Response of the Czech hybrid hop cultivar Agnus to the term of pruning, depth of pruning and number of trained bines

Abstract

Agnus is a Czech hybrid hop cultivar and a statistically significant influence of depth and term of pruning on harvested hop cones yield and on alpha-bitter acids content in hop cones were found in this study. Evaluated agrotechnical measures, i.e. depth of pruning, term of pruning and number of trained bines, considerably influenced performance and quality of newly grown hop genotype. Every year, we found a positive influence of shallow pruning on yield (increase of dry hop cones yield in 2003 by 0.37 t/ha, in 2004 by 0.28 t/ha and in 2005 by 0.02 t/ha). The hop yield of plants treated with shallow pruning increased on average by 11.6% in three years. We proved a statistically significant influence of three-bines training system on one hop pole, i.e. 3 + 3 bines from each plant. We found that alpha-bitter acids content corresponds with cones yield and indicates a convenience of shallow pruning. Pruning term influenced alpha-bitter acids yield and dynamics of their formation (in the first pruning term yield it was 155 kg/ha, in the second pruning term it was 169 kg/ha, and in the third pruning term it was 175 kg/ha).