HOP BREEDING

The main focus of the breeding activities is on developing of hop cultivars suitable for the Polish growing conditions,
which combine the requirements of hop growers and brewing industry.

Objectives:
- developing high quality aroma and bitter cultivars with high yield potential and optimal concentration
  and composition of resins and essential oils
- combining good agronomic and brewing characteristics with resistance to most dangerous diseases
  as downy and powdery mildews or wilt
- increasing prenylated hop polyphenols content, especially xanthohumol, which displays a wide spectrum
  of medicinally valuable properties
- generation of relatively seedless triploid hop cultivars using polyploid breeding and mutagenesis


Most popular Polish hop cultivars:

Marynka - dual purpose cultivar with pleasant hopy, lightly fruit and intense aroma. It is most popular hop cultivar actually produced in Poland on acreage about 900 ha. The plants are delicate, not very vigorous with low density of leaves. Marynka is a medium early cultivar yielding from 1800 to 2500 kg ˇ ha-1. It contains 7.0 - 10.0% of alpha acids and 3.5 - 5.0% of beta acids. The essentials oils content varies from 2.0 to 3.0 ml/100g of dry hops.

Lubelski - classical finest aroma type cultivar with genuine hopy, delicate and very pleasant aroma. For many years it was the most popular hop cultivar produced in Poland. Actually its acreage decreased to 500 ha, i.e. about 20% of total hop area. Lubelski is early cultivar yielding from 1000 to 1500 kg ˇ ha-1. It contains 3.0 - 5.5% of alpha acids and 4.0 - 6.0% of beta acids. The essentials oils content varies from 0.6 to 1.3 ml/100g of dry hops.

Sybilla - aroma type cultivar characterising with pleasant, harmonius, mild aroma and relatively high content of alpha acids and very good yield potential. Actually its acreage in Poland is about 40 ha, all plantations are established using viruses and Hop latent viroid free seedlings. Sybilla is a medium early cultivar yielding from 2000 to 3000 kg ˇ ha-1. It contains 6.5 - 8.0% of alpha acids and 3.0 - 5.0% of beta acids. The essentials oils content varies from 1.2 to 2.1 ml/100g of dry hops.

Iunga - bitter type, recently released cultivar with very intense, little spicy aroma and very good yield potential. The acreage of this cultivar is about 40 ha, most plantations are established using viruses and Hop latent viroid free seedlings. Iunga is a medium late cultivar yielding from 2000 to 3000 kg ˇ ha-1. It contains 10.0 - 14.0% of alpha acids and 5.0 - 7.0% of beta acids. The essentials oils content varies from 1.5 to 2.5 ml/100g of dry hops.