The 2012 ASHS Annual Conference

North Carolina is home to more than 50 craft breweries, including several very large ones scheduled to be built within the next few years.  North Carolina also has one of the strongest “buy local” movements in the U.S.  These two factors have resulted in a high interest within the agricultural community to grow ingredients for locally produced beer.  Small private hop (Humulus lupulus) yards exist across the state; with an estimated 50 currently in production.  Since there is no regionally appropriate information available to support this industry, we initiated a multi-disciplinary hops research program.  North Carolina is at the southernmost range of where hops can likely produce commercially. Due to it’s unique climate and soils, proper variety selection for high yields and disease resistance is a top priority for growers.  To help identify the best performing varieties, we established two variety trials; the first is located in the central piedmont region of the state and the second in the southwestern mountain region.  The piedmont trial is in Raleigh where the summers are hot and humid and summer rainfall is heavy.  The mountain trial is in Mills River near Asheville, where the summers are slightly cooler and drier. Ten varieties were planted in three replications at each location in .10 ha hop yards.  The piedmont trial was planted in 2010 on a short-trellis system (3.7 m tall).   The mountain hop yard was planted in 2011 on a high-trellis system (6 m tall).  In 2011, 85% of the total yield from the piedmont hop yard was produced from just two varieties; Zeus and Cascade, and the majority of the harvest occurred in mid-July.  In the mountain trial, over 70% of the total production was harvested from four varieties: Cascade, Zeus, Galena, and Nugget, and the harvest was spread throughout August.  These preliminary results demonstrate the importance of public variety trials, particularly on crops with significant startup costs and newly emerging markets.  Many of the privately owned hop yards grow five or more varieties, many of which this research has identified as poor producers in North Carolina.  These less productive varieties offer little opportunity for long-term success and sustainability and will likely need to be removed and replaced.  This is a laborious, expensive, and time-consuming effort.  Growers establishing hop yards in 2012 are benefiting from the results of our new research program through identification of varieties that perform well in our trials.