energetically bright plant can extravagantly decorate a gazebo, weave a fence, or cover an unseemly place, for example, a barn or a garbage dump. The only inconvenience it can cause is that in the fall you will have to remove its dried vines to make room for new ones that emerge from the ground in the spring.

Common hops, planting and care

Anyone who is planning to keep hops needs to get acquainted with the simple rules of caring for them. Appropriate place It's not hard for him to find. It can be partial shade or a bright corner, but the sun should not be hot there all day. The soil for hops is loamy, neutral, slightly alkaline or slightly acidic. Of course, on fertile soils Common hops grow better. It loves moisture very much, so it needs watering, but you can’t overwater the hops, since an excess of moisture can be detrimental for it. Elements of plant care include building supports for it if it is planted away from them, weeding and fertilizing. As a rule, ordinary hops do not cause any special difficulties. Planting and caring for it can be done even by those who do not understand gardening at all. This plant is so unpretentious that it can grow without any care. In addition, it is quite frost-resistant. Its rhizomes tolerate winters well with temperatures down to -30 degrees. The only difficulty that can await lovers of green hops is the super growth of its rhizomes. To prevent the plant from turning into a malicious weed, you need to use available materials (pieces of slate, bricks, etc.) to create a barrier in the ground for its roots.

Reproduction

Photo: Common hop, fragment of creeping rhizome

An unpretentious, unobtrusive beauty, the common hop, planting and caring for which is so simple, and does not cause difficulties in propagation. This is most often done by vegetative methods. It is most rational to use fragments of rhizomes with living healthy buds, and they are separated without digging them up mother plant from the ground. In the spring, as soon as the plant wakes up and the first shoots appear from the ground, small pieces are picked out with a shovel, but carefully, and planted in their favorite place.
You can also propagate common hops by rhizome cuttings, which are harvested before sap flow begins. The rhizome is dug up, divided into fragments with living buds and planted again where they have a place. Anyone who wants can grow these cuttings in a separate bed, and transfer them to permanent residence in the fall. By the way, hops live for about 30 years.
A very simple way to propagate common hops by layering. For planting and care in this case, I have the following technology: the selected vine is tilted to the ground somewhere in the middle of summer, pinned and sprinkled with the same soil. The structure is left in this position until spring, when it will be necessary to dig up the resulting new rhizome and plant it in a favorite place.

There are cases when you can only propagate hops by seeds, for example, when you want to grow an unusual variety, or when large plantations are planted at once. The seed propagation method is also simple, but it is better to start it in a greenhouse or at home. To do this, containers (boxes, bowls, whatever you have) are filled with prepared soil and watered. The care for seedlings is the same as for any flower. The grown plants are transferred to open ground and care for them, just like adult hops. Common hops will begin to delight you with their rapid growth in the second year, and cones will appear on it in another couple of years. Not really convenient feature The problem with growing by seed is that you may end up with too many male plants, that is, you will be left without buds. To beat this situation, experienced hop growers plant hop seedlings closer to each other, and then remove the excess infertile plants.

How to properly plant common hops in open ground

In order for young seedlings to develop faster (seedlings grown from seeds, or fragments of rhizomes), in the fall, where the place is chosen for hops, they dig holes up to 50 cm deep. They are half filled with rotted organic matter (preferably manure), add soil on top and leave everything this is until spring. During planting, the seedling is placed in ready-made holes, covered with soil, compacted, and watered. If there is no difference, male or female plants are needed, and also, when the “sex” of the seedling is already known, they need to be placed at a distance of about a meter from each other, and the row spacing should be maintained at about 3 meters. If you plan to dig through the seedlings, you can make holes more often.

Photo: Common hop perfectly camouflages fences and creates hedge

Diseases and pests

Common hops withstand weather conditions, but suffer from some pests. It is especially bothered by aphids, nematodes and other leaf-eating small things, which are best combated with insecticides.
Unfortunately, common hops are also susceptible to plant diseases. This:
- powdery mildew;
-downy mildew;
- Verticillium wilt of hops;
-fusarium;
-root rot;
- bacterial cancer;
-mosaics (hop, chlorotic, arabis);
- curliness.
All this fungal diseases. They develop under weather conditions favorable for fungal spores, improper agricultural practices for growing hops, vegetative ways reproduction (many fungi, such as root rot, cancer, fusarium, enter the plant through wounds on the rhizome) and lead to a decrease in yield, and bacterial cancer and root rot can cause the death of the entire plant.
You can understand that common hops are sick by spots on the leaves, white bloom (with powdery mildew), wilting of shoots, their weakening, and other external changes unusual for hops. Diseases must be dealt with appropriately chemicals, plus strictly follow all the rules for caring for the plant.

Photo: Common hop at flowering time, female plant

Varieties

Breeders do not ignore common hops. Thanks to their efforts, about a hundred were bred interesting varieties with green, red and red-green vines. Red varieties are considered the best. Their advantage is the early ripening of the crop, but the disadvantage is that their cones open very quickly and lose lupulin. Green varieties are late-ripening and easier to harvest, but the lupulin in their buds has a less subtle aroma and more low quality. Both red and green varieties exist regionally and selectively.
Here are just a few of them:
"Brewer". This variety belongs to the average growing season. It will delight with lush greenery for about 4 months. “Brewer” copes well with frosts in the growth phase and frosts in the resting phase, with drought and prolonged heavy rains, and is resistant to many diseases. Its yield is average, but the buds have a refined aroma, which is why this variety is used with pleasure in brewing. The leaves of “Pivovar” are again medium in size, slightly wavy, but if this variety is planted for the purpose of intertwining barriers, it will not form a particularly lush crown.
"Triumph". This variety is equally good for creating landscape designs, and for the production of delicious beer. Its cones are medium in size and contain alpha acid.
The following varieties are also popular: “ Gaydamatsky", "Alta"(alpha acids in it are up to 12%, which is much more than other hops), "Slav", "Clone-18"(alpha acids only up to 4%), "Zagrava", "Miss it".
The value of each variety is determined by yield, uniformity of cones, ripening, structure of cones, lupulin content, color and aroma. Less valuable are varieties in which the cones are formed unevenly, ripen poorly, have a small amount of lupulin, spotting and multiple traces of pests.

Some people don’t know how to get rid of hops, but for some they don’t grow, but they are needed because they have a lot of beneficial properties, and besides, it is used for making beer at home.

Planting hops

I'm cooking planting pits for hops in the fall.

I make a deep and at the same time wide hole - approximately 0.7 x 0.7 m. Since I plant hops there on long time(and sometimes even for his entire life, I don’t like dragging plants from place to place), the hole needs to be well filled. I fill it 2/3 full fresh manure, and sprinkle a layer of earth on top.

You can also put it inside leaf humus, if you have one. I water the top a little and forget about the hole until spring. And in May I plant plants.

Just remember that hops are actively growing, they are still the aggressor. It will spread so quickly that you won’t have time to blink your eye.

Therefore, along the edges of the hole you need to dig in the sides - the deeper, the better. You can use roofing felt: it bends quite easily and takes the shape you need.

Hop propagation

How to propagate hops? The simplest thing is division. It will not be difficult to find offspring from an overgrown bush. These are the ones that need to be separated with a shovel.

Just don’t make it too small – cut off a good piece the length of your palm (12-15 cm). Each one should have several buds.

It is best to divide the plant in the spring. As soon as you find young leaves of shoots around it, immediately take up the shovel, do not delay this matter. The sooner you plant, the faster the hops will take root, grow and begin to bloom.

In the planting hole, which I filled with manure in the fall, I make a small depression, put the rhizome there, sprinkle it with earth and water it.

By the way, hops are water lovers, so water them often. He will thank you for this good growth and numerous inflorescences.

Benefits of hops

And I use hops not only to make a well-known drink (my husband does this more), but also for health.

The cones help with insomnia, which has become especially pronounced with age. In the evening I brew three hop cones and five mint leaves in a cup. It helps very well - there are nights when I sleep like a baby.

Hops: growing benefits and harm, recipes

Growing

Prefers to grow in semi-shaded areas of the garden, reliably protected from the north wind.

Winters well under snow cover.

The best soil is air- and moisture-permeable nutritious loam, without waterlogging or stagnation of moisture.

Watering is only necessary during drought.

Especially needs watering and fertilizing (for example, complex mineral fertilizer- according to instructions) in the first 3 years after planting.

Aggressive, its growth needs to be controlled.

You can propagate in the summer by root suckers, dividing the rhizomes (without digging them up entirely), and in March sow the seeds for seedlings.

Contraindications

Allergy to hops, hypertension, severe nervous excitement, hypertensive crisis, febrile conditions.

Recipes

For arthrosis and arthritis, mix 2 tbsp. sweet clover and St. John's wort herbs, hop cones. Add 50 g of Vaseline, mix in a ceramic or porcelain mortar. Rub the ointment into sore joints

For arthritis and arthrosis, mix sweet clover, wild rosemary and thyme, burdock roots, juniper berries, and hop cones in equal parts. Fill the bottle with the mixture and fill it with 40-proof vodka. Leave for 10-14 days in a dark place, shaking once a day. Use for rubbing sore joints and spine.

For osteoarthritis, pain due to osteochondrosis, radiculitis, mix 5 tbsp. wild rosemary herb, 3 tbsp. birch buds, 2 tbsp. elecampane root, sweet clover herb, 3 tbsp. St. John's wort herb, 2 tbsp. nettle leaves, 1 tbsp. linden flowers and peppermint leaves, 3 tbsp. chamomile flowers,

1 tbsp. dill fruits, 3 tbsp. hop cones, 2 tbsp. seeds or root of horse sorrel. 2 tbsp. collection, pour 1 liter of boiling water, simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. in a sealed container, pour along with the ingredients into a thermos, leave overnight. Take 100-150 ml during the day in 30 minutes. before meals. The course of treatment is 3 months. After a 15-day break, it can be repeated.

HOPS WILL GIVE YOU A STRONG SLEEP

Already long years it's grassy perennial not only decorates my garden, but is also a valuable raw material used for cosmetic, medicinal and culinary purposes. It's about about fragrant hops. Most consider it something exotic. To dispel this misconception, I will try to talk about how you can grow hops in your dacha.

Peculiarities

This plant produces horizontal shoots from the main root, which take root at the nodes and produce vertical shoots. The stems reach a length of 6 m, have a tetrahedral shape and characteristic feature- they curl to the right. In a vertical position, they quickly climb up supports; growth in the horizontal direction is much slower.

In the first half of summer, hop vines grow very rapidly, ahead of lemongrass and virgin grapes, and are the very first to entwine pergolas and “ladders”. They grow several cm in a day!

This plant blooms and gains full strength in the second half of summer. Clusters of cones and cascades of red leaves are what hops are all about at this time of year.

Reproduction

To plant hops, in the fall they dig holes 0.5 m deep, fill them half with manure, and cover them with earth on top. In the spring, seedlings or cuttings harvested from plants 3-8 years old are planted in them. The distance between them must be at least 1 m.

It is best to propagate this crop by cuttings 8-14 cm long with a well-filled core, 1.5-2 cm thick, with 2-3 lars of buds. Unlike many other crops, the cuttings are completely buried in the ground, and in an inclined state. To do this, you need to dig a groove 15-20 cm deep. The upper end should be 4-5 cm higher than the lower end and located 10 cm from the surface. The cuttings are covered with loose soil and watered abundantly.

Care

Shoots appear in about 10 days. Caring for plantings consists of timely weeding, periodic loosening and regular watering to keep the soil moist throughout the season. Feeding with a solution of complex mineral fertilizer is also important. Moreover, they should be alternated: once - at the root, the next - along the stems and leaves (the concentration is half as much). Method foliar feeding It should also be used in case of deficiency of some element, which can be determined by the leaves. With a lack of nitrogen they are light and small, with a lack of potassium they take on a convex shape, and with phosphorus starvation they turn bronze.

As soon as the shoots grow 40-50 cm, you need to build a support for them. In the first year after planting, weak shoots should be removed, leaving strong ones.

Collecting cones should begin when they are not yet fully ripe. Only high-quality raw materials are harvested, brown and yellow cones are rejected, and the collected ones are dried and then stored in linen bags. In autumn, hop stems should be cut and burned.

Healing properties

Our ancestors appreciated the benefits of cones, which were used to stuff pillows, which contributed to strong and healthy sleep. This raw material is an excellent tool for slowing down skin aging and smoothing out wrinkles. Recommended for use by women over 40 years of age. For colds and viral diseases hops can also provide invaluable help as a natural immunomodulator. I will give you my favorite home cosmetology recipe.

Cream for mature skin

1 tbsp. l. pour 0.5 cups of boiling water over the cones and cook for 5 minutes in a water bath. Strain, add a little starch and 1 tsp. glycerin. Apply to skin after evening wash.

Instructions

Hops compare favorably with others climbing plants with its rapid growth. Already in the second half of June he is able to decorate land plot. It is advisable to plant hops near a fence, gazebo, veranda and other outbuildings. This plant not only performs decorative function. Young shoots and hop cones can be used to prepare medicinal decoctions and tinctures.

When choosing a place to plant hops, it is important to take into account the fact that when it grows, it can destroy neighboring plants. To prevent the plant from heavily shading the house, it is better to plant it 1.5 m from the window, periodically trimming the grown shoots. Caring for hops involves abundant watering and fertilizing with complex mineral fertilizers. When the plant reaches 0.5 m, it needs support and garter.

When forming a hop crown, it should be taken into account that the plant grows better in a vertical direction. By the end of summer it begins to lose its aesthetics. Lower leaves turn yellow and gradually fall off. To solve the problem with bare stem bases, you can plant other plants next to the hops that remain green until autumn (astilbe, peony, fern, etc.).

It can also be propagated by cuttings, but a more convenient way is through rhizomes. This should be done in the autumn or spring time. Since hop rhizomes are fibrous, the easiest way to separate them is with pruning shears. The plants are covered with thorns, so you should work with them in clothes with long sleeves and wearing gloves.

When growing hops, problems can arise in dry and hot weather. This ideal conditions for the appearance of aphids. To avoid the invasion of these insects, the plant should be treated with insecticides at the beginning of summer. If aphids do appear, you need to resort to spraying the hops with stronger preparations. When processing, keep in mind that insects accumulate on the lower part of the leaves.

Nutritional deficiencies can affect appearance plants. With a deficiency of phosphorus, the leaves become bronze; with a lack of potassium, they become convex. Pale and small leaves are characteristic of plants with nitrogen deficiency.

In general, hops are unpretentious. In a fairly short period of time, he can capture a huge piece of land. With the help of this plant you can decorate unsightly areas of your dacha, make a hedge, or simply beautifully fence your house. Within just a few days after planting the rhizomes and watering them, hops gradually begin to grow on any soil, without requiring any specific actions.

The fashion for green hedges is always relevant. Lianas, such as hops, are often used. It is grown to decorate an inconspicuous fence, make an arch more spectacular, or braid pillars, turning them into trees. In a short period of time, the lashes will wrap around any support - a gardener’s dream for the implementation of a bold and fantastic composition. The length of the shoots reaches 12 m. Life activity is up to 30 years.

Planting hops in April. Flowering begins in July, and the fruiting phase begins in August. Hop fruits are cones; they hang down unusually and look like New Year's tree decorations. They are collected when fully ripe, when they become yellow color and half open. At this time, a wonderful aroma emanates from the vine, for which this vine is a favorite among many gardeners.

Disadvantages of hops on the site

Despite the temptation to grow hops in your garden, think twice. This is the option when “If you get caught once, you won’t get kicked out”:

• the roots grow quickly, trying to take over the entire area. Don’t be surprised that over time, vine shoots will appear in the flowerbed in a place where it was not planned;
• in time, unpruned shoots begin to entwine their “neighbors”, including fruit trees and shrubs;
• Hops in a humid environment and shade attract aphids, weevils, nematodes and spider mites. The liana becomes a breeding ground for diseases;
• absorbs everything nutrients soil, there is active depletion and inhibition of the growth of other crops. After hops, fertilizing with complex mineral fertilizer and humus is necessary;
• gives self-seeding, from which .

Landing - confident and without doubt

If all concerns are not scary and you are ready to keep the hops under control, then go ahead and plant!

The best place for this will be the perimeter of the site, where the soil is not so bad and will not disturb anyone. Prefers a slightly acidic pH, with deep groundwater.

Seedlings and cuttings

Hop planting is carried out in the spring at a stable warm weather. Make a groove or separate landing holes. The distance between seedlings is maintained at 1 m. Near each specimen, a support is installed along which the lashes will go up.

Seeds

At the beginning of April, fill the seedling box with soil mixed with humus. Spread the seeds and sprinkle a layer of no more than 0.5 cm of soil on top. Cover with transparent film or glass and place in a warm place (22°C). Water occasionally and open for ventilation, removing condensation. When leaves appear, the cover is removed.

Transplanted into open ground in early May, when the period has passed return frosts. When transplanting, leave the earthen lump. The distance between plants is maintained at 0.5-1 m, depending on the desired density of landscaping.

Liana care

As soon as the hops begin to grow, take a closer look at the shoots and immediately remove the weak ones. In the first 2 years, organic matter is added, watered regularly, especially in the first half of summer, and formed. Then fertilizers are applied every 3-4 years.

To avoid pest attacks, plantings are sprayed with infusion or wormwood is planted between rows. When white plaque The leaves are treated with fungicides.

Hop control

To prevent the vine from turning your area into a jungle, its growth must be restrained, namely:

• plant hops in metal barrels, without a bottom, the height of which is not less than 1 m, so that the roots cannot spread to the sides and sprout;
• collect cones that fall to the ground, they will begin to produce new shoots;
• trim the vines regularly, giving the required form compositions. Don't let the vine expand its boundaries;
• in the fall, cut all stems at a height of 15-20 cm from the soil surface and burn to destroy pests and diseases.

Collecting cones

Collect fruits to get maximum benefit needed when fully ripe. They can be used to make pillows and mattresses with a massage and soothing effect. Dried specimens are added to bread and drinks.

When the cones reach full maturity become dense, dry, and when pressed, the mark quickly disappears. The color changes from bright green to yellowish. Stickiness appears and the aroma intensifies.

The cones are collected individually, leaving the petioles. The easiest way is to pick off the largest ones first, then the smaller ones, thus sorting. Fold loosely, do not compact.

Many people associate hops with beer; Indeed, this is the most famous component of a drink popular throughout the planet. Therefore, when growing this plant, a logical question often arises: when to collect hops? It belongs to the Hemp family, and today two of its types are known: Japanese and ordinary, which are most widespread due to their demand in the brewing industry.

Hops: a decorative useful friend or a malicious weed?

Hops, the use of which has found its place in many industries (medicine, perfumery, cosmetology, pharmacy, canned food production, bakery), is historically considered to come from the Middle East. This plant was brought to Europe by the Greeks and Romans. IN household In the absence of care, hops run wild and turn into a real aggressor, which is very difficult to remove. Therefore, its dense thickets can often be observed in remote corners of the garden, where human hands simply cannot reach, which causes the constant conquest of new territories by the uncontrolled plant.

Sometimes, in contrast to the question “how to grow hops,” another question arises - “how to get rid of them”?

With proper care, hops can become a decorative seasonal element of arches, fences, and posts. Its hanging green cones, associated with the original ones, look especially impressive. decorative ornaments. When to collect

External characteristics of the plant

Common hops can grow in one place for about 20 years and are characterized by a vine-like twisting stem and a powerful perennial root system that penetrates the soil to a depth of more than 4 meters and is dispersed in a diameter of about 3 meters. The main rhizome of the bush is an underground shoot that constantly forms buds (the basis for the formation of new shoots), this occurs especially actively in the fourth year of growth. Cultivated hop cultivation involves regularly destroying numerous sprouts to avoid unwanted growth of the bush. To understand when to collect hops, you should have some understanding of this plant and its characteristics.

Hop stems are branched, covered with hairs, colored green or reddish, and reach about 13 mm in thickness. The plant can reach a length of more than 10 meters and during the growth process clings to support with the help of hook-like spines placed along the edges of the stem, on the side shoots, petioles and leaves.

Hop flowers are collected in small inflorescences (20-60 pieces each), they look like cones and grow on female vines. Male plants cones are not formed, which is why they are often destroyed. The fruits are small nuts Brown. The seeds are also very small: 1000 pieces weigh from 2 to 4 grams. Hop leaves are heart-shaped, in the middle part of the plant they are largest, and at the top and bottom of the bush they are smaller. The upper side is dark green in color, the lower side is lighter and contains glands that secrete essential oils and resins. The above-ground part of the plant lives for one year and dies in late autumn, in contrast to the perennial root system.

Features of cultivation

How to grow and when to harvest hops? Hops are grown in flat areas. For mass harvesting, so-called hop fields with an area of ​​20-30 hectares are created, divided into separate squares, between which there are 3-4-meter paths.

On each hectare, 145-150 poles (8-9 meters in height) are installed to create trellises. In order to protect from piercing winds, hop plantations are planted near gardens, shelterbelts and forests. The open area planned for such a plant is planted in advance (a couple of years in advance) with 2-3-row protective forest belts of fast-growing trees, placing them from the edges of the plantation at a distance of 20 meters.

Planting: at home and on an industrial scale

Hop planting is carried out on medium-, slightly podzolic, turf and forest lands with good drainage; groundwater should not be close to the soil surface. Planting is carried out using cuttings or annual hop seedlings grown in nurseries. The planting depth, which is recommended in April-May, is 8-10 cm.

At home, planting is done according to the same principle, only on a smaller scale. So, the plant should be provided with well-drained soil, sunny place and a support along which it will crawl. As the latter, you can use a fence or the wall of a house with strings stretched along it. After planting, abundant watering is recommended.

The emergence of seedlings usually occurs 7-10 days after planting. When the plant reaches a height of 50-60 cm, the stem is placed on a support, and the row spacing is loosened with cultivators (in industrial scale). During the growing season, 4-5 fluffing of the top soil layer and one hilling are usually carried out. The growth of the hop root system is stopped starting from the second year of growth. In early spring the ridges are plowed, the lateral rhizomes and last year’s underground stems are pruned; on highly developed plants they are cut off completely, on insufficiently powerful ones - above the first or second pair of eyes.

Feeding and care

Once the plant reaches a height of 3-4 meters, it is required to fertilize it with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers at the rate of 30-45 kg per 1 hectare. The yield of cones can be increased by pinching - shortening excess side branches at a distance of 3 cm from the main stem.

At the same time, damaged or dead plants are uprooted and new specimens are planted in their place. On average per 1 hectare (with industrial cultivation) accounts for 14-16 thousand bushes. After pruning, fertilizing and herbicides are applied to kill weeds.

Hops propagation and transplantation

Replanting and planting hops, top part which dies before the onset of winter, can be produced in spring or late autumn. To do this, you need to dig up the plant, select the healthiest roots and plant them in pre-prepared grooves at a distance of 1 meter from each other. When planning spring planting It is recommended to place the roots in a bag along with a small amount of soil and sawdust and store them in the refrigerator.

Hops can be propagated by green cuttings taken from three-year-old or older plants. Hop seeds for propagation are mostly used by breeders to develop new varieties.

When to Harvest Hops?

The ripening of hop cones often occurs unevenly; harvesting can be done from late August to early September. When to collect hop cones? To do this, you must correctly determine their ripeness, signs of which are the presence of a yellow powder similar to pollen, a specific aroma, good density, yellow-green color, brown bract; the scales should be in the straightening stage. It is during this period that the cones contain maximum amount essential oil, alpha acids, polyphenols. In hop farms, harvesting ends in late September; Delay in harvesting leads to a decrease in its quality due to the precipitation of lupulin grains.

Features of drying raw materials

After harvesting, the buds must be dried, otherwise the raw material will quickly deteriorate and will not be suitable for brewing. Home brewers often use fruit and mushroom dehydrators or a conventional oven for this purpose. In large production, hops, containing about 80% water, are ventilated with heated air immediately after harvesting, then dried in specialized ovens. Drying should be stopped when the stem of the pine cone becomes brittle.

The dried material should have a yellow-green color and be practically weightless, with scales resembling In this state, the cones should be crushed and placed in plastic bag and place them in the freezer where they will wait their turn. On an industrial scale, raw materials are stored in plastic or jute bags at hop collection points or hop factories, where they are finally brought to standard marketable conditions.

After collecting hop cones, in the fall, the dried stems of the plant are cut off and removed from the area for burning. Hop fields are thoroughly cleaned of vegetation residues, organic matter (manure or compost) and potassium-phosphorus preparations are added.

Common hop varieties

Hops Brewer

The variety is a tall, massive plant with a delicate aroma. The cones are elongated-cylindrical, medium-sized, quite dense; There are few of them on the bush. Hops, the use of which in the beer industry and in the preparation of hop-containing preparations is quite widespread, is characterized by high stability to disease, freezing, getting wet, drought. The growing season is 115 days.

Hops Triumph

It grows in one place for 15 years or more and is resistant to soaking, drought and frost. May be affected spider mite. Characterized by a delicate aroma, it is used in brewing and processing aimed at producing concentrated granules.