Consequences of the Hail Storm for Hop Growth

In the hop garden portrayed on the left hand side (growing Perle), no re-training was carried out after the hail storm due to little time and a lack of man power and time. One can see quite clearly that only very few laterals have reached the top of the wire of

their own accord. The fullest growth can be observed towards the bottom of the plants. This shortfall will become very evident during harvesting. In the hop garden on the right hand side (growing Herkules) the grower took a lot of time and effort to train the laterals back onto the wire after the storm, simultaneously removing superfluous laterals. The hop plants appear to have reacted positively, displaying greater length.

It must be stressed that we are comparing two different varieties, Perle on the left and Herkules on the right. The growth pattern of Herkules is naturally stronger than that of Perle, but if the Perle laterals had been correctly re-trained, they more than likely could also have reached the top of the wire. Prior to the hail storm, the growth of this Perle garden was actually ahead of the neighbouring Herkules garden.

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