 My title is called growing hops in North Dakota and as you can see I've added as an ornamental because we will be talking today To you as a homeowner who might be interested in growing this although I've done work on Researching hops. We'll talk about it as an ornamental today So what is the big deal about hops anyways? Why are people so interested in them? Well, we know that they play a part in the flavor component of beer They contain resins, which are the chemical compounds that make up the acid profile found only in the lupulin glands of hop plants They are unique to hops But did you know that it only takes one ounce of Hops to flavor one gallon of beer. So it's actually not that much Hops are Kind of like the third string quarterback coming into the game and throwing in the winning touchdown Even though the barley did all the work the hops seem to get all the glory So the varieties that I am familiar with are those that are listed on the screen These are the ones we've worked with at the research center. We've done. We've conducted a variety trial on these It's really hard for me to recommend a variety because there are actually a lot of varieties out there I did a quick Google search as I was putting this presentation together Just to see if hops would be easy to come by for a homeowner And I did find a few notable sources where many of you may actually purchase seeds They now have hop plants for you to buy and they are sold as Rhizomes, but as you can see from this list, they have many different uses within the brew brewing process and The typical beer style and then of course the origin, but it's it's the alpha acids that a brewer is actually interested in So let's get to know our hop plants Um, as you can see by the Latin name cumulus loopy list and the family can abase a yes They are related to cannabis and they are related to hemp Its native range is Europe Southwestern Asia and North America So its native range does include North Dakota, and I've personally found this growing in the Yellowstone and Missouri River systems kind of near the confluence here in Western North Dakota And I've also witnessed it growing in Lake Medagoshi State Park up near the Canadian border So if you have the eye to look for it, you may find it along the river system here in North Dakota they state zones four through eight I We are zoned for a here in Williston Although some things don't always overwinter like they should I like to tell people we should stick on this on the side of zone three But hops seem to be pretty hardy here. I only had one variety in my trial There were nine plants of that particular variety and only four of them overwintered the very first year I planted them and that happened to be the variety Chinook. I'm not sure what happened if it was just a fluke But we did not continue with that variety in our trial But the thing to really remember about hops is that they grow best between the 34 and 50 degrees latitude north or south They are day length sensitive so The soil preference is a well-drained soil with the soil of pH Around six to seven and a half. It's about typical for us here in North Dakota. They can tolerate a little bit higher But they need well-drained soil and The thing to remember is that they can't tolerate having wet feet They they do not like to be in standing water and they will not survive well if they are in an area where They're getting drowned so it is a perennial and the habit is actually considered a vine and That's not a typo Vines actually have tendrils but Hop plants are actually def the vine is actually defined by the Oxford Englishictionary is the climbing stem of the hop. So it is a specific term for hops the height is 15 to 20 feet and You read that correctly it is 15 to 20 feet and we'll talk about that in a little bit and The spread is three to six feet. Although the root systems are rhizomes as I mentioned earlier Which is the horizontal underground stem. They don't spread obnoxiously You won't find this plant growing in another party yard because of the underground runners, which I know personally they can drive a person mad the bloom time is late summer and They need the full sun to part shade. They can tolerate some shade but again, it has more to do with Making sure that they have a well-drained soil and that they that they aren't in standing water and their maintenance is considered low So I actually do Recommend that they be placed in full Sun, but they can tolerate some shade. So hops are diocese Dye meaning to and Oikos meaning house. They are unisexual having Male and female elements on different individuals of the same species. So you'll find female plants and you will find milk plants and That is unique to hops and it's the female plants that produce the hop cones And that's actually what people are interested in when they're making beer So here we see the botany on the left side of the screen with female indication that is the hot cone and on the right side of the screen is showing you what the male Plant would look like it's impossible to tell them apart unless you see the flower or the cone And then if you can see that On the right-hand side see that's a male and female part flower Sometimes they'll produce a monaceous plant. So you'll have male and female on the same plant. So they're actually quite unique And here's a picture of the burst stage and that is those Papillated stigmas that you can see there are what would actually be pollinated if a male plant was nearby In the brewing culture, it's been debated whether or not it's okay to have male plants nearby The consensus is that we just don't really know how it affects the brewing. It doesn't change the brewing process But having a pollinated cone versus a non-pollinated cone It doesn't really make a difference and I don't think they've really come to an agreement And so there was indicating that first stage is what that's called when you see the hot cone just initiating those and On the left is the monaceous. So you can see the flowers and a cone this Photo I actually took from one of my hops out here There was one particular variety that seems to be prone to having Monaceous plants and then on the right you can see that this is what a Male pop plant would look like as it's flooring and this is just another close-up picture okay, I Wanted to zoom in and show you the resins And so the resins are actually collected along the centerline of the hop which is known as the Strig so that the backbone of the hop and all of those little bracts connect to the Strig and It's it's there that the hop resins are produced and if you can see at the very base of that hop cone Those are like coagulated Resins sticking together. They're yellow. They're sticky And if you were to take your if you were to take this hop cone and put it between your Index finger and your thumb and kind of squish it around you would start to release that chemistry and you'd be able to smell Some of that chemical component that might add flavor to beer most people that I've ever had do this They say oh that smells like a really good IPA And so that indeed is where the flavor is coming from and it's very very fascinating Almost has an addicting quality to it So some considerations if you're gonna be putting this in your yard remember to keep it in full sun to part shade They do need some protection from the wind so Choose an area that's you know, slightly protected and enough space to build the structure for them to grow on and Then I do I do recommend that people irrigate them if you're not growing them for production though you They're fairly drought tolerant So if you're growing them for production, they they are water Loving but they do use a lot of water, but if you're growing them just for an annual or A perennial to look at in your yard You probably don't need to follow the requirements that are out there for the for the water requirements But they do need a space. They do need something to grow on and so that's why I Wanted to show you today some of the things Some ideas that you could use to grow them in your yard So on the left is the hop growers handbook. This is an excellent resource for you Although it was written for someone that wanted to grow hops From a production standpoint They have a lot of great information in there and diagrams and schematics the two photos the one in the center and the one on the right are both from this book and it gives you kind of an idea of how you could grow a hop plant on to a trellis So the authors cover everything from its medieval medicinal uses Hops are just rich in history and I feel like we could have talked about that all day what they were used for We just don't have enough time But they cover everything from that all the way up to the beer recipes that they have So they're based out of New York, but many of the same principles do apply to us here and Like I said, the pictures are very helpful So I've actually seen hops growing here in North Dakota along people's front porches and You can also use them as a privacy screen They're quite vigorous and they will spread and they will fill in an area So long as they have something to grow on so you can see that center photo compare it to the photo on the right That's what it's going to look like so Just remember if the perennial is difficult to move and we need to give them lots of space Again, this is the rendering of a structure that may work for you in your own yard Allowing it to grow up one side and and grow down the other or having two plants spread out This might make it an easier way for you to harvest if you do decide you want to try to grow your own hops Just for beer Some people like to play around with that and they don't need a whole lot of hops because again It doesn't take very many hops to make a gallon of beer Might make it easier for you to harvest them This is what it looks like or what it looked like when I first started at the Williston Research Center the hops were growing on these little teepees and Towards the end of the summer I took this picture I became like trees This was my first experience ever with hops and I would have to say that it's been it's been quite fascinating I didn't know anything about hops until I started here and now when we've gotten this variety trial going we actually Set up a what would be comparable to a hop yard So the hops were placed in rows and they're about 15 feet apart and the telephone poles there you see are About 20 feet in the air So it's just something that you need to understand these plants. They just need room to grow And they need to be re-strong every year at least for this type of trellising system and It's recommended to use coir which is a specialized rope made out of coconut husk fiber and So we we restring ours every spring with the coir because in order to harvest them for our research We have to actually cut the coir strand as well as long as well as the hops We cut the whole thing down and take it in to have it harvested So then there's nothing left It looks kind of like the photo on the right when we're done harvesting you just have this plant That's been cut. So then we have to restring our trellis every year Jewels the owner could probably just grow over itself every year The coir is recommended because it withstands the degradation of the elements, you know Like radiation from the Sun and exposure to the soil and wind damage Bailing twine isn't a good recommendation for this because it is actually meant to break down You know we want bailing twine is meant to break down in the environment So braided landscape rope is actually a good source if you go to your local hardware store You should be able to find landscape rope and the hops will take to that just fine So one of the most fascinating things about hops is the way that they grow They utilize a mechanism called propism Which is the clockwise direction around anything that you know anything within reach and they also use Their phototropic Meaning that they use light to grow and figment tropic which they utilize a sense of touch in order to grow and these plants were so fascinating that Pearl Darwin actually included them in his Book the movements and habits of climbing plants which was written in 1882 He was ill in bed, and he was watching a hot plant that was sitting on his window sill And he noted that the tip of the vine completed a revolution in about two hours So they are very very fast-growing If you try to train them counterclockwise they It's not that they won't grow But they'll try to unwind themselves and they'll try to correct themselves going clockwise So it's not like you'll stop them if you train them the wrong way They'll just start going Opposite from what you tried to make them go And it'll make them grow kind of weird actually So the above ground growth They will grow 18 to 25 feet in a season and it's up to about one foot per day And then the laterals will extend from those vines So Talk a little bit about that In the spring if you are wanting to plant The spring is the best time to plant them, but if you had planted them in the fall They should be emerging now. They would be emerging depending on our depending on our spring depending on the weather But anywhere from March through May and it's those increasing day length and temperatures that spur on that growth So you can actually see where the buds are In their resting phase at the bottom of the screen on the left-hand side And then in the middle we see the shoots coming up And then if I were to go out there right now, I'd probably see a bunch of these vines sticking up out of the ground And they'll send about 10 to 20 of them out And in the in the commercial hop industry, they select the most robust three to four vines and they actually either Remove the rest of them chemically or mechanically with hand or with just hand labor And then you can see what a rhizome looks like the dormant crown in the upright corner photograph on the right-hand side there And then your hop starts which have a slightly smaller root system and then the field grade transplants so in in the fall because they're a perennial The killing frost will allow them to start going dormant And that can take place anytime from september to early october If you get a light frost that starts to signal the plant to translocate The nutrients down into the root the storage root And the dormancy will last from march to april And then it's it's here where the buds for next year in the resting phase so Beware the trichomes Pops are like cats. They'll scratch you even if they like you um A trichome is an outgrowth of the epidermis Like a hair or a scale or the water vesicle on a plant. So it's actually part of the plant And from these photos You can see These things are quite wicked If you've ever gotten yourself scratched In your pumpkin patch or your cucumber patch This is comparable to that But it's almost worse These things are just um They're just wicked They contain um resins so they do contain some chemistry Uh, and that can actually cause an allergic reaction in some people I recommend my summer staff where Long sleeves and gloves when they're working with hops If you don't it'll look like you had gotten in a fight with a cat Um, and it burns it will burn if you It's just like when you're picking your Pumpkins and you notice that your wrists are all scratched up and then you go Side and wash your arms off and it just burns So they're not always the most pleasant things to work with Uh, I've actually Had them Make me bleed So What is it about them that keeps us coming back for more? I'm not sure There's just something fascinating about hops So that's something I wanted to warn you about When it comes to hops just because it's so Something to be aware of So some common uh diseases and insects that I seem to get These things are prone to They are prone to a lot of issues Um for the homeowner it may not may or may not be As large of an issue I want to touch on these because some of these are really big in the industry Uh, so this is just a list of the things that I run across that are common. We'll talk about a few of them Downy mildew and powdery mildew Uh Verticillium and fusarium wilts, uh, they're Very prone to viruses We'll talk about that in a minute here A couple of insects to note, um, hop aphid, plea beetles, Japanese beetles, leaf hoppers, spider mites And that photo there is actually a looper We found the larvae Feeding on the hopcorn So powdery mildew versus downy mildew Uh The primary disease that you may see in your home landscape would be powdery mildew And just promoting good airflow between plants not allowing the water to remain on the leaves is just Taking the best measure for preventing this disease Powdery mildew is associated with other plants, uh, you know some good examples that I can think of our lilacs and roses uh, but Downy mildew is the causal agent is actually specific to hops And downy mildew is actually what wiped out Hop production In the late 1800s or early 1900s The primary growing region was actually the great lakes area, um in new york And they called it the great lakes region the finger lakes region And downy mildew came in and they didn't have good They didn't have good disease protocols and it completely wiped out All production and then prohibition came in and just gave it the final boot So when hops regained A new growing area happened to be out in the pacific northwest Which is now the primary growing region for For us here in america and that includes the states of Washington, oregon and idaho however due to um new breeding and selecting and Coming out with better mechanisms for disease control We've actually seen a resurgence of hops being grown in Areas, uh, the great lakes region now including new york again I'm kind of calling it a rebirth there and that's also spurred on the interest for growing it in non-traditional regions like north dakota and minnesota and montana, um So here a couple photos showing you pottery mildew versus downy mildew Um, and again, you can see that silvery powder, uh If you look close enough with a microscope or even a hand lens you could see the The fruiting bodies on pottery mildew, which are those little black dots isopica the downy mildew is Got a very different and unique looking disease. There are no there is no powdery residue on the leaves And it's a little bit harder to spot but I don't see downy mildew as being a particularly bad um issue for us here in north dakota or Our weather here is is a little more on the dry side But I wanted to compare the two just so that you could see what the difference is um, one of the main Insect issues that you're probably going to find are spider mites And if you've ever battled spider mites, you know that Some years are worse than others Uh, a lot of times it's just dependent on our weather conditions Um spider mite females will actually over winter in the soil. So the pregnant spider mite females go down into the soil and they go into dipause which is their resting phase and in the spring they emerge And they'll climb up whatever is there and start laying their eggs And so if our winters are extremely harsh or if there's enough predators around Some years we might see Uh very little spider mites other years. We might see them Everywhere it's just kind of weather dependent and you'll see these on everything from certain tree species to Your raspberry bushes Um, and they they can be a little bit difficult to control Um, oh and and although it's unsightly it's it's not going to actually kill your plant so That's kind of the cautionary tale with these For how tall your hot plants grow. It's difficult to spray for spider mites and get complete control um So I always caution people with that if you're spraying a lot of insecticides you're also filling off The intended target, but also the beneficial bugs needed to help control these So just be mindful when you're spraying your insecticides and just know that these spider mites are are not going to kill your plant and so here's a photo showing what types of predatory bugs are there and You know, you're gonna see you want to help to promote these insects and that Helps to control some of those non beneficial um Might problems if you will This is just a Up close picture of a leaf hopper. You might see these you might not Um, they will typically cause what is called leap uh hopper burn and that photo on the right The edges have a little bit of a burnt look to them That's pretty characteristic of a leaf hopper And we do have them in North Dakota, but they may or may not cause a problem of viruses as I mentioned before um They are a big they are a big problem in the hop industry But not necessarily for the home gardener um viruses that actually infect hops are Collectively known as carla viruses And they have a very narrow host range Um, so unless you have a lot of hot plants planted nearby the chances of viruses becoming a problem are very slim So you're not going to be introducing viruses that are going to infect another plant species that you might have in your garden Um But it can be it can be a major issue for A hop industry and this is what a lot of their breeding programs have tried to Get rid of are the virus problems And the main issue the main concern is when you buy a hop plant as a rhizome It could have a virus Um, they haven't been screened As a hop plant if the hop is actually growing and it's a plantlet They can actually see the virus expression whereas in a rhizome it could be dormant And that's a major concern for The hop industry if they're planting thousands of hop rhizomes and they're all carrying this virus that could be just detrimental to that industry But you as the homeowner it's not as much of a concern Some other things that you might see uh bindwilts Uh, we saw this in our hop yard the fusarium kinker and It can be a problem when where the plants are stressed Um And it's kind of a hard one to manage. It is a it is a fungal problem but The pathogen is thought to enter through a wound created by the mechanical or chemical damage That can include wind insect feeding or herbicide injury and that's why I noted that they're somewhat sensitive to wind and it is important to plant them Um in an area that's a little bit protected You might see this you might not you saw it in our hop yard one year and then the next year We didn't see very much of it But it is kind of a frustrating thing to deal with when the plant grew All the way up the trellis and then it died Um, and then if you were to go and look at the base of the plant you would see It's hard to tell from these photos. It kind of looks like a beaver chewed on them, but that's actually the callus um The pathogen actually entered in through a wound somehow and then started to girdle the bind and kind of cutting off all translocation of the nutrients and water And eventually as the plant is is suspended there growing It will eventually break off and then you end up with completely dead vine and it's frustrating The other photo there on the right is the verticillium will and the characteristic noteworthy for that is Having these really thick Bull bull canes if you will They're just these really big thick vines And then and you can see that in my in the photo there that one is almost as big as my thumb Almost as thick there and the normal bind should be Oh It should not be that thick So those are just a couple things that you might see if you're having to deal with hops um a lot of the questions that I end up getting um It's not really a question anymore of If hops can grow in north dakota Uh, it's just what do you do with them? I get a lot of questions on What the industry is like for us here? What what could we expect and and if the industry never really takes off at least you could appreciate this plant in your yard You could consider it a native species Um, and I just like to extend an invitation to anyone that's interested in coming to our field days and actually taking a up close and personal look at Um, and those will be in july if we have them, I guess the coronavirus could have changed all of that But I I will open it up to questions Okay, thank you. Kyla. We have a couple minutes here for questions Kyla, how about uh, how do you propagate your Hops plants do you divide them and if you do wins the best time to divide hops? That is an excellent question they do not do well as a cutting if you were going to take and snip One of the binds that's growing Um, that's actually they're actually hollow on the inside and they will wait quickly So the best way to A hop plant that you need to get a root cutting. So division is best Divide off a section of that horizon. Make sure you've got several healthy buds that you can see and the best time to do this is in the spring Before the plants have gotten too tall if the plants the binds are too tall We'll be trampling them as you're trying to divide the plant if you've ever been to divide a Say a day lily that's fully blossomed out. You're stepping on all the foliage and everything It's not going to kill it But it might make it look pretty sad for a while And when you transplant it somewhere it might look like it's on its last leg But it'll come around if you've got enough Good root and good buds coming. It'll come back. But the spring is the best time to do it Okay, thank you. How about uh How do you know when the hops are ready to be picked? Oh, that's a really great question. Uh, they use moisture as way to tell Whether a hop is ready to be picked So there's been a lot of research going on as to when The hop is at its peak freshness and um peak chemistry but You'll have to go out and google a hop moisture calculator And they're to my knowledge aren't any very good leaders that Say, uh, when you're harvesting a particular Agronomy crop that they can bring a sample of the crop in and throw it into a Dicky John and it'll spit out a moisture hops The best way to find that out is use your microwave um a note of caution though is you don't want to Start anything on fire So what you would do is you would collect a really good sample say 25 to 50 grams of hops you weigh that sample Put it in your microwave Start microwaving them until they no longer lose any weight. So you're periodically Weighing them and when they've reached zero weight, then you can calculate the percent moisture And it's at that point then you determine whether or not they should be harvested Um if your hops are brown and dry you've let them go too far Okay, how about there's a question from someone who's wondering about Isn't it best to have only one or two main stems going up the rope and then you cut all the remaining runners? Yes, and I mentioned that when you're Yes, they actually select Typically they'll select three to four Okay, and you prune the others out And uh, do you have any other trellising tips this person said? Hops outside of growing in my not for 25 years and it it's a growing along a steel building Hmm, okay. Oh anymore. Thanks for the trellis. Okay Um We're working Know what you're getting into Because hops are really aggressive growers. Um They do produce a lot of biomass a lot of On top growth that you kind of have to deal with from year to year Okay, I think that's good Well, uh, we're going to wrap it up there. Kyla. I I agree that that hops is a fascinating plant And thank you for sharing your expertise and introducing us to it