**5. Conclusions**

Total phenols in hop cones were influenced significantly by most of the experimental factors (plant vigour, foliar treatment, liming, cultivar, plot and year) under study. However, in this study, foliar sprays and liming were among the factors that least influenced the measured variables (total phenol, nutrient concentration, and phenolic composition). The year, which represents the joint action of several environmental variables (temperatures, rainfall, relative humidity, etc.) resulted as the most important factor for the phenols accumulation between plants of different vigour, subject to different foliar treatments and grown in different plots and between different cultivars. Nugget showed significantly lower average values of total phenols than Cascade or Colombus cultivars if the two years were taken into account. The high levels of Zn in hop cones seemed to be associated with lower phenol content in the hop cones. The phenolic compounds identified were mainly flavonols (quercetin and kaempferol) and phenolic carboxylic acids (*p*-coumaric and caffeic acids). The less vigorous plants showed higher levels of quercetin and kaempferol in hop cones. The plants treated with foliar sprays (nutrient-rich and algae-rich foliar spray) presented slightly lower values of phenolic compounds, and plants on limed soil were notably higher in kaempferol-3-*O*-(2-rhamnosyl)-rutinoside. Cascade stood out from the other cultivars, showing higher concentration in quercetin and kaempferol compounds and lower concentration in *p*-coumaric acids. The phenolic compounds quercetin-3-*O*malonylglucoside and kaempferol-3-*O*-malonylglucoside, reported previously in other studies for the first time in Cascade, were present in this study in Cascade, Columbus and Nugget. This study showed that most of the analysed compounds can vary in opposite directions with agro-environmental variables, making it difficult to recommend a coherent strategy to farmers without a well-defined target for the use of hop cones. It should also be noted that hop gardens are usually contaminated with viruses, especially old plantations, as may have been the case in the Nugget plots, which may have influenced the results of the experimental factors.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, S.A., M.I.D. and M.A.; methodology, L.B. and M.A.; validation, L.B., M.I.D., M.A., M.Â.R. and M.C.; formal analysis, S.A. and M.I.D.; writing—original draft preparation, S.A., M.I.D. and M.Â.R.; writing—review and editing, L.B., I.C.F.R.F., M.Â.R. and M.C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support from national funds FCT/MCTES, to CIMO (UIDB/AGR/00690/2020) and for Sandra Alonso's doctoral scholarship (BD/116593/2016), and also for national funding by FCT, P.I., through the institutional scientific employment program-contract for M. I. Dias and L. Barros contracts. To the project "GreenHealth—Digital strategies in biological assets to improve wellbeing and promote green health" (Norte-01-0145-FEDER-000042) funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the scope of Regional Operational Program North 2020.

**Data Availability Statement:** No new data were created or analyzed in this study. Data sharing is not applicable to this article.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
