Management Strategies for the Cultivation of Hop, a Specialty Crop for North Dakota

Field experiments were conducted in 2017 and 2018 at the NDSU Horticulture Research Farm near Absaraka, ND to evaluate the growth and yield characteristics of twelve commercial hop cultivars in response to varied training densities. Cultivars were trained at two, four, and eight bines per crown each season. Cultivars produced significantly higher yield (kg/ha) trained with eight bines per crown in 2018. ?Nugget?, and ?Canadian Red Vine? significantly yielded highest in 2017. ?Nugget?, ?Canadian Red Vine?, and ?Cascade? significantly yielded highest in 2018. Research investigating mulching as a weed control method on mature hop production systems was conducted. Hop cultivars ?Cascade?, ?Santiam?, and ?Mt. Hood? were grown under landscape fabric, straw much, woodchip mulch, and a non-mulched control in a standard hop trellis system. ?Cascade? had significantly higher yield, cone size, and biomass compared to cultivars ?Santiam? and ?Mt. Hood?. No significant differences found between mulch treatment selection