So...You Want to Breed Your Own Hops.

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Hey folks, I came across this thread and thought I'd share my experiences. I didn't set out to grow any seedlings but I currently have nine Cascade offspring. Last year I grew two Cascades from rhizomes and they seemed pretty robust. I got about an ounce (dried) of cones off of them. One died during spring thaw because of a mix of water and ice that led to improper drainage.

Anyway, back in May I notice some seedlings popping up all around the surviving plant. There must be a male plant somewhere in the vicinity but I haven't had any luck locating it. So I currently have nine children of Cascade in my backyard. They're all doing pretty well but some are growing way faster than others. The largest is about 3 feet and the smallest is well under a foot.

I'm very curious to see what sort of hop profile they have. I know I may have a long wait to find out but that's part of the fun, I think. I'd also like to see what I can do with the males, assuming there are any. Maybe build a hop patch somewhere.
 
TomEl said:
I'm very curious to see what sort of hop profile they have. I know I may have a long wait to find out but that's part of the fun, I think. I'd also like to see what I can do with the males, assuming there are any. Maybe build a hop patch somewhere.
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You're doomed !! Your life will never be the same now !! :D
 
@TomEl
I'm in a similar situation as you. This spring I was able to germinate 12 Cascade bastard children from seed. 10 made it and are growing quite nice. Its fun growing some wildcards to see what you get. Hopefully next year I will be able to crossbreed any males with my regular hops.

^ +1 You're life will never be the same.
 
Checking my babies today and saw this. Looks to me like male parts starting to grow. Am I right?

#2 - boy.jpg
 
B-Hoppy said:
Hopefully in a year or two he'll be as handsome as Rex.
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Wow, looks like a monster. It looks like you have him on a short trellis or pole. Is that for the purpose of being able to get to the flowers easily for cross pollination?
 
I really don't have time anymore to be doing the hand pollination thing so he gets free access to the whole harem.

In the first picture, there's a ladder to the right side in front of the male. His pole broke over the winter so he's restricted to about 12-14 feet this year.

The second picture shows some of the others which are on poles ranging from about 18-20 feet.

The whole setup reminds me of the title of a Steve Kimock song called 'Hillbillies on PCP', it is what it is~

Hops HBT.jpg


Hops HBT 1.jpg
 
PapaBearJay said:
Say hello to a few hundred friends of mine. First year buddies getting their grapple on. Wrestling for the best spot in the house.
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Interesting... That's one way to sort out which have the most vigor. How do you plan to separate the survivors next year?
 
nagmay said:
Interesting... That's one way to sort out which have the most vigor. How do you plan to separate the survivors next year?
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Well, seeing as how there is an established DM infestation in my hopyard...it'll very simply be relative performance under disease pressure.
 
PapaBearJay said:
Well, seeing as how there is an established DM infestation in my hopyard...it'll very simply be relative performance under disease pressure.
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There is no way that you will be able to know which plant is which at the ground level and be able to select them. Not with a few hundreds of plants! I have one spot in which I put 6 cuttings last year from different plants... I put them together because I lost their identification tag. They are a mess, I cannot separate 6 plants. You are better to take some VERY long vacations to untangle everything and identify them. :D
 
DarkCoder said:
There is no way that you will be able to know which plant is which at the ground level and be able to select them. Not with a few hundreds of plants! I have one spot in which I put 6 cuttings last year from different plants... I put them together because I lost their identification tag. They are a mess, I cannot separate 6 plants. You are better to take some VERY long vacations to untangle everything and identify them. :D
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Who said anything about them in the ground? ;)
 
You're right, all the top-growth has grown together. This season I'm more interested in establishing a root system, which lead me to growing in small round pots. This will allow for easy removal of top-growth after they've gone dormant and ease of planting next year.
 
Most of the hops I have harvested yet this season have some seeds in them. My plans include bulking all seeds from named varieties and keeping them differentiated from the "other" hops which will be bulked in a similar manner.

This is gonna be fun, fun, fun!
 
Looking good! I'm in the midst of harvesting a bunch of wild hops here in KC, all have seeds. I'm trying to keep the harvest from each wild plant separate so that I can evaluate the aroma, and know which parent the seed came from, but it's real tricky when they're growing together on a bush or hedgerow. There are signs of mildew, but most plants appear tolerant or totally resistant. Maturity is pretty late, though that could be due to uneven sun exposure. I'm pretty certain that a number of these specimens are H. Lupulus Var. Pubescense from the velvety undersides of the leaves.

I also took some pollen from a wild male (not sure if Pube or Lupuloides subspecies) and pollinated my Teamaker flowers, hoping to get some seeds. Teamaker has great aroma character, noble-ish, disease resistant and dwarf, so I think it could be an interesting cross.

I'm starting a website about collecting, breeding, and eventually commercializing the midwestern Pubescense subspecies. My website sucks right now, but if you want to check it out it's PubeHops dot com . I want to add a foraging guide and subspecies ID guide.
 
Weizenstein said:
Looking good! I'm in the midst of harvesting a bunch of wild hops here in KC, all have seeds. I'm trying to keep the harvest from each wild plant separate so that I can evaluate the aroma, and know which parent the seed came from, but it's real tricky when they're growing together on a bush or hedgerow. There are signs of mildew, but most plants appear tolerant or totally resistant. Maturity is pretty late, though that could be due to uneven sun exposure. I'm pretty certain that a number of these specimens are H. Lupulus Var. Pubescense from the velvety undersides of the leaves.

I also took some pollen from a wild male (not sure if Pube or Lupuloides subspecies) and pollinated my Teamaker flowers, hoping to get some seeds. Teamaker has great aroma character, noble-ish, disease resistant and dwarf, so I think it could be an interesting cross.

I'm starting a website about collecting, breeding, and eventually commercializing the midwestern Pubescense subspecies. My website sucks right now, but if you want to check it out it's PubeHops dot com . I want to add a foraging guide and subspecies ID guide.
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Great job on collecting wild germplasm !! I guess that we are aiming at the same goal, but in different location.
 
I would love to do something like what you guys are, plant science (especially the molecular bits of it) is a huge interest of mine, so as a homebrewer growing several varieties of hops was a given.
If I could help out in any way with your test/trials/etc I'm game.

I currently have 6 varieties of hops from GreatLakesHops: AlphAroma, Centennial, Mackinac(a proprietary one of theirs, so I probably shouldn't touch that one...), Nugget, Serebrianka (cascade's grandma I think), and Vojvodina (referred to as a "super-goldings"). So once again, if there's anything I can do with those ones that can help you fine folks out let me know!
 
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So the jury is in! Every cultivar was OP this year! This'll give me a nice starting background and enough variation with the numerous males I had growing this year to make some harsh selections on the powdery-susceptible materials I currently have growing.
 
I spent this weekend cleaning up the hopyard. Few plants made the cut, and those that did replaced cultivars I use infrequently. Those that were dug up will be replanted by other selections that will be given room to grow and prosper (hopefully).

I've got enough variation present (I hope!) that enough gain should be made over the next several years.
 
PapaBearJay said:
I spent this weekend cleaning up the hopyard. Few plants made the cut, and those that did replaced cultivars I use infrequently. Those that were dug up will be replanted by other selections that will be given room to grow and prosper (hopefully).

I've got enough variation present (I hope!) that enough gain should be made over the next several years.
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What kind of numbers are we talking about?

If you don't mind sharing: How many did you keep? What percentage did you cull? Did you keep males, or only females?
 
Nagmay, take into account that the culling isn't finished as you read this.

So far I discarded 19 plants (male and female both). I still have roughly 15-20 from last year to go through but most of those are keepers, in addition to the two I kept from the bed I was working on yesterday.

This years seedlings will be different, I have several thousand to work through. I'll need to set the bar high.

When making my selections I chose to wait until after flowering so as to at least maintain seed lots from the plants I was selecting against.
 
Did some culling myself a few weeks ago, although not nearly as much as the other growers on here. From 10 I'm down to 6. Two never grew more than 4ft tall. and did not determine sex. Two females I culled because of unfavorable aromas in hop teas. The one was grassy with a bit of onion, and the other was overwhelmingly onion and garlic.

The remaining 6 are 3 males and 3 females. One female with fair yields with faint grassy/herbal aromas, one really promising one with good yields and nice lemon aromas, and one with poor yield, grassy/herbal aromas but super long sidearms. The side arms were around 5 feet long and stringy.

3 males will be culled down to 2 in the spring once I get the germination rates for two. #2 was the most vigorous grower and did not produce many seeds, but 2/3 were not hollow.#9 produced a high number of seeds but only 1/5 were not hollow. The third male I did not make any crosses with but will keep around another year because of different leaves from the other two and flowered much later than the first two (about the same time).
 
I let Mother Nature do the work, I started out with well over a hundred seedlings and I'm down to about 6 plants that survived.

Before they even make it to the hop yard I want to make sure they have survival genes. Even after I thought they were all sorted out one of them made a comeback View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1443563715.305488.jpg
 
alane1 said:
I let Mother Nature do the work, I started out with well over a hundred seedlings and I'm down to about 6 plants that survived.

Before they even make it to the hop yard I want to make sure they have survival genes. Even after I thought they were all sorted out one of them made a comeback View attachment 306479
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That happens. I expect that even after all the digging I did this past weekend I'll have "volunteers" that come from missed rhizomes.

I have been meaning to clear out my messages but I haven't had time to.

Feel free to post here if need be, otherwise you can always e-mail me (which I believe you have).
 
Wow! That's some intense downy mildew. I've only ever gotten powdery (The second set of photos) here in KC, must not be humid enough for downy? Or the hops here are resistant.

Great leaf close-up, from the structure and serrations on the leaf I would guess that this is primarily H. Lupulus var. Lupulus genetics? (European/cultivated American hops)
 
Hey I'm out in Gilbert Arizona for the week, any idea where I could forage some wild NeoMexicanus hops in the hills near here?
 
Sorry Weizen, I don't know of any such locations. I know there are other members on the forum from the SW US that might be able to help you.
 

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