Last week members of the Department of Plant Sciences and Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology met at the UT Hopyard for some spring cleaning. The UT Hopyard opened in June of 2023 and has thrived since. The UT Hopyard is located at the East Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center in the Plant Sciences Unit on Alcoa Highway.

A team of students (both undergraduate and graduate) and researchers working under Dr. Mitchell Richmond, Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, worked on cleaning up the UT Hopyard for the upcoming spring/summer season. They worked to remove any remaining old coconut coir from last year and tie new coconut coir for this year’s crops. Hop plants will grab onto the coconut coir, which helps it to grow upward. By the summer solstice, the hop plants are expected to reach about 20 feet high!

Check out some photos of the work being done at the UT Hopyard below!

Are you a member of the Department of Plant Sciences and would like to be featured? If so, let us know by emailing Victoria Cavaliere at vcavalie@utk.edu.

By Victoria Cavaliere