News

MU hops trial successful

A University of Missouri Extension study has found that hops CAN grow in Missouri. MU’s Jim Quinn says that’s what they set out to discover on their quarter-acre plot in central Missouri two years ago, “Does it actually grow here, does it get some weird disease and just totally flunk because we’re on the southern edge of the growing area? And, right now, it looks like it could grow here!”

Quinn says there were not a lot of disease issues for the hops but there WERE other problems, “We did have winterkill issues with one cultivar, in particular, and we also had problems with voles because of the way were managing the hops through the winter. But, by far, the number-one issue was Japanese Beetle.”

Quinn says he had to spray for Japanese beetles as much as six times in the growing season last year, when Japanese beetles were the worst.

Quinn says they discovered the two best hops cultivars to grow in Missouri are Columbus and Chinook.