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

[nagmay]

Thinking about crosses...

I have also been hand fertilizing small sections from each female with pollen from different males - hoping to achieve a variety of crosses. As you know this can be time consuming. It is also probably pointless for triploid varieties such as Willamette (feel free to correct me if this is not the case).

Does anyone have a list of the ploidy for commercial hop varieties?

 

[DarkCoder]

Thinking about crosses...

I have also been hand fertilizing small sections from each female with pollen from different males - hoping to achieve a variety of crosses. As you know this can be time consuming. It is also probably pointless for triploid varieties such as Willamette (feel free to correct me if this is not the case).

Does anyone have a list of the ploidy for commercial hop varieties?

Triploid: Mt Hood, Willamette, Liberty, Crystal, Santiam, Ultra... probably "Super Alpha (NZ)" too, info found about her pedigree says that it comes from a tetraploid Smooth Cone.

 

[PapaBearJay]

The list is actually quite long, a majority of NZ hops are triploid. There are also new developments and breeding being done as a means to replace older European varieties with updated characteristics (specifically yield).


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[DarkCoder]

Just a little status...out of my 17 remaining (interesting) seedling, I have 4 females, 3 males (probably a 4th one). I will not be able to provide pollen this year, my plants only have a few bunch of less than 10 flowers. But at least, I can tell their sex.

 

[DarkCoder]

The list is actually quite long, a majority of NZ hops are triploid. There are also new developments and breeding being done as a means to replace older European varieties with updated characteristics (specifically yield).


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Well, most NZ are not available in North America, so I did not loose time to watch their pedigree.

 

[PapaBearJay]

Well, most NZ are not available in North America, so I did not loose time to watch their pedigree.

Yes but some of the parents are, as they have utilized many NA cultivars. It's always a good idea to have pedigree information on hand when deciding what crosses to make during a season.


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[PapaBearJay]

Surprise, surprise! Some more seedlings decided to germinate. Good thing to because a good amount did not survive transplanting, thus decreasing the potential diversity of my setup.


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[PapaBearJay]

As of this morning, I've landed 200 hand-pollinations...I'm really hoping for 85% success, but we will see...


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[alane1]

Starting to get cones!!!

 

[PapaBearJay]

Starting to get cones!!!

Are these from the "wild" plants or from cultivars?

 

[alane1]

Are these from the "wild" plants or from cultivars?

They're not wild, a lot of them were sourced through the internet. I'll have no idea what their lineage is until I've made my own crosses.

 

[PapaBearJay]

Well, I stand corrected. Female flowers on a first-year plant. You win guys.

In other news...


Found this the other day.


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[alane1]

Just an update, one of the seedlings is producing some nice cones. I might even have enough to make some beer!!! I know they probably wont have the same alphas as a mature plant but I'm still curious to see what they'll taste like.

 

[nagmay]

Here's a peek at one of the Cascade crosses:

 

[PapaBearJay]

Here's a peek at one of the Cascade crosses:

How many times can I like this??


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[alane1]

Here's a peek at one of the Cascade crosses:

With the light behind it almost looks angelic.

 

[DarkCoder]

Ok, I was feeling some sort of pressure to put my own pictures....

They are all first year plants.

XCAS003 - Open pollination Cascade

XCAS002 - Open pollination Cascade

WBC1 - Wild plant from Vancouver, Canada

 

[DarkCoder]

My UK seedling and my (only) Slovakian plant are starting to turn their burrs into cones, so more pictures in a couple of weeks.

 

[nagmay]

Oh... I almost forgot to post this close up of a cone from that plant.

 

[nagmay]

I guess it is also a good time to mention: out of over 40 seedlings bred from feminized pollen, all but 4 are covered with only cones/burrs (90% female). The other 10% started with male flowers, but each now has a mixture if male & female flowers...

So, breeding with feminized pollen seems to be possible - however, it may result in a higher percentage of hermaphroditic plants.

The "father" in this experiment was Magnum. The crosses in my yard are:

Cascade x Magnum
Chinook x Magnum
Sterling x Magnum

I am also working on a second generation. Several varieties of commercial hops have been successfully pollinated from the male flowers.

 

[DarkCoder]

I guess it is also a good time to mention: out of over 40 seedlings bred from feminized pollen, all but 4 are covered with only cones/burrs (90% female). The other 10% started with male flowers, but each now has a mixture if male & female flowers...

So, breeding with feminized pollen seems to be possible - however, it may result in a higher percentage of hermaphroditic plants.

Some plants have a kind of protection to prevent self-pollination... maybe it's the case for hop plants ? If, for example, you have an entire field of Cascade and some of them goes hermie, maybe this pollen cannot pollinate other Cascade plants, because they are "all the same plant" (clone), making this pollen look sterile. Just a thought...

 

[nagmay]

Yesterday way beautiful. Spent some time out in the yard replacing the hops that showed hermaphroditic tendencies. Many of these are now covered with female flowers, but I have to start culling somewhere.

Attached you can see the female flowers along with the (now dried out) male flowers.

Also check out the size of these rhizomes. Some were really hard to fully dig out. They all started from seed last winter.

 

[nagmay]

And here is one of the most promising new plants.

It is covered with large, heavy cones. The largest ones have an elongated torpedo shape and are overflowing with neon yellow lupulin. Being a first year, it is probably not yet reflecting the full aroma... but it already has a strong citrus/spicy scent.

 

[nagmay]

I have also been updating a "family tree" chart for the seedlings. It's hard to find accurate information on some of the commercial varieties, so let me know if anything looks off. Full version over on Gliffy >>

 

[PapaBearJay]

I have also been updating a "family tree" chart for the seedlings. It's hard to find accurate information on some of the commercial varieties, so let me know if anything looks off. Full version over on Gliffy >>

What are you using for pedigree imaging? Is gliffy actually doing that, or is that just a photo upload site?

 

[nagmay]

Nothing fancy. Just drawing it by hand in Gliffy. The link is to the published version, which should reflect updates as I make them.

 

[nagmay]

18 of the new plants have produced significant amounts of cones in their first year. Wet weight ranged from 0.5 to over 39oz per plant.

• Hop Breeding, 2014 Results

For comparison purposes I decided to pick, sort, and catalog all the cones at once. No doubt this means that some were picked too early, and others too late. The wet/dry weight percentile should help to calculate a more optimal picking time for each variety. Keep in mind that these are young plants, many with seeded cones. This means that the cone size, shape, yield and bitterness is only an indication of what a mature plant might produce. This will help us decide which plants to cull and which to keep.

My goal is to choose 5-6 of these plants to continue with for next year. Please let me know if you have any input. I will add more info to the page as I compare the bitterness/flavor of the crop.

 

[B-Hoppy]

Very nice job! Have you screened them for disease tolerance yet?

 

[nagmay]

Have you screened them for disease tolerance yet?

That's step will start next spring. I don't really want to introduce mildew to the hop yard directly. The current plan is to transplant cuttings to another location for disease testing.

I would appreciate any guidance on judging the tolerance. Should I plant some known varieties for comparison?

 

[PapaBearJay]

That's step will start next spring. I don't really want to introduce mildew to the hop yard directly. The current plan is to transplant cuttings to another location for disease testing.

I would appreciate any guidance on judging the tolerance. Should I plant some known varieties for comparison?

Yes, generally you would include 'check' varieties in your studies. Both positive and negative controls when possible. That way you can tell if it's you, or the disease.

It would also be a good idea to inoculate several places (consistency) in the field for proper scoring of disease tolerance.


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