Male vs Female Hops plants?

How do you tell them apart? Anyone know of a site with pictures?
Thanks John

I was told that all hop plants are female. So says a hop farm in Oregon.


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If you buy rhizomes from a grower, they are female. You don't nor hops farmers do not want their plant / flowers to go to seed.

Why do you ask?

http://www.greatlakeshops.com/hops-blog/hop-identification

b-hoppy said:

why do you ask?

http://www.greatlakeshops.com/hops-blog/hop-identification

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i read an article that stated commercial hops growers remove male plants if found in the growing area. I have 30 plants (not commercial) and am just curious what a male hop looks like. The pictures at site you included help, thanks,
john

The above photo is a picture of a Male Hop plant before I cut it down. It shows the hop pods that are in the middle of releasing their pollen which can travel 10 miles to pollinate the female hop plant. I was laid up after and auto accident this year and my Hop Garden was unattended for a couple of months. When I finally was up and around, I found this huge Male Hop. I got covered in Hop pollen while cutting it down.

The last time I had a male hop plant, my harvested hop cones had huge seeds in them. I am raising one of the hops from seed. It is a cross between an EKG and a Sunbeam. I use the hops to my my Irish Red....

BoiseBeerCulture said:

The above photo is a picture of a Male Hop plant before I cut it down. It shows the hop pods that are in the middle of releasing their pollen which can travel 10 miles to pollinate the female hop plant. I was laid up after and auto accident this year and my Hop Garden was unattended for a couple of months. When I finally was up and around, I found this huge Male Hop. I got covered in Hop pollen while cutting it down.

The last time I had a male hop plant, my harvested hop cones had huge seeds in them. I am raising one of the hops from seed. It is a cross between an EKG and a Sunbeam. I use the hops to my my Irish Red....

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Which of the two is it that you believe is a male plant, because both of those are female cultivars (i.e. any male flowers produced by either cultivar are likely to be sterile, which means one is not what you were told it was.)

PapaBearJay said:

Which of the two is it that you believe is a male plant, because both of those are female cultivars (i.e. any male flowers produced by either cultivar are likely to be sterile, which means one is not what you were told it was.)

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Interesting. I ordered 2 EKG rhizomes about 8 years ago. One of the 2 was male...... I was advised that it was simply a female in trauma and would return to female the next year....it did not. In fact, after three years, I had all these little baby hops coming up from seed. I destroyed the male after that. But I did raise 8 of the baby hops.....4 turned out to be male and I destroyed those. One of the 4 female plants was a bush and did not put out the long bines. I am down to 2 of them now. Made beer with my 8 ounce harvest last year. The hops have no citrus taste or aroma. Seem to be closer to a german nobel hop or EKG. So the male hop that started all of this may not have been an EKG....I don't know, but the Mother was the Sunbeam, cuz the babies all came up under that plant.

In summary, I do not know what the male is, but I know it was NOT sterile.

Here are a couple of photos of the baby hops (seedlings):

BoiseBeerCulture said:

The above photo is a picture of a Male Hop plant before I cut it down. It shows the hop pods that are in the middle of releasing their pollen which can travel 10 miles to pollinate the female hop plant. I was laid up after and auto accident this year and my Hop Garden was unattended for a couple of months. When I finally was up and around, I found this huge Male Hop. I got covered in Hop pollen while cutting it down.

The last time I had a male hop plant, my harvested hop cones had huge seeds in them. I am raising one of the hops from seed. It is a cross between an EKG and a Sunbeam. I use the hops to my my Irish Red....

Click to expand...

That's interesting. What's the color like on that plant? Are the hops tasty? I just used sunbeam in a blonde and it turned out alright.