2018 ASHS Annual Conference

Hops are a perennial, herbaceous climbing specialty crop cultivated for their strobiles or cones for use in food, tea, and craft beer products. Hops function as an antimicrobial preservative in beer and food due to the unique compounds they contain. Hops also impart unique flavors and aromas that are important to production of craft beer. Although hop production in the United States (U.S.) is centered within the Pacific Northwest with greater than 12,000 ha in production, increased demand has generated a need for expanded commercial production in non-traditional areas. The objective of this research was to quantify the influence of hop variety on growth and strobile yield when cultivated in the southeastern U.S. state of Florida utilizing a traditional tall-trellis production system. Three hundred sixty hops comprised of 20 cultivars were transplanted on 18 July 2016 into native deep sand soil (Tavares-Millhopper soil series) and trained onto a 6 m tall-trellis production system located in Apopka, Florida. Bine length, strobile yield, and hop oil content were recorded during 2016 (Year 1) and 2017 (Year 2). Significant differences (P<0.001) in hop bine length was observed among cultivars for both years. Dry strobile mass ranged from 1.2 to 12.8 and 5.7 to 44.0 g plant^-1 for Year 1 and 2, respectively. Oil content was generally lower than reference values for hops grown in the Pacific Northwestern U.S. Despite demonstrated cultivation of hops in Florida, yields were significantly lower than values observed for those cultivated in the Pacific Northwest or other northern U.S. hop producing states. Low cone yields are likely a result of the insufficient day length and warm winters experienced in Florida that result in premature flowering of hops. Breeding efforts to produce a day neutral hop variety that can tolerate low-chilling hours is likely necessary to provide a commercially viable, economically feasible solution to low yields observed for hops cultivated in Florida.