interesting journal article on organic hop cultivation

[chrisdb]

came across this when searching for cover crop info for a hop bed
It doesn't go into great detail about cover crops but I think it's a an interesting overview of organic hop growing

https://www.agronomy.org/publications/aj/articles/103/6/1645

 

[GVH_Dan]

I didn't read the whole thing but the astract was pretty spot on, especially, "...however, due to high N requirements and severe disease, weed, and arthropod pressures, hops are an extremely difficult crop to grow organically. "

Where they missed the mark was, " Removing hops from the USDA Organic Exemption list in January 2013 is expected to greatly increase organic hop demand and will require corresponding increases in organic hop hectarage." Most of what I've seen is only a slight bump in price but an overall decrease in "organic" beer. Now everyone is shooting for "local" or "glutton free".

Anyway, for a cover crop use dutch white clover or some other low growing clover. It will re-seed itself, it won't suck up nitrogen, it chokes out the weeds and it won't cover the hops after a week or two out of the ground.