Predictive ability of hop (Humulus lupulus L.) grown in single hills on plot environments

Hop (Humulus lupulus L.) is a perennial, climbing plant species whose female strobiles or cones play a critical role in flavoring and bittering beer. The species is dioecious and outcrossing, and new cultivars are clonally propagated. The breeding timeline from cross to release is generally long, averaging between 13 and 15 years. We evaluated the predictive ability of various plant spacings and trellis configurations to see how predictive early-stage breeding environments were of later stages to see if accurate selections could be made earlier in the pipeline. We evaluated the performance of seven hop cultivars with varying end uses (high alpha, aroma, and dual purpose) in the seedling year in high-density, short-trellis plantings (0.46 and 0.61 m apart on a 2.4 m trellis), in established, low-density, single-hill nurseries (1.52 and 21.3 m apart on a 5.4 m trellis) and in plots representative of the commercial standard (1.07 m on a 5.4 m trellis). The trial was established in a single..., Flowering time, vigor, arm length, and flowering pattern were all collected by visual observations in the field. The remainder of traits were collected at harvest. Hop bines were pulled from the trellis, transported to a Wolf 170 hop picker where they were weighed, measured, and cones were separated. Ten cones were imaged using the HopBox, and the reaminder of the cones were dried and submitted for alpha, beta, and HSI measurements according to ASBC methods a local hop lab. The data were collected using tablets, and tracked throughout the harvest process using thermal printed tags and barcodes. All datasets were compiled using Program R. , , # Predictive ability of hop (*Humulus lupulus* L.) grown in single hills on plot environments

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dbrv15fcg](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dbrv15fcg)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset includes seven different hop (*Humulus lupulus* L.) cultivars evaluated in five different trellis and spacing configurations in Prosser, WA, U.S. in 2022 and 2023. There are a number of phenotypic traits reported, including agronomic traits, as well as cone quality and morphological traits. Missing data are represented with \"NA\". 

### Files and variables

#### File: spacing\_trial\_dat.csv

**Description:** 

##### Variables

* backbone_merge: the barcode used to identify the plot/plant, starting with the cultivar name, the year, the spacing (in feet), the row number in the field, and in cases of the 3.5 foot spacing (or plot, where there were 7 plants), the hill position, and in cases of all other spacings, an arbitrary 1 (as cultivar and spacings we...