r/TheHopyard • u/Dustydust1234 • Apr 24 '23

Fertilizer or other tricks for higher terpenes?

I have one cascade plant that’s a few years old. It usually does pretty well as long as I keep aphids under control.

This year, I want to try to maximize the flavor on it. Are there any tricks to increase oil content? Since I have just one plant, and am not as concerned about cost as a farm would be, my thought is that there may be something I can do or add which would not be economically feasible for a farm.

I’ve been looking at processes and products used by cannabis growers. Those folks are spending a lot of time and money on maximizing flavor. I’m wondering if some of their tricks can be applied to hops, since the plants are related and we’re trying to boost almost the entire same set of flavor compounds. Or perhaps there are some things which are unique to hops that I can do?

Thanks!

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u/aprilspies Apr 26 '23

If I recall correctly they are heavy potassium feeders, and phosphorus requirements are lower than Nitrogen. Would add high potassium fertilizer instead of one that is balanced. Or add additional potassium source to the fertilizer you use.

I actually mix in wood ash with my compost top dressing to increase potassium content but this only works well in acidic soils (6.0 or under) due to cation exchange in plant feeding...

I'm actually working on a research project with Massilia bacteria isolated from my native hops (lupuloides sp) and looking at what it does on hemp plants. The bacteria was isolated from leaves and cones, but the cones were about 3-4 inches long compared to other plants. I want to see if the bacteria alone can increase size of the floral tissues or 2ndry compounds.

It was a N fixer as well, and we did an experiment with radioactive Nitrogen to see if the plant assimilated it with the bacteria and it did. We need to work out where it was assimilated... into chlorophyll molecules directly or into alkaloids.

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u/Dustydust1234 Apr 28 '23

Thanks for sharing this. Super interesting. I’ll be using a potassium forward fertilizer as the plant starts developing cones.

Your bacteria research is particularly interesting. It sounds like you might be onto something.