Best Practices

A Best Practices Education Tool

Recognizing a desire among U.S. hop growers to follow common best practices, Hop Growers of America has developed an educational tool to share information and training about sustainable hop growth. The answer to this desire was Good Bines, a farm-focused educational framework built on the collaborative development and sharing of economic, social, and environmental best practices.

Created and administered by Hop Growers of America, Good Bines is a communication and education platform where HGA members can access trusted resources, ensuring the overall resiliency of the U.S. hop industry.

Good Bines was founded on three core principles:
• Communication
• Education
• Collaboration

Good Bines focuses on educational resources and modules in the following categories:
• Food Safety & Quality
• Water & Irrigation
• Business Management
• Soil Fertility
• Integrated Pest Management
• Sustainability

Integrated Pest Management

To ensure the hop supply, farms must be vigilant against the ever-evolving pests that threaten hop production.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) helps growers protect the long-term viability of their hops using combined management practices focused on balancing economic, human safety, and environmental considerations.

IPM works with nature by encouraging beneficial insects that prey on pests destructive to hop plants in addition to utilizing other farm management practices to manage pests and disease. This type of farming approach offers several benefits:

Avoids the overuse of chemical pesticides
Helps prevent the development of pesticide-resistant insects
Reduces the abundance of pests and diseases and reduces the severity of outbreaks
Contributes to the overall health of hop crops
Improves environmental and economic sustainability

This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service under Federal award No. MAP-2024-HGA.

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