Hydroponic hops?
Posted: Sunday Jul 19, 2009 7:49 pm
Here's something I was pondering with a mate...
Hops more notorious cousin has been cultivated to great success by hydroponics for some time now. By growing hydroponically and tweaking lighting and nutrient schedules, people have been able to improve yield and potency of their, err, crop.
Sooo....
Could hops be successfully cultivated using the same principles? I mean, in theory the two plants are closely related and it's the same part of the plant that we're interested in. Has anyone tried this with hops? Or is it likely the lack of soil and chemicals used would completely destroy the flavour and aroma profiles of the hop varieties? Would it be possibly to create extra-high alpha acid crops for bittering purposes, etc?
Hops more notorious cousin has been cultivated to great success by hydroponics for some time now. By growing hydroponically and tweaking lighting and nutrient schedules, people have been able to improve yield and potency of their, err, crop.
Sooo....
Could hops be successfully cultivated using the same principles? I mean, in theory the two plants are closely related and it's the same part of the plant that we're interested in. Has anyone tried this with hops? Or is it likely the lack of soil and chemicals used would completely destroy the flavour and aroma profiles of the hop varieties? Would it be possibly to create extra-high alpha acid crops for bittering purposes, etc?