Growing hops from seed

[nagmay]

Before anyone helpfully points out that hops don't grow true from seed - I know... That is exactly the point.

After searching high and low (including this board) for hop pollen/males, I decided to take a step back and sprout my own males for breeding purposes. Thanks to friends on the internet, I am working with wild hops from Wyoming, Colorado and Saskatchewan, Canada.

This week, the first plant to sprout (Wyoming) produced a set of true leaves.

Feel free to follow along: http://gabriel.nagmay.com/2013/03/hops-from-seed/

I would also appreciate any advice/resources that you might have.

Cheers,
Nagmay

 

[ChefRex]

Very cool, good luck with your project.

 

[GVH_Dan]

Cool, but what precautions were you taking to make sure of the breeding? In other words, how do you know which male was the father?

 

[nagmay]

how do you know which male was the father?

With this first generation (the ones that are sprouting now), I have no way of knowing. Since they were collected from the wild, the assumption is that they are either:

• Escaped from commercial growing operations (life finds a way)
• Or, native/wild to this continent: Humulus lupulus neomexicanus

The real goal is to identify a male plant and collect pollen for the breeding further generations crossed with known varieties. For that, I plan to use pollen isolation bags for collecting and distributing the pollen. Basically, you just wrap a bag around the male flowers to collect the pollen. Then, after hand pollinating the female plant, you wrap it in a second bag to ensure that no other pollen reaches it.

 

[nagmay]

After another week the first seedling has developed strong roots and another set of leaves. You can also clearly see the formation of the hooks on the bine:

 

[Reno_eNVy]

Neat! Subscribed to see how this fun project progresses.

 

[davek]

After another week the first seedling has developed strong roots and another set of leaves. You can also clearly see the formation of the hooks on the bine:

Looking forward to how this progresses

 

[Snisup]

Subbed out of pure curiosity.

 

[nagmay]

The seedling are coming along nicely.

 

[Greenbudobeer]

I've been thinking I've would like to try my hand in making my own strain of hops( well many years down the road, being my first year and I not very in tune with correctly crossing breeds), but I was thinking it when the time comes of stressing the female plant to the point it becomes a hermaphrodite. I would try to go this route because because Oregon has pretty struck laws.

 

[nagmay]

Greenbudobeer,

"but I was thinking it when the time comes of stressing the female plant to the point it becomes a hermaphrodite"
I went this route first as well. Through stress and the liberal use of colloidal silver I managed to get several of my plants to throw male flowers. Unfortunatly, the pollen from these hermaphrodites was not viable. After several trials, no seeds managed to form. Later, I spoke to a professional grower who confirmed that this is common. It's not impossible, just statistically improbable to breed hops using this method.

"would try to go this route because because Oregon has pretty struck laws"
Tell me more. As far as I know the laws are centered around importing hops that might be a vector for disease. Hops grown from seed guarantee disease free starts.

 

[GVH_Dan]

Agreed with nagmay...we had some Cascade that stressed during drought but despite all the "boys" that popped up there wasn't a single seed to be found.

 

[peanasky]

Interesting, subbed to follow

 

[Greenbudobeer]

That's a shame to hear that the pollen produce would most likely be sterile. Dang..

I don't know much about the laws, I just assumed that they would want to keep plants from other states out because of diseases and seeds out because out the chance the wind could seed out a farms whole crop. I don't know a lot though.

 

[GVH_Dan]

The pollen can travel a mile (easily) on the wind, so hopefully you are taking precautions. When it looked like some of our crop was pollinated by a wild male, we spent a lot of time searching the hills. If I had found a male growing in someone's yard...well, let's just say it would be heavily frowned upon.

 

[khugs21]

I had a hop plant from a seed but don't know how it happened lol probably from dumping used hops in the area. I found this little baby last summer but didn't make it.

 

[nagmay]

To my understanding neither hop pollen or seeds are legally restricted items.

That said, and as GVH_Dan mentioned, pollen can travel quite a distance (boys will be boys). Out of respect for professional and home growers, you should always take precautions and bag any male flowers before they open.

 

[nagmay]

The first sprout is now outside and about 4 feet tall. There are 5 others at various stages of development. Hopefully, I'll get at least 1 male out of the 6

 

[budwhite5]

Hi all newbie to brewing, here is my new hop plant. Planting outside middle of May
Any tips welcome

 

[nagmay]

It's a boy!?

Not 100% sure, but those sure look like male flower buds to me. Anyone else have an opinion?

 

[homebrewindonegal]

I got some free hop seeds from Meantime Brewing (London), and of 28 seeds, about 20 have germinated. A bit late of a start this year, but should man-flower next year.

My main concern is, presuming half are male, that's 14 plants, how do you decide which to use as pollinators? Survival, vigour, resistance to wilts etc? Then, once you've got your chosen female pollinated and grown on, what do you look for then?

 

[B-Hoppy]

One of the traits that the breeders look for is sidearm length. Too short=less cones on the offspring. Too long=they'll bind up the picking machinery. Generally, they'll introduce the common pests to each of the plants and observe how they react. The more tolerant they are when exposed to disease organisms and insect pests, the better. Overall heath/vigor would also be a good sign as these traits will hopefully be passed on to the offspring. It's a really long tedious process for the breeders so for us recreational gardeners it's like trying to find the needle in the haystack. Have fun!

 

[nagmay]

I wouldn't spend too many years testing the males for any particular qualities. Since hop genetics are not stable, there is no guarantee that those qualities would be passed to the next generation.

To my understanding - professional breeding programs germinate tons of the 2nd generation, take out the males and then introduce disease to cull out the susceptible plants. Those remaining are tested for yield, growth rate, acid levels, and (of course) flavor.

 

[nagmay]

Just a quick fall update. The plants all grew well and reached about 10'. One of them even put off a few dozen good size cones:

 

[B-Hoppy]

Nice cones! Lupulin heavy/light? Any aroma?

I ended up with a few girls who were mildew magnets, yanked~ a boy, yanked~ and a few others who haven't showed their sex yet, plus a very healthy female. Really late start here so they'll have to be assessed a little more thoroughly next year. Hop On!!

 

[Loftearmen]

Cool, but what precautions were you taking to make sure of the breeding? In other words, how do you know which male was the father?

He took them on Maury

 

[nagmay]

"Nice cones! Lupulin heavy/light? Any aroma?"

The cones that developed had a wonderful, spicy smell.

I thought that they might be developing seeds, so I left them on the bine past the optimal brewing stage. When finally picked, I found that there weren't seeds at all - rather a thick, prominent strig is what I was feeling. Next year, I'll be sure to collect cones for testing.

 

[nagmay]

Also, a breeding update:

Even after all the conversation on this thread regarding the non-viability of using pollen from hermaphroditic hops... I decided to try again. Pollen was collected from several monoecious plants. Most of it produced no results. However, I seemed to have somehow gotten lucky.

One batch of the pollen fertilized seeds on several plants. After a long stratification, some of the seeds are indeed starting to sprout!

I started a new page on my site for updates: http://gabriel.nagmay.com/2014/02/hop-breeding/

 

[PapaBearJay]

Has anyone ordered from Bouncing Bear Botanicals before? Or SeedRack?

 

[brewerelated]

Do you have any extra seeds? Would you be willing to send some? I could pay for the postage? The hop season has started here in Southern California. My second year plants have broken ground and I am looking to do some hop breeding myself.

One batch of the pollen fertilized seeds on several plants. After a long stratification, some of the seeds are indeed starting to sprout!