Hops are considered one of the most versatile plants; they are used to make alcoholic drink, for which he is very famous. The plant is used in cosmetology, cooking and medicine. This plant can also perfectly decorate your garden. Hops have several varieties. It is divided into groups “ordinary” and “curly”. Its stem curls clockwise, and it itself is covered with sharp thorns. Hops have different leaf shapes. The plant itself can reach a height of up to seven meters. Hops need to be propagated according to each variety. Basically, this is done from late April to mid-May. You can propagate in several ways, these are methods such as: propagation by seeds, particles of roots, cuttings.
Hops can be planted in any soil, as this does not play a special role for hops. Hop prefers warmth and moisture, it is impossible for water to stagnate around the plant, it does not like this and cannot endure it, and soon the plant may die. It is undesirable to plant any flowers near it, because it is curly and can confuse all the flowers and plants that will be near it. It is also important to know that it cannot be planted where there is constant heat, it will also not tolerate drought, and pests will begin to attack it, the leaves will begin to rot. Bees also collect pollen from hops; it is good for honey production; people use it to dye fabric. The stem is also suitable for sewing thick bags.
Reproduction
In order to propagate a flower, you immediately need to determine a moderately humid climate, so that there is moisture and warmth. Before propagating hops, you need to treat and fertilize the soil well so that it can better take root and grow in good soil. If you propagate by root cuttings, you can make several grooves from each other at a distance of 1 meter, before propagation, you need to prepare a support for each plant so that later, when it grows, it does not break, support is very important for hops. Cuttings are taken from plants that are more than 3 years old. The plant itself can grow in the same place for about 20 years. If you are sowing seeds, you must immediately find the soil that is the most fertile so that the seeds take root very well. This method is considered the most famous method of propagation, hops that grow from seeds are called “Japanese”. It needs to be planted between the beginning of April and the end of May, no earlier and no later, the soil must be mixed with humus, or the soil can be mixed with leaves. The seeds are not planted deep, about 1-1.5 cm. A week after planting the seeds, its first shoots already appear; they need to be watered regularly. During the first 2-3 weeks after planting, it is impossible for the plant to be constantly in the heat; the plant definitely needs shade. After the sprouts have grown by 5 cm, it is advisable to immediately transplant them from each other into separate pots; when replanting, it is important not to damage the roots and carefully separate them all, together with the soil, do not shake off the soil.
As soon as the weather is warm outside, the seedlings are planted in open ground so that it gets used to it faster, we fertilize the soil. After which, the plant can continue to grow quietly. It tolerates cold winters and severe frosts well, so in winter it will not require special care behind him. Seedlings need to be watered, they need to be watered regularly, but it is impossible for the plant to have stagnation of water. After the hop reaches a height of up to a meter, it immediately needs to be supported so that it does not break. The first time in autumn, during frosts, hops must be covered so that they do not freeze, because they are still young and may not endure severe frosts. Hop cones are very well used in medicine, it is good for kidney and heart diseases, it also calms well. Hop cones can be harvested when they are fully ripe, and you can tell when the cones are ripe by the fact that they become sticky and have a sharp, not-so-pleasant smell. If you decide to plant hops, you will not regret it, because it will look very nice as a decor and you don’t need to spend a lot of time on it.
Among all the herbaceous vines, our gardeners have long appreciated hops. It is distinguished by its unpretentiousness and excellent decorative effect. They have long known about medicinal properties hops Ancient recipes are still relevant today. In our dynamic age, this plant will gently help us all become more stress-resistant.
In terms of growth rate, hops have no equal! It seems to have been created for draping northern walls. This perennial herbaceous vine grows well in the shade. It is quite decorative, winter-hardy, and easily propagated. And the practical benefits of hops make it necessary to allocate large spaces for planting this vine in many countries (for example, the Czech Republic).
Our common hop is the longest herbaceous perennial temperate forests (only the Japanese variety of hop is an annual).
Growing hops
Hops are propagated by cuttings. Get planting material hops is not at all difficult. Ask the owner of the old curtain to cut a few cuttings. The cuttings should be 8–14 cm long with a well-filled core. This condition is satisfied by hop stems 1.5–2 cm thick, with 2–3 pairs of buds.
Unlike cuttings, for example, black currant or gooseberries, hop cuttings are completely buried in a groove to a depth of 15–20 cm in an inclined state: the upper end of the stem segment should be 4–5 cm higher than the lower one and located in the soil at a distance of 10 cm from the surface. The distance between the cuttings in the groove is 1 m. In the spring, after covering the cuttings with loose soil, the soil must be kept moist throughout the season. Shoots will appear in 10 days.
When the stems grow to half a meter, it’s time to tighten the supporting ropes, tying them to stakes driven into the ground. The shoots find support and cling to it with hooks, with which the stem is completely strewn, and with twigs, and even with the veins of leaves.
Hops are a dioecious plant: male flowers look like paniculate tassels, while female flowers look like small cones, collected in inflorescences of 30–50 pieces.
Now you can observe the extraordinary qualities of this plant.
Moreover, this vine is a champion in growth speed; it grows by 30–40 cm, and sometimes by 70 cm, in a day! The growth of the vine slows down during flowering. By the end of summer, the shoots will reach 8–10 m in length. The vine accumulates the strength for such rapid growth in the fall: when the stem begins to dry out in September, the nutrients move to the rhizome, which stores them until spring. The rhizome lives for 20 years or more, growing in breadth and depth every year (in damp deciduous forests it eventually moves 10 m away from the stem!).
Now it’s time to show that hops are planted not so much for their decorative qualities, but for practical purposes.
Attitudes towards different-sex individuals among farmers are strikingly different. For female specimens, from time immemorial it has been caring and even bowing. And seeing the masculine flowering plant, the owner, at best, seeks to emasculate all the inflorescences. On industrial plantations, if a male is among the female ones, it is destroyed in order to prevent pollination and fruit development. Well, just a plant convent! There were even special studies that showed that dry pollen from male hop flowers can spread by air currents over 3 km!
The thing is that the hops in economic purposes grown for LUPULINA, contained in the pollen of female inflorescences. It contains many biologically active substances: essential oils, resins, some alkaloids, tannins. It is this set that determines the value of hops as an agricultural crop.
This is where the main use of hops originates - brewing. The tannins contained in lupulin help brewers regulate the fermentation of the wort, and impart a piquant bitterness and aroma to the beer made from it, and persistent foam protects it from rapid souring. In short - it turns out the right beer!
Water and alcohol infusions of flowering hop cones have anti-inflammatory properties and help with diseases of the liver, bladder, and intestinal tract.
On an industrial scale, hops are grown on plantations. In spring, they look the least like farmland - concrete pillars with wire stretched between them stick out in a bare field. The wire rings in the wind at a height of 5 m, like on a power line. In summer, the ground is covered with hop shoots, like a tent: the workers, with a special pole, helped each hop shoot to catch on the top wires in time. The cones ripen in August-September.
It is very important to accurately determine the moment of harvesting (i.e., the maximum content of lupulin in the cones) and carry it out quickly, since essential oils quickly oxidize. If the cones turn red, they are late with cleaning. Moreover, during cleaning, wet or rainy days are extremely undesirable.
Harvesting hops is difficult because lupulin is poisonous in large quantities. The pickers have a headache. But humanity has always paid a high price for receiving pleasure.
Even bakers cannot do without hops. To this day, dietary breads are baked using brewer's yeast. Many people know that brewer’s yeast itself is medicinal and is drunk to improve the body’s metabolism and increase appetite.
The medicinal properties of hops have been known for a long time. Recently, infusions have been used in the treatment of skin and breast cancer. Poultices and baths with hops help with radiculitis, abscesses and ulcers. After washing your hair, start constantly rinsing it with hop infusion, and your hair will become stronger and hair loss will stop.
Not everyone knows that drugs for heart disease (Valocardin in Germany and Valosadan in the Czech Republic) are prepared on the basis of hop oil.
One tablespoon of crushed pine cones, scalded with a glass of boiling water - old folk remedy from insomnia. Equally ancient way- place a pillow filled with crushed hop cones in your head at night.
And finally, hop stems are a durable fiber for tarpaulins and burlap. And in Russia they also weave baskets from them.
Hops are edible plants and quite nutritious.
In Russian villages, the first green cabbage soup was always brewed from nettles and young hop shoots. At this moment, the tender leaves and sprouts of the hop contain a large supply of vitamin C (remember, the roots stored it in the fall?).
Do you know what was included in the daily rations of slaves during the construction of the Egyptian pyramids? Two jugs of beer, plus two baked breads, plus a head of onion or garlic per person!
How nutritious beer is can be seen by looking at the size of its regular consumers. By the way, it is the density of beer in degrees that is placed on bottle labels, for example, 12O. This value has nothing to do with alcohol content. Beer never contains more than 6–8% alcohol, and there can be no talk of severe consequences of intoxication. Therefore, the proverb is true: “No me, hops, more fun!”
Text: Margarita Turkina
“Garden Affairs” No. 4 (48), 2011
How to grow a well-known plant in your dacha from seeds? After all, sometimes you need to quickly decorate an unsightly building, fence, veranda, porch or gazebo. Perfect option for this purpose - a powerful vine with beautiful leaves and cones. How to plant, how to care, what varieties are there? Can this crop be damaged by diseases and pests? You can get answers to your questions after reading the article and viewing the photos.
Features of the plant
- Hops are a dioecious vine belonging to the Cannabiaceae family. It is capable of quickly, in just one month, stretching up to 6-8 m. Moreover, the hops entwines the support only in a clockwise direction.
- The stem of the plant is hollow, tetrahedral, densely covered with small spines with curved edges. With their help, hops can even climb sheer walls.
- Hop leaves are not the same throughout the plant: they are three-lobed at the base, and whole at the top. They look very decorative, thanks to which the culture has received the attention of landscape designers.
- The long rhizome is located in the upper part of the soil. It is capable of spreading very quickly underground and sprouting seedlings.
- For fruit set, the presence of male and female plants is required.
- Cone-shaped inflorescences consist of 20-50 small female flowers. At the bottom of the cone there are glands that produce lupulin (a bitter substance). These inflorescences are used in medicine and in the production of beer.
Hops in site design
- Male flowers are rather inconspicuous green panicles. They contain very little lupulin.
- Hop flowering begins in mid-summer (around the end of July). The fruits, in the form of small nuts, ripen in a month.
- The lifespan of the plant is about 30 years.
Attention! The hop plant is very tenacious and grows quickly. Therefore, before planting it on the site, you need to carefully consider methods for limiting the growth of the vine. For example, you can dig a sheet of metal or plastic around the root zone.
Hop propagation
There are two ways to grow hops on your own plot:
- vegetative;
- seed.
The first method is most often used. To do this, in the spring, sections of rhizomes with seedlings are separated and planted in holes prepared on the site.
Hops can also be propagated vegetatively using layering, when the selected branch is bent to the ground, pinned and covered with earth. In this case, by the end of the season, you can separate the rooted section of the vine and plant it in the planned place.
Hops need support
The seed method is used by gardeners only if they want to grow some kind of new variety. This method is not particularly different from growing other plants from seeds and includes the following work:
- containers for planting are filled with nutritious soil;
- the soil is well watered;
- grooves are made with a sharp object and seeds are sown in them;
- the seedlings are regularly watered and protected from direct sunlight;
- grown young plants are planted in a permanent place.
What place in the garden is suitable for the plant?
Most the best place for hops it is partial shade. In the sun, the plant is more susceptible to diseases and is more often damaged by insects. The soil for lianas is preferably loamy. Hops grow worst on sandy soils.
Before planting, be sure to install supports to which the vine will later cling. Moreover, it should be taken into account that hops rise vertically very quickly, and if directed horizontally, growth slows down greatly.
The best place for hops is partial shade
Having the ability to tightly close together, hop leaves create a thick shadow. This should also be taken into account when planting it to decorate a veranda or porch.
Advice. At the end of summer, on the lower part of the vine, the leaves turn yellow and crumble. To “hide” it better nearby plant low plants with beautiful leaves.
Plant care
Hops are a low maintenance plant. But if you want to see beautiful, green leaves and a large number of cones, then it’s still worth paying a little attention to the plant.
This vine is very fond of watering, so it must be carried out regularly so that drying does not occur. You can fertilize the soil several times a season with organic matter and phosphorus-nitrogen fertilizers. The stems should be directed in the desired direction throughout the season. If it is necessary to stop growth, they need to be trimmed. In early spring dried last year's stems are removed from the support - this will make room for new seedlings.
Attention! Hop stems are quite thorny and can injure skin, therefore, when working with the plant, it is advisable to wear thick gloves.
Very often the plant is attacked by aphids and fungal diseases. If this happens, treatment with appropriate medications is required.
Varieties and types of hops popular among fans
Through the efforts of breeders, more than 100 varieties have been developed. Some are suitable only for decorative purposes, while others are mass-grown and used in the brewing industry.
- Common hops. A species distributed across all continents. It grows quickly. The vine always has a lot of cones with a strong aroma. Mainly used in medicine.
Common hop
- Brewer. It produces few cones. They are very dense and elongated in shape. Endowed with a subtle aroma. Low susceptible to diseases and pest attacks. Used in the production of beer and medicinal preparations.
- Triumph. The rounded cones are of medium size and medium density. Very fragrant. The plant may be affected spider mite. Used in the brewing and pharmaceutical industries.
- Aureus. Decorative variety with yellowish leaves.
Variety Aureus
- Prima Donna. The plant variety is capable of growing a dense crown. It is distinguished by very large inflorescences-cones. Also used in garden decorations.
- Japanese hops. A variety of plant that is endowed with five to seven lobed decorative leaves. It does not form cones, so it is used only as a decorative annual vine.
Whether it is worth growing hops at your dacha is a twofold question. This is very useful and beautiful plant, but it can also cause a lot of problems. Therefore, before planting a sprout on the site, you need to weigh the pros and cons, and be sure to choose a variety.
Hops (Humulus L.) belong to the hemp family (Cannabinaceae L.). The hop genus is divided into three types: common hop (H. lupulus L.), heart-shaped hop (H. cordifolius Mig) and Japanese hop (ff. japonicus Sieg. Et Zuss). Common hop has the greatest production value.
They grow hops for the brewing industry. In addition, it is used in medicine, pharmaceutical, perfume and cosmetics, canning and baking industries. Hop stems also provide fiber, the content of which is about 15%.
Common hop is a perennial, dioecious plant with a liana-like twisted stem. The underground part is perennial, the stem is annual, dying off in late autumn.
Hop plants have vegetative organs - roots, stems, leaves and generative organs - flowers, fruits, seeds. Plant organs can change depending on growing conditions. In particular, underground shoots form rhizomes, from which 10-12 highly branched skeletal roots grow, which are divided into thinner ones, with a dense network of small roots. Small roots and rhizomes form a well-developed root system, which penetrates the soil to a depth of about 4 m and disperses up to 3 m. The bulk of the roots are located in the upper (about 1 m) layer of soil.
The main rhizome of hops is a perennial underground shoot with buds. Its greatest growth is observed in the 4th year and it is during this period that more buds are formed on it, which later germinate and form a large number of shoots. When growing cultivated hops, the number of shoots is reduced annually, forming the main rhizome, removing excess shoots.
The stems are branched, green or red, long (about 10 m or more), up to 13 mm thick, herbaceous, covered with hairs. Sweet hook-like spines are placed along the edges of the stem, with the help of which the hops are firmly held on the supports. There are also such spikes on lateral shoots, petioles and on each side of the leaves.
The leaves are simple. Their shape is heart-like. The largest leaves are in the middle part of the plant, smaller in the lower and upper parts. The upper side of the leaf is dark green, the lower side is lighter, and there are glands on it that contain resins and essential oil. The number of leaves before flowering is about 400, and during the harvest period - 600.
Inflorescences. Female inflorescences are cones containing 20-60 small flowers. The flowers consist of five petals and five stamens.
Male plants do not form cones and have no practical significance, so they are removed.
The fruit is a small brown nut.
Hop seeds are small. Weight of 1000 hop seeds is 2-4 g.
Hop growing technology
Hops are grown on flat areas with a slight slope (up to 5°) to the south, southwest and southeast.
The hops are placed on tracts (hop fields) with an area of 20-30 hectares, which are divided into separate plantations (squares). To protect hops from the winds, a hop bed is planted near a forest, shelterbelt or garden. If there is a need to plant a hop plant in an open area, then it is planted in advance (2-3 years in advance) with protective strips (2-3 rows) of fast-growing trees at a distance of 20 m from the edges of the plantation.
Hop beds are planted on soddy, lightly and medium podzolic soils, gray and dark gray forest soils, and level groundwater no higher than 1.5 - 1.8 m from the soil surface. Heavy and light sandy and swampy soils are unsuitable for it. The groundwater level on plantations in summer should be no higher than 1.5 - 1.8 m.
The areas allocated for hop fields are divided into squares measuring 2 - 2.5 hectares, between which roads 3 - 4 m wide are left. On each hectare of hop fields, 145-150 pillars 8-9 m high are buried for trellises. A galvanized wire is stretched on the tops of the pillars, from which wire supports are pulled to each hop bush and secured with pegs 50 - 60 cm high at a distance of 40 cm from the bushes.
Soil cultivation when growing hops
After planting the hop plant, after grain and leguminous crops, the stubble is peeled, after 2-3 weeks, approximately half the norm of organic and phosphorus-potassium mineral fertilizers is applied and plantation plowing of the soil begins to a depth of 45 cm. After 3-4 weeks, the remaining fertilizers are applied and the area is plowed to a depth of 25 cm. General norm organic fertilizers is 50-60 t/ha, mineral 7-8 c/ha (P90K90). After row crops, the soils are not hulled, but processed only with plows. There is another way to prepare the soil for planting hops, in which, instead of planting, deep plowing of 30 - 35 cm is used. In the fall, in areas fertilized and filled with fertilizers, holes are dug with BM-204, BKGO-67, BKGM-66-2 machines measuring 60x60x60 cm, placing them in rows according to patterns of 2.1x1m, 2.1x1.6m, 2.5x1m. At the beginning of spring field work the holes are filled with fertile top layer soil mixed with 5 - 7 kg of humus or compost and begin to plant annual hop seedlings grown in a nursery or cuttings. Planting depth 8 - 10 cm from the soil surface.
Caring for hop crops
Hop seedlings appear in 7-10 days, cuttings - in 10-15 days. During this time, a crust may form on the soil surface, which is destroyed by loosening the row spacing. When approximately 75% of seedlings appear on the soil surface, the condition of the plantation is checked and hop seedlings or cuttings that have not germinated are replaced with spare ones.
After hop germination, when the plant height is 50-60 cm, the stem is placed on a support and the row-spacing is loosened with cultivators simultaneously with harrowing to a depth of 10-12 cm.
During the growing season on hop plantations in the first year of life, 4-5 fluffing of row spacing and one hilling of plants with a PRVM-Z plow-loosening agent are carried out. In the second year of hop life, in early spring, the ridges are plowed and raked, and the lateral rhizomes and underground stems of the previous year are cut off on the hops. The height of cutting the stems depends on the condition of the plants: on highly developed plants they are cut off completely, on underdeveloped ones - above the first and second pair of eyes. Mechanized cutting of queens is also carried out using the PKKH-1 device on a plow-ripper.
Severely damaged or dead plants are uprooted and new cuttings or hop seedlings from the nursery are planted in their place. Per 1 hectare, the density of productive stems of plantings should be 14 - 16 thousand. Cut stems and other remains are taken outside the plantation and destroyed.
After pruning the hops, herbicides are applied and the soil is loosened between the rows. To kill weeds, herbicides such as 50% sitrin (3.5 - 5 kg / ha), 50% dual (2.5 l / ha), 48% bazag-ran (2.1 l) are used / ha) etc.
To accelerate the ripening of cones, spray the plant with a 40% solution of ammonium nitrate at a shoot height of 70 - 80 cm. After this, the first feeding of the hops is carried out with complete mineral fertilizer (45 kg/ha of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium). 6-7 days after spraying, the stems are placed on supports - two stems on two supports near each bush. The excess is cut out and removed from the hop field.
When the height of the plants is 3 - 4 m, they are tucked up with the simultaneous application of phosphorus-potassium fertilizers at a dose of 30 - 45 kg / ha d. young shoots that appear on the soil surface, and pinched - the side branches are pinched at a height of up to 2 m from the soil surface, minted - the tops of the stems are cut off above the trellis.
To destroy alfalfa weevils and fleas, plants are sprayed with chlorophos (0.3 - 0.5% solution, 0.3 - 0.5 liters per hop bush). With the appearance of spider mites and aphids on plants, hops are treated with 40% phosphamide (1.5 - 6 l / ha), 25% Anti (1.5 - 6 l / ha) or biological preparations bitoxybacillin (2-4 kg / ha). ha). Against diseases, hops are sprayed with 80% polycarbacin (4-8 kg/ha), 80% zineb (4-8 kg/ha) or 80% cuprosan (4-8 kg/ha), 25% Ridomil (1 - 1.5 kg/ha), etc. Zinc sulfate (3 kg/ha) is used against viral diseases.
Hops harvesting
Harvesting hops manually or using hop harvesting machines (4x-4l or KhMP-1, 6) begins at technical ripeness When the buds become dense, they have a specific aroma, gray color and golden-green or lemon-yellow color of lupulin glands. At this time, hop cones contain maximum amount alpha acids, essential oil, polyphenols. In the main hop-growing areas, harvesting is completed before September 15-29. Delay in harvesting deteriorates the quality of the buds due to the spillage of lupulin grains. Freshly harvested hop cones, which contain up to 80% water, at post-harvest processing points are first subjected to 12 - 14 hours of active ventilation with heated air (up to 30 ° C), due to which their humidity is reduced by 25 - 30%. After ventilation, the hop cones are dried in the drying chambers of special dryers (PCB-750K) with heated air to 40 - 50 ° C, bringing the humidity to 9 - 10%. The dried buds are unloaded from the dryers into dry and dark storage rooms attached to them. To do this, they are scattered on a wooden flooring, first in a layer of 70 - 80 cm with a gradual increase to 1.5-2 m. After cooling, all cones in a 1.5 - 2 meter layer are evenly moistened due to the moisture of the atmospheric air to a humidity of 11-13%. If the atmospheric air is not humid enough, then when tracking the buds, lightly moisten them with a finely sprayed cold water or use steam generators with steam supply under the hop layer. To preserve valuable substances in the cones, they are subjected to sulfation - in a special drying chamber sulfur gas ignited sulfur. Aged raw hops are packaged in plastic or jute bags and sent to hop receiving stations or hop factories to be finally brought to the required marketable standards in accordance with the standard.
In the fall, after the hop cones are collected and the stems and leaves have browned and dried, the hops are cut off, removed from the wire and taken away from the hop fields for burning. Plantations are thoroughly cleaned of plant residues, manure or compost (40 - 50 t/ha) and phosphorus-potassium mineral fertilizers (4-4 c/ha of superphosphate, 2-3 c/ha of 40% potassium salt or 1.5 c/ha potassium chloride).
The hop plant is not only an excellent raw material for the production of intoxicating drinks, but also valuable medicinal plant. The decorative qualities of this vine, densely strewn with green cones, are no less in demand. It is often used for landscaping various types of supports, gazebos, pergolas and arches, and planting along the perimeter as living fences. It has been proven that hop leaves and stems are capable of absorbing heavy metal ions.
Humulus lupulus – common (climbing) hops, belongs to the hemp family. The genus is represented by three species of perennial and annual herbaceous vines, usually used for vertical gardening. These are fast-growing vines that shed the entire above-ground part for the winter and are preserved thanks to underground rhizomes.
Here is the description of hops given by Dahl: “Hops are a warlike plant, the pollen of which is used in drunken drinks; cones of this plant, which contain pollen. The state of being intoxicated. The hops overcame him. The intoxication of the heroes will overcome. Mash cannot be brewed without hops,” and so on.
The most interesting thing is that with its current very wide use, despite the fact that “intoxicating” has become synonymous with intoxicating, hops are a relatively recent invention, although it is found wildly in the forests of Central and Eastern Europe and large parts of Asia. It is difficult to say who was the first to brew beer with hops.
This page describes what properties hops have and how to grow them. personal plot.
Healing properties of hops
The first mention of beer with hops is among the Finns, but it is only about 1200 years old, apparently at the same time the Slavs who inhabited it began to use it in the Baltic. At this time, they began to use hops in the Caucasus. In Western Europe, hops, judging by the mention of it in chronicles and medical treatises, appeared even later, around the 8th-10th centuries, in different countries at different times.
Hops are added to beer not only and not so much to increase it, so to speak, “hoppy”, but to improve its taste and preservation. Although hops indeed have a certain effect on nervous system. In medicine, it is used as a sedative and is part of many fees.
In medicine, hops also began to be used around the 12th century, when it was already widely used. They were even paid taxes and tribute, for example, in the Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden, which is mentioned in the chronicles in 967. In the Middle Ages, such a tribute was widely spread in Germany, Holland and Norway. At that time, hops became the only and main additive to beer, giving it taste and aroma, and completely replaced other additives - wormwood, gravel and others.
In medicine and brewing, hop inflorescences and hop glands, which densely cover the leaves of the inflorescences, are used. When dried, some of these glands crumble, forming a golden, aromatic powder. Mature inflorescences are collected in August, in good weather, after the dew has evaporated. Inflorescences that have slightly yellowed, but have not yet turned yellow, are considered ready for harvest.
In medicine healing properties Hops are used as a sedative for overwork, increased excitability, and difficulty falling asleep. Good results gives hops for low acidity of gastric juice and digestive disorders. Together with chaga (birch mushroom), hops are used as a general tonic in oncology. Hops are also often used in cosmetics to strengthen hair.
The medicinal raw materials are infructescences (“cones”) of hops. They contain essential oil (0.3–1.8%), which includes mono and sesquiterpenoids (myrcene, geraniol, caryophyllene, farnesene); bitterness (11–21%) – humulone, lupulone, etc.; flavonoids, coumarins, phenolic acids (chlorogenic, caffeic, etc.), coumarins, vitamins C, E, B1, B3, B6, estrogenic hormones, resinous substances.
Biologically active substances of hops have a calming, hypnotic effect, bitter substances improve digestion, the sum of biologically active substances has a bactericidal effect, has a positive effect on metabolic processes and especially on the regulation of fat, mineral and water metabolism. In scientific medicine, hop preparations are used for diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, to stimulate appetite, improve digestion during gastritis, for diseases of the gall bladder and liver, spleen (“Hovaletten”).
They are used as an analgesic, sedative, hypnotic for increased nervous excitability, sleep disorders, neuralgia, vegetative-vascular dystonia, mild spasms of the coronary vessels, tachycardia, early stages hypertension (“Valocordin”, “Valosedan”, “Novo-passit”).
Hop-based drugs are effective for pyelonephritis, kidney stones, inflammation of the bladder, dropsy (“Urolesan”); used for inflammatory diseases of the skin and mucous membranes, allergic reactions accompanied by itching; Decoctions and lotions are used for radiculitis and joint diseases.
The main use of hop cones is brewing; they are also used in cosmetology to strengthen hair.
The use of preparations from the hop plant is contraindicated during pregnancy (disturbs hormonal balance) and lactation, hypersecretion of gastric juice, acute hepatitis, severe violations of the liver and kidneys.
Harvest "cones" of hops in the early ripening phase (late July - August), when they have a yellowish-green color; they are cut off together with the stalks so that they do not crumble.
Hops are often used and how ornamental plant, it curls well on balconies, verandas, fences and arbors, decorating them with its carved foliage. The liana does not lose its decorative appearance for 20–30 years.
On plantations, the entire vine is usually cut off, then inflorescences are collected from it, which are dried in a ventilated dark place on the litter. If hops are dried without bedding, the glands with essential oil and resins that fall from it - the most valuable part of the raw material - will be lost. Hop cones contain up to 1.6% essential oil, and glands - up to 3%. IN essential oil more than 100 substances have been discovered, its composition depends on the origin of the raw materials, the time of collection and climatic conditions.
Hops use not only the cones that go into brewing, but also young shoots, while they have not yet blossomed leaves. These shoots are boiled and served like asparagus. Before the revolution, it was specifically recommended to grow hops for vegetable raw materials, covering young shoots from light, bleaching them, like asparagus. Such shoots are not only more tender, but also grow faster. By pruning the hops and blocking new shoots from light, you can have them almost all summer. Of course, you can’t prune the same bush all the time. Therefore, if you need young shoots, leave a few old large shoots on the bush to feed it. Young shoots are tied into bunches, boiled in salted water and served with breadcrumbs.
Here is the description of ordinary hops given by the famous Russian gardener Steinberg: “Hop sprouts usually appear from the ground quite early, already in April and May, so during the indicated vegetable-free time, you can eat hop sprouts, which are considered very tasty. Since hops are often found in the wild, this circumstance takes on special significance, although, in view of the indicated value of hop sprouts, hops should be bred on a small scale in every gardening and vegetable gardening. In the spring, the hop sprouts are allowed to come out of the ground a little, and then they are broken up and used like asparagus.”
What does the hop vine look like and how does it grow (with photo)
Hops are climbing herbaceous plant, perennial. Stems up to 6 m long, tetrahedral, covered with hooked spines. The lower leaves are opposite, long-petiolate, rounded, 3–5 deeply palmately lobed, serrated at the edges; the upper leaves are entire. Flowers are unisexual: staminate flowers - in axillary panicles, five-membered; pistillate - in pineal-shaped axillary drooping catkins, growing into infructescences.
As you can see in the photo, the fruits of the hop plant are nuts collected in yellowish-green cones:
They, like asparagus and cauliflower, can be eaten in the spring. It blooms in July-August, the fruits are harvested in September.
Hops grow like a vine, its faceted stems twine around the support to the right, counterclockwise. And in order to better hold on, the stems are covered with special anvil-shaped hairs; the hairs below are wide and thick, and on top they have two “horns” directed sideways along the stem, impregnated with silicon salts and very strong. Sticking their sharp ends into the support, these hairs firmly hold the shoot. At the same time, they also play a protective role. Try to make your way through the hop thickets in short sleeves - you will get an unforgettable experience of a lifetime. This method of struggle was used on my advice in one kindergarten– the children immediately stopped all attempts to climb over the fence into the street. Scratches are very painful and take a long time to heal.
Hops are a dioecious plant; female and male inflorescences are located on different bushes. Only female bushes that form inflorescences in the form of cones are of practical importance. Since inflorescences that do not have seeds are more valued in brewing and medicine, only female plants are usually planted on plantations.
Hops have underground branching rhizomes that produce new shoots. Sections of these rhizomes are used to propagate hops in culture. Green shoots die off every year after fruiting, and grow back in the spring.
This is a southern boreal-nemoral-forest-steppe North American-European-West Asian species. Widely distributed in the south of the European part of Russia, the Caucasus, the south of Western Siberia, Altai and Central Asia. In the Ural region it is found in the Middle and Southern Urals. Grows in thickets of coastal bushes, in humid forests.
The most decorative variety with bright yellow leaves - humulus lupulus ‘Aureus’.
These photos show what a hop plant looks like:
The following sections of the article are devoted to how to plant hops and how to care for the plant.
Planting and care conditions for growing hops in open ground
Hop vines are commonly used for vertical gardening. However, when growing hops, it should be taken into account that before winter, the above-ground mass of leaves and branches dies off completely every year, only the thickened underground rhizomes of the hop are preserved. In the spring, after the snow melts, hops begin to actively grow.
An important condition for growing hops is to provide a semi-shaded area, protected from northern winds. In sunny places, hop plantings are more susceptible to disease, attack by aphids and other leaf-eating insects.
For planting and caring for hops in open ground Permeable fertile loam with sufficient moisture, but not waterlogged, is best suited.
In a vertical position, hop vines quickly climb up the supports; in a horizontal position, the growth rate is significantly reduced. To grow a continuous green wall, plants are planted at intervals of 1.5–2 m. A well-developed hop specimen will form a dense interweaving of stems and leaves by mid-summer. Knowing this feature, you can quickly decorate even the most inconspicuous garden buildings.
How to plant, grow and care for hops in your garden
To plant hops in poor soil, in the fall, holes or ditches 60 cm deep are dug, half filled with manure, and covered with earth on top. Planting is carried out in the spring with both seedlings and cuttings. When planting, ordinary hop seedlings are placed at a distance of 80-100 cm from each other; Japanese hops can be planted even more often (30-50 cm).
Like most vines, it needs support. It consumes a lot of nutrients and water, so to ensure good and rapid development, the plant must be fed and watered. In the first year, common hops can produce many shoots; weak and substandard shoots should be pruned so as not to deplete the plant. Then in the second year there will be fewer shoots and flowering will be more abundant. In the third or fourth year, the rhizomes grow, and if you give them free rein, the hops will become a real disaster for your garden, so you need with an iron hand keep this vine in its designated place. When the shoots reach 60 cm, they are given a support up to three or more meters long, around which they will curl. During the first half of summer, adult plants develop a powerful crown of intertwining shoots with lobed leaves and decorative cones.
After planting, when caring for hops in your garden plot, it is important to protect the plant from pests. Although this is not the most “tasty” plant, it can be damaged by leaf beetles. The old method of spraying with a bitter infusion of wormwood is recommended. Is it easier to buy a modern one? chemical agent to combat leaf-eating insects. In the fall, after dying, the hop vines are cut off.
The plant creates continuous shadow, and twilight will always reign under the “green tent”. This must be taken into account if we plant hops near the gazebo or veranda.
In autumn, holes for planting hops 0.5 m deep are filled half with manure and covered with earth on top. In spring, hop seedlings or cuttings are planted in them. Seedlings are planted at a distance of 1 m.
In the first half of summer, hop vines grow so rapidly that this plant is the very first to entwine pergolas and supports, far ahead of lemongrass, girl's grapes, honeysuckle honeysuckle. During the day, the hops grow by several centimeters. As soon as the shoots grow 40–50 cm, a support is built for them. In the first year of planting, weak shoots of the plant should be removed, leaving the strong ones.
In order to care for hops as proper agricultural technology suggests, timely weeding, periodic loosening and watering during the dry period are necessary. In the first 3 years after planting to ensure rapid and good growth you should regularly water and feed the hops with a solution of complex mineral fertilizer. Fertilizers should be alternated: fertilizer is applied to the soil once, then foliar fertilization is applied to the stems and leaves (fertilizer should be diluted in half concentration). The foliar feeding method is also carried out in the case of nitrogen starvation of the leaves, when they become light and small; in the case of a lack of potassium, the shape of the leaves becomes convex, and the fact that the plant lacks phosphorus elements is indicated by the bronze color of the leaf.
In the process of growing hops, it is necessary to ensure that the roots do not grow beyond the plantings. You can use limiters or bury slate remains to a depth of half a meter.
Hop propagation: how to propagate a vine by cuttings and dividing rhizomes
Perennial hops are propagated by dividing rhizomes, root suckers, and less often by seeds. The rhizomes are separated with a sharp shovel, without digging up the bush, directly in the ground. This is done in the spring, when new shoots appear. For planting, the rhizomes are cut into pieces 10–15 cm long with two or three pairs of buds and planted. Annual roots with a diameter of about 2 cm take root better. vertical gardening A hybrid form of Aurea with golden-yellow leaves is often used. It perfectly shades plants with dark foliage and creates a charming ensemble with coniferous plants, which are now in fashion.
Spaces of 2–2.5 m are made between the rows, and plants are planted at a distance of one meter. After the emergence of seedlings, the soil is loosened, systematic weeding and watering are carried out. During the summer they feed with slurry 2-3 times. When the shoots reach a length of 60–90 cm, the plants are sent along trellises. The fruits appear already in the first year; in the second year of life, hops produce quite decent yields. To help the hops winter better, the shoots are hilled up in the fall.
To propagate hops by cuttings, they are harvested from plants 3–8 years old.
In spring (from mid-March to mid-April, depending on the weather), shoots are collected, the thickness of which is at least 4 mm and the length does not exceed 8 cm. They must be light color, from cream to pale yellow. When the shoots turn green, their taste becomes slightly bitter. The tops of the shoots should still be tightly closed during harvesting. In place of the removed shoots, new ones are formed, which can also be collected. The hop cones are harvested in September-October.
