INTRODUCTION, HYDROPONIC GROWING POSSIBILITY AND PRODUCTIVITY OF SOME HOP VARIETIES IN THE ARARAT VALLEY

World hop acreages and production have decreased lately. In contrast, brewing has increased. During 2002 to 2006, in Armenia, beer production increased by 4 times. Under these conditions, having sufficient local raw material for the production of beer has become more difficult. The Institute of Hydroponics Problems NAS RA (IHP) has been growing hops under soil-less conditions since 2003. Previous studies of hydroponic cultivation of Armenian wild hops suggested that cultivated hops production may be successful by applying this technique. We obtained hop varieties Humulus lupulus cv. ‘Chinook’, ‘Crystal’, ‘Galena’, ‘Nugget’, ‘Newport’, and ‘Hallertauer mittelfruher’ rhizomes from the United States Genebank in Corvallis, and ‘Brewer’s Gold’ and ‘Northern Brewer’ from the German Genebank. They were planted and propagated in the IHP hydroponic station, and placed under soil-less growing conditions. Productivity and -acid, essential oil and tannins content of the raw hydroponic and soil material were studied. The -acid was determined by spectrophotometry and essential oils by steam distillation. From 2005 to 2007 ‘Hallertauer mittelfruher’ and ‘Northern Brewer’ were not established in the Ararat Valley and had a very low productivity in both hydroponic and soil cultures. The remaining cultivars were high yielding in soil-less culture, and exceeded the soil culture on average 1.7 to 2.5 times. ‘Brewer’s Gold’ and ‘Crystal’ were the exceptions where cone yield was extremely low in soil conditions. We determined that ‘Chinook’, ‘Crystal’, ‘Galena’, ‘Nugget’, ‘Newport’ and ‘Brewer’s Gold’ could be recommended for the local hop soil-less production in Armenia to satisfy the national brewing demands.