Influence of meteorological factors and light supplementation applied to hop cultivation in Botucatu-SP: a study of plant biometeorology

• Grant number: 23/01792-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: September 01, 2023
• End date: August 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Agricultural Meteorology
• Principal Investigator: Valeria Cristina Rodrigues Sarnighausen
• Grantee: Valeria Cristina Rodrigues Sarnighausen
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas (FCA). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Alexandre Dal Pai ; Enzo Dal Pai ; Sergio Augusto Rodrigues ; Stanislau Bogusz Junior

Abstract

The cultivation of hops in Brazil is still recent. It is becoming a production alternative and diversification option for small producers in several regions of the country, including the state of São Paulo. The growing beer movement drives its cultivation in the country and it is a climbing and perennial plant, widely used as raw material for the production of beers, with flowers, or cones, the highest cost input in production, essential to provide characteristic aromas to beers, as well as bitterness, microbiological and physical-chemical stability in the final product, in addition to other applications such as in the pharmaceutical industry. Brazil is one of the five largest beer producers in the world, however, the country is dependent on imports of 100% of the hops used, given the incipience of this cultivation on a commercial scale. To promote the expansion of hop cultivation in the country, there is a need to develop technologies and knowledge production that make the production system and its production chain viable. Currently, the culture presents uncertainties regarding the varieties and the behavior of adaptability to different regions, productivity, and quality of cones. There are few studies on cultivation in countries in the southern hemisphere, with scientific and technical references from countries such as Germany and the United States. Information on climate demand and on the phenological stages and productivity of cultivated varieties are still exploratory in Brazil. Thus, the objective of this project is to analyze the potential of adaptation to the climatic conditions of Botucatu of the Cascade and Comet cultivars, which are currently the most commercially appealing in Brazil, in addition to identifying the influence of meteorological factors on agronomic development, productivity, and plant phenology, in addition to the supplementation of hours of light in relation to that available for plants in the Northern Hemisphere, since the analyzed species comes from high latitudes. Thus, the research aims to understand the relationship between soil-plant-atmosphere, in order to identify important aspects of hop biometeorology. The project will be developed in the LUPAM Group (CNPq) at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of UNESP in Botucatu, to identify edaphoclimatic conditions of hops cultivated in Botucatu-SP in two areas with and without light supplementation. The project will have scientific and technical support from a researcher with knowledge of hop cultivation at high latitude, from the College of Agricultural Science, Oregon University. (AU)