Encapsulation of cv. “Columbus” Microcuttings: A Valid Technology for hop Propagation

The spreading of hop cultivation all over the Italian territory, mainly due to the increasing interest in craft beers, led hop growers to face a big problem of nursery material supplying. Indeed, in Italy, very few are the nurseries specialized in hop plant commercialization. Traditionally, hop is propagated by cuttings, suckers, rhizomes, in vitro tissue culture, among the most recent biotechnological methods, could be both a valid alternative to traditional propagation and an efficient support for nurserymen in order to increase their hop supplying. Actually, in vitro propagation allows mass and clonal production of true-to-type plants, aseptically, in a small space and regardless of seasonality. Among tissue culture techniques, synthetic seed technology has proven to be an innovative strategy to propagate and preserve several plant species. In this study, a valid protocol for hop, cv. “Columbus”, encapsulation has been set up. As previously reported for another hop genotype, also cv. “Columbus” well responded to the encapsulation procedure, with encapsulated microcuttings maintaining their viability during the culture time; moreover, a strong influence on regrowth and conversion of 6-benzyl aminopurine concentration in the culture medium was observed. Results reported in this study represent a step forward in the application of encapsulation technology to the hop propagation, giving new insights about potentials and limitations of this technique. For these reasons, it will be necessary to carry out further studies in order to acquire better outcomes in terms of vitality and recovery for future uses in nurseries