Hop Growing 2013

[seymour]

I agree, but it's not. Scientists on a wild hops collecting trip collected hops from it. Check out the link.

[crafty john]

I agree, but it's not. Scientists on a wild hops collecting trip collected hops from it. Check out the link.

Gooseberry hops

[pofke]

One thing to note is that the accession is not available anymore, so it suggests that the hop wasn't interesting as a breeding material. Also, from the first photo on the link there is a male hop, then there are two photos of a goooseberry like plant. And the description speaks of "ripe fruit". This could be if germplasm of multiple plants were added to the accession archive from tje same field trip.

[boingy]

Gooseberry beer.

[seymour]

One thing to note is that the accession is not available anymore, so it suggests that the hop wasn't interesting as a breeding material.

It's true they do not offer the accession. But I know all about that particular trip, and its purpose was to observe disease resistence, and collect seeds for a study on wild North American hops to determine their potential for improving commercial brewing cultivars. None of these accessions were subsequently offered to the public through the website, as that simply wasn't the purpose of this study. I'm not arguing this is worthwhile breeding stock, per se, I'm arguing the natural biodiversity of Humulus lupulus is much broader than most people realize.

You really don't have to believe me, but this is a field of study I am deeply involved in. I don't mean that condescendingly, I know you grow hops too. But I am actively engaged in cross-pollinating native American hops grown from wild-collected seeds to named brewing cultivars. Stay tuned, I may have something exciting to announce in several years. For the record, I grow my plant in a more upright habit on twine, and it has adapted pretty well, especially when I trim it back to a few bines as commercial growers recommend, and it's thornless, though the spikelets are much harder and sharper than typical brewing cultivars. Many of the leaves are three-lobed, though, more like that picture and gooseberry leaves. Don't you see? My point is that it does not always require many, many evolutionary cycles for this plant to adapt in remarkable ways. Back to Cazamodo's question: it's possible if he doesn't trim back the bines, it just might resume a lower, wider, more shrub-like growth habit.

Also, from the first photo on the link there is a male hop, then there are two photos of a goooseberry like plant. And the description speaks of "ripe fruit". This could be if germplasm of multiple plants were added to the accession archive from the same field trip.

I grant that's theoretically possible, but when they collected plants unrelated to the hops study, they always made a separate entry to the ARS/USDA archive for each, and the relevant photos are logged only beneath each relevant entry. Also, I'm sure you noticed they specifically named all nearby plants in the description:

associated plants: Celtis, Pinus ponderosa, Apocynum, Mahonia ripens pubescent

Celtis is a hackberry tree in the elm family. Pinus ponderosa is a full-size evergreen conifer tree. Apocynum is a milkweed-lookalike also called Indian hemp or dogbane, and Mahonia ripens pubescent is commonly called Oregon grape. That is a comprehensive list compiled by botanists who are experts on identifying Humulus plants, and know how to differentiate it from a Gooseberry plant. As you can see, none of the associated plants remotely resemble gooseberry. This plant is Humulus lupulus.

Lastly, "fruit" is meant in the botanical sense, which is to say any flowers which matured into a fertilized seed cone, such as hops. That's not a smoking gun for gooseberry fruit.

[pofke]

Hop leaves are palmate, and can have from one to seven lobes, that is true. But, with all due respect to your selection activities, don't you believe that such a radical change in plant morphology - stems changing from stiff fragile bine to self supporting, changing shape from hexagonal and twisted into somewhat straight and elastic, also developing tougher bark and spines on the same branches and still be regarded as the same species? Is this rapid "change" plausible? Doubt that. This is not a hop plant, period. Maybe it has had a hop growing on it, but nothing more.

[seymour]

To be clear, my particular plant is not from the one pictured. I just wanted to show an extremely rare example of a highly adapted wild form of Humulus lupulus (I've seen others, too, I wish I could find more details from my research.) Mine is a different native American wild hop collected from the wild, and it does have some recognizable similarities to the one pictured which are not in common with brewing cultivars. I agree all the changes you describe cannot occur in a single plant's lifespan, nor even one or two generations, but growth habit in particular is surprisingly adaptable. Do I think they are the same species? Yes, I know they are the same species. But that's okay, we don't have to agree. I'll try to stop hijacking this thread.

[Eadweard]

I don't want to play the gooseberry but if I can butt in on this thread my Mathon has now emerged, though as it's in Surrey I've decided it can now revert to being a Farnham Whitebine:

[scuppeteer]

I don't want to play the gooseberry but if I can butt in on this thread my Mathon has now emerged, though as it's in Surrey I've decided it can now revert to being a Farnham Whitebine:

NAH! Anyone can see that's a Canterbury Whitebine! Or is it a strawberry?

[DC]

Hi all, Just thought I would post up a few pics of my hops which have taken off quite a bit over the last week. Bought some 1.5m canes from Morrisons x 10 for £2

Cascades are going great guns (best out of the 3 varieties I have)



Challenger (in 2nd place)



Fuggles (lagging behind in 3rd place)



Cheers DC

[seymour]

...Cascades are going great guns (best out of the 3 varieties I have)

Lookin' good, DC. Those Cascades bines seem much redder than I remember seeing before. Is that typical of Cascades grown in the UK?

[gnutz2]

EKG going nuts as usual, gonna try 6 bines instead of 3 this year, hopefully it'll knock a bit off the height it gets to.

[barneey]

Baz it looks near enough the same as the photo from last year, did you just leave in the ground + did you get many hops last year? Gotta say it looks a healthy look plant

Cheers

C

[Eadweard]

EKG going nuts as usual, gonna try 6 bines instead of 3 this year, hopefully it'll knock a bit off the height it gets to.

Those bines look very red for EKG

[gnutz2]

Baz it looks near enough the same as the photo from last year, did you just leave in the ground + did you get many hops last year? Gotta say it looks a healthy look plant

Cheers

C

I got a sh!t load of hops from it last year, from records I harvested 2.13kg of wet hops and this gave me 390g of dry hops.

It's permenantely planted in the ground Clive, on its 3rd year now.

Those bines look very red for EKG

All I know is I bought it online is an EKG, the beer I made last year tasted good anyway.