May of this year was one of the coldest in recent years. The average monthly temperature in the Saaz region reached only 11.2 ° C, which is almost 3 ° C less than the long-term average. The morning temperatures, especially in the first decade of May, were around 0 ° C, reaching a maximum of only 2 ° C. On the other hand, rainfall significantly exceeded the long-term average, the total precipitation for May was 86.5 mm, which is 34.5 mm more than the thirty-year average. The growth of hops was adversely affected not only by the cold weather, but also by a strong gusty wind, which deflected the already trained hop vines from training wire. The hop protection was focused mainly on alfalfa snout weevil and spraying was carried out at the place of its occurrence. Sprays against hop downy mildew were applied over the entire area. We have already carried out two sprays against downy mildew on the farms of the TOP HOP group. Thanks to the good organization of work, the training of hops was completed by 30th May, and soil loosening was carried out on the trained areas. Fertilization and hilling of the hops are under way now. Hop stands in various localities have a growth delay of about 1-2 weeks, the height of hop plants is around 0.7-1.7 m. This year, all the farms of the TOP HOP group have joined the "Smart Hop Garden" project, so now we have a measuring station on each farm, which collects data on temperature and precipitation directly in the hop gardens and evaluates the optimal time of protection against fungal diseases.