The rains came in the first and the third decade of August 2023. Precipitation was mostly of a stormy nature and thus they varied in different locations. In average, they reached 93.8% of the long-term normal. The average of the monthly temperature in August was 19.7°C, exceeding the long-term average by 1.3°C.
According to the report from the Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture (August 20th , 2023) the hop acreage in the Czech Republic decreased compared to the last year by 83 ha (1,67 %) to 4859,9 ha.
The hop acreage of Saaz variety decreased by 88,3 ha to 4047,3 ha and Premiant also saw decrease by 15,9 ha to 196,9 ha. On the other hand, Sladek variety saw a slight increase by 12,8 ha to 410,2 ha, as well as Agnus variety increased by 7,5 ha to 78 ha.
Plantings of new hop plants decreased by 48.4 ha compared to last year to 211.6 ha.
The first two decades of July were very unfavourable for the development of hops in terms of climatic conditions. These two decades were characterized by a very hot and dry weather. Only during the third decade the conditions improved. High temperatures dropped and the rainfalls came, but they had a stormy character. Heavy storms with torrential rains and hails damaged existing vegetation including trellis of the hop gardens.
