Mathon Whitebine - nearly there

[Microscopist]

Much earlier than I was expecting - my Bramling's about 4 weeks behind.

 

[W0rthog]

Where do you live? Asking bc I'm curious about the climate.



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[Microscopist]

I'm in the UK - Birmingham, it's basically wet and mild round these parts and rarely below -10C in the winter

 

[DarkCoder]

Microscopist, any major differences between the Mathon Whitebine and other Goldings more widely available on the market ? I have been thinking about buying a Mathon plant.

 

[Microscopist]

Let me be clear that I haven't worked with Mathon for twenty odd years and my main motivation for having it is that I used to cycle through the village as a child but I remember it being a much fresher grassy note than Goldings - less of the rounded warmness and more of the light notes - gently floral without being over the top. The cones themselves are a lot paler, I was surprised how green other hops were when I moved out into the wider world.

Digging around there's actually some debate over whether they're that closely related. Goldings appears to be a bud sport off the Cambridge white bine but the evidence for it is scarce. Personally I think Mathon was a local landrace - practically identical plants grow in the woods all round Hereford.

It's a vigorous and quite disease resistant plant - I'd recommend it over some of the newer varieties and think its a good starting point for breeding - ultimately I want to cross it with one of the c types.

Next year I'm happy to take cuttings foc and send them out to people once rooted.

 

[DarkCoder]

Thanks for the info.