I didn't even think about there being male and female hops until I saw these odd looking flowers- so I just read up that hops are dioecious. For the life of me, I can't find a definitive answer about which vine I have. I am hoping that these are the female flowers that will eventually turn into the cones that are generally known as hops?
Thanks for help in advance, Susanne
I think those are male flowers:
The male flowers are in loose bunches or panicles, 3 to 5 inches long. The female flowers are in leafy cone-like catkins, called strobiles. When fully developed, the strobiles are about 1 1/4 inch long, oblong in shape and rounded, consisting of a number of overlapping, yellowish-green bracts, attached to a separate axis.
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/h/hops--32.html
I'm growing hops too .. plants only about 8 inches tall .. going to have to build a structure for them to climb on.
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Yea that's the only thing I could find too, is descriptions. But now I'm confused because as I'm looking at the pictures that I took yesterday, I can kind of see what looks like a female flower developing. This is a horrible picture, but you can kind of see the strobiles forming...I will try to get a better picture this afternoon.
Back up and use the zoom.
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This one I took right before a storm blew in so it was dark and windy and it was either washed out flash or blurry, so none of them worked out. I'll take another one when I get home - hopefully better light!
Ah ha! It's a girl!
The hop plant (Humulus lupulus) is a rough twining vine with separate male and female plants. The male plant has a finely branched inflorescence whilst the female plant bears flowers in the form of cones -
http://www.willingham-nurseries.co.uk/hop.html
The picture in the upper right shows the male flower on the left.
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Alright, I think I am convinced. Between the descriptions and now my plant is starting to show the cones. It is weird to me that no one says anything about this "pre-cone" flower thing in any description. Thanks for your help X!
Then as soon as I say that, I find this :) http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/9452/
The finely branched inflorescence is what finally convinced me. Plus the picture. I strongly urge you to upload the earlier pictures to plant files. That's valuable information and just think how nice it would have been if someone else had!
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Lol .. anyway, upload yours. Another thing I ran into whilst trying to figure this out was that like marijuana of which hops is a relative, some female plants can suddenly revert to males if conditions are right .. so keep an eagle eye out for those finely branched inflorescence's.
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Hm! Very interesting, and I didn't know they were related to marijuana either. I will watch for the reverting. I also found out while researching that in some parts of Europe it is illegal to plant a male hops because unfertilized female hops have a much better flavor in beer.
..And before I was looking under the Golden Hops PF entry because that's what I thought I had, but I'm also convinced now that I have the regular green hops. Well thanks again for your help.
Welcome. Mine are still little since they were started from seed this year. I want to see how robust the vine is and maybe use it as a fence cover.
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Mine is so very vigorous, second only to my silverlace vine, only it's much better looking and better behaved. I use mine as a chain link fence cover. This is its second year in the ground and I am hoping that it will fill in lower next year - as you can see it's kind of top heavy and sparse down below. How easy were they to start from seed and how many did you start? I wonder what the ratio of male to female will be for you.
I started 6 seeds and only two germinated. They needed a cold treatment so I stuck them in the fridge for 6 weeks .. they are definitely not for beginners .. I have more seeds and will try winter sowing this year and use the GA3 (giberellic acid - a plant growth hormone. At 50 - 100 ppm it can stimulate germination on stubborn seeds by soaking the seeds for 24 hours) on them and hopefully will get a better yield.
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