We havested our low trellis hop gardens
Beginnings of this innovative method of hop growing comes from the UK, where it’s become quite a popular method of hop growing. These constructions are only 3 meters tall as opposed to the standard 7 meters construction.
These low trellis constructions started to appear in Czech Republic in the mid 90’s, however so far this method only spread to a handful of research hop gardens.
Thanks to using the low trellis, the hop farmers save a considerable amount of money by not having to perform spring works in the field. The construction itself is much cheaper as well, thanks to less material being used and less need for maintenance – the nets used for guiding hop plants can last up to 8 seasons. When irrigated, it also needs less water and hop harvest and hop picking happen at the same moment using a specialised machinery. Hop plants also do not get cut, which allows the plant to store energy in it’s roots before winter. This puts considerably less pressure on the plant.
We are working on breeding a new dwarf genotype of hops for these constructions. The main plant is classic Saaz combined with various varieties from UK that carry the dwarf gene. Currently we’re growing 11 different genotypes which yield enough to allow selected breweries to prepare limited editions of various types of beers for their customers.
