By Denise Méthé

When my husband Robert and I decided to propagate our plants using tissue culture to allow them to stay perfectly clean through the propagation process, a lot of people questioned us about our choice not to grow our hops traditionally from rhizomes.

Hops rhizomes are small roots that are cut from the main root system of a mature female hops plant. It is the part that grows beneath the surface of the ground. The rhizome is the heart of the hops root system of the vine and it stores and transfers food to the plant.

Most people growing hops purchase their rhizomes and keep them in a plastic bag with holes punched in it and water them every second day, keeping them moist and refrigerated until the ground is warm enough to plant them in the spring. It is generally recommended that two rhizomes be planted per mound, while for hops plants with a root ball, one plant per mound is recommended.

We chose to grow in a non-traditional way because as a scientist, I believed that we could grow cleaner plants for our commercial buyers.

We combined Robert’s generations of horticultural experience and my scientific knowledge to use a process called micro-propagation or “tissue culture” to grow hops plants in our specially equipped laboratory in New Brunswick.

We knew that the advantage is that in tissue culture plants normally start life free from any bacterial and fungal diseases. And, if you start with clean material (virus-tested), it stays clean through the propagation process.

Most people who buy rhizomes from a reputable grower are getting a clean plant, of course.

But sometimes an infected rhizome is mistakenly sold. If it is to a commercial grower, it can spread viruses and whole commercial fields have to be replaced at a high cost in time, money and energy.

Whether you opt to grow vegetatively with rhizomes or alternatively with tissue culture is up to you. If you are growing hops for personal use in your garden or backyard, you can be traditional because if infection or viruses occur, it will not threaten your livelihood.

But if you are growing across the continent for commercial growers, you just can’t take that chance. One infected plant could ruin a business.

That is why we grow hops the way we do. We know from the inquiries we received across Canada that there is a great deal of interest in our method.

This is an exciting time for hops growers, and it is good to know that alternatives to traditional methods are available.

Denise Méthé and her husband Robert own and operate Northeast Plants Inc., supplier of healthy, clean hops plants to commercial growers across Canada and the United States. Based in New Brunswick in eastern Canada, they can be reached by calling 506-856-0049 or emailing denise@northeastplants.ca. Learn more about varieties sold at www.northeastplants.ca

By Denise Méthé

When it comes to branding, plants have the cleanest, most wholesome image of any living thing.

​Mention words like gardening, growing, nurturing, and farming and people immediately think clean, green, wholesome, and environmentally wonderful.

The reality is that growing beautiful, clean plants is no easy task. For every seed you put in the ground, there are pests and predatory diseases waiting to pounce on it and keep it from growing up to be strong and healthy.

No plant is more susceptible to the challenges of the natural environment than hops.

At Northeast Plants Inc. in New Brunswick, growing healthy hops is essential since our business depends on selling our plants to commercial growers across Canada and the United States.

We take exceptional care of our plants, propagating them using tissue culture and transferring them to mycorrhizae enriched soilless sterile potting mix in a temperature and humidity controlled greenhouse environment.

Our staff is required to adhere to strict sanitation protocols in both our laboratory and our greenhouses. Even when people ask and we want to oblige, we can’t have them going into our facilities or touching our plants.

We do not have a hops yard surrounding our greenhouse and we do not grow any other kinds of plants in our greenhouses. As soon as you start to commingle plants, there is a chance for diseases or pests to be transferred through the air or the careless use of a tool.

Growing plants is more about cutting down your risk factors than almost anything else. Every step you deviate from the science of horticulture you raise your risk that something bad could happen to hurt your plants.

In the time we have been in the hops production business, we have heard of growers who took great care to obtain original clean plants, but then start taking cuttings off the offspring of the mother plant. When that happens, there is an increased risk of disease. 

We know that growing hops plants using tissue culture in our sterile environment as we do is the only process we can really trust to produce the quality and amount of clean plants our clients require.

Plants need to be inspected regularly, no matter how careful the procedures that exist.

These are sobering words for home growers of hops who use traditional methods and merely want to grow a small supply to support their home-brewing industries. Overall there are about 30 diseases or conditions that can cripple your hops production, and of those about one third can be deadly.

Just 13 years ago, hops production around the world was impacted by the Hops Stunt Viroid, a pathogen that reduced hop yield by up to 60 percent. It was detected in the United States in 2004, and since then, it has surfaced throughout North America, Europe and even Slovenia.

Its origin has since been traced to an on-farm propagation of two diseased plants, both from different hop strains, and the result was devastating as it spread.

Disease spread through contamination in mechanical harvesting and insects can threaten yields as well as the contaminated plants.

When you consider all of these risks, it is easier to understand why we grow all our hops in our environmentally controlled greenhouses with strict sanitation protocols.

Denise Méthé and her husband Robert own and operate Northeast Plants Inc., supplier of healthy, clean hops plants to commercial growers across Canada and the United States. Based in New Brunswick in eastern Canada, they can be reached by calling 506-856-0049 or emailing denise@northeastplants.ca. Learn more about varieties sold at www.northeastplants.ca. 

By Denise Méthé

When you want to break into the market to sell hops plants to commercial growers across Canada and the United States, you know that the biggest challenge is to provide clean plants to your buyers.

Nothing is more upsetting to the commercial grower than the prospect of introducing plants that carry any one of numerous viral, fungal or bacterial pathogens that could ruin their investments.

When my husband Robert and I started Northeast Plants Inc. in eastern Canada a few years ago, we were especially aware of that. I was a scientist and he came from generations of horticultural professionals. We knew the risk and we knew what we had to do to solve it.

We knew that not only did we have to grow clean plants, but we had to be able to convince our buyers as a newcomer in the industry that we were doing it right.

That is why we opted to propagate our plants in vitro to allow them to stay perfectly clean through the propagation progress.

We combined 80 years of horticultural experience with modern science to use the process scientists called micro-propagation or “tissue culture” to grow plants in our specially equipped facilities.

Tissue culture is essentially an alternative way to propagate plants as opposed to the traditional vegetative way.

The advantage is that in vitro growing plants normally start life free from bacterial and fungal diseases.

While the concept has been studied as far back as 1838, and tried (and failed) as early as 1902, it is only now gaining interest as an alternative propagation method to ensure clean plants. In Canada, there is growing interest in it and indeed, Robert has been asked to participate in a national clean plants group to help other growers learn more about this option that is being studied with great interest by growers of forest and fruit trees as well.

The in vitro growing technique of micro propagation has additional advantages to the grower, besides yielding clean plants. It requires a much smaller space than traditional vegetative propagation.
There is a higher multiplication rate.

As well, by being able to conduct the process and grow in soilless sterile potting mix in a temperature and humidity controlled greenhouse environment as we do, you are free from depending on the seasons, you have controlled culture conditions and freedom from microbes.

We have found that once a plant tissue culture line is established, it can give a continuous supply of young plants throughout the entire year.

The time required to grow is shortened considerably because you do not have to wait through the entire life cycle of seed development.

We can see this science working for other growers of different kinds of plants as well. Taking an explant does not usually destroy the mother plant, so it is possible using this method to safely clone a rare or endangered plant.

From the beginning we also planned to sell our plants both in Canada and the United States, and we have found that being able to produce plants in a virus free state also facilitates movement of plants across borders.

Denise Méthé and her husband Robert own and operate Northeast Plants Inc., supplier of healthy, clean hops plants to commercial growers across Canada and the United States. Based in New Brunswick in eastern Canada, they can be reached by calling 506-856-0049 or emailing denise@northeastplants.ca. Learn more about varieties sold at www.northeastplants.ca.

By Denise Méthé

January marks the month when many people start to focus on resolutions for the New Year, promise to rid themselves of a few excess pounds, and gently recover from the holiday season. It is a period of unwinding and re-focusing.
​
But at Northeast Plants, our family-owned business where we grow and supply healthy, clean hops plants to commercial growers across Canada and the United States, it is our peak season for processing orders. It is a revving up, not down season.

That surprises our friends who imagine that the last days of summer and the early days of autumn would be our busiest time of the year at our New Brunswick facility on Canada’s east coast.
​
But in the hops growing business, order-taking season generally starts in September and goes right through to the end of January. There are orders that come in after that of course, but our regular clients come early to get their choices of variety and quantity.

We require a 30 percent deposit when the order is placed, and the balance is to be paid one week prior to shipping.

​We grow our live, clean plants that are propagated in vitro and then transferred to mycorrhizae enriched soilless sterile potting mix in our temperature and humidity controlled greenhouse environment.

We only sell plants that are fully established, ready to be transplanted into the fields of commercial growers. The plants are grown and then shipped in standard 55-cell flats. Cells are 40mm (1.6") by 55mm (21/4") deep. Plant height, including root mass is 15cm (6”) to 30cm (12”).

Two trays are carefully packed into our custom-made (insulated) shipping boxes.

We apply a $8 fee per shipping box and $20 for a pallet when needed.

From the beginning to the end of the process, we take exceptional care of our plants. It is a point of pride that our better, healthier hops plants grown with my background as a scientist and my husband Robert’s heritage of generations of horticultural know-how combine to instill confidence in our clients.

We want our buyers to be able to plant with confidence, and this is the guiding principle of everything we do.

So many people go through life wishing they could do work that they enjoy, and from which they can see growth and change and progress. As each order comes in and we look over our greenhouse and watch our dream of creating this business become a reality, we know that satisfaction and it is exciting to see things develop.

Growing and nurturing plants is an exacting science and a tireless task. But producing good, clean plants that help commercial growers succeed in their own businesses is always satisfying to us.

We encourage regular and new clients to contact us now to ensure they get exactly what they want.

​Denise Méthé and her husband Robert own and operate Northeast Plants Inc., supplier of healthy, clean hops plants to commercial growers across Canada and the United States. Based in New Brunswick in eastern Canada, they can be reached by calling 506-856-0049 or emailing denise@northeastplants.ca. Learn more about varieties sold at www.northeastplants.ca.