male flowers?

Happy Friday everyone,

I checked my hops this afternoon and found a few male flowers, I believe.

Can anyone confirm this? There is maybe 4 times the amount on the stem in the pictures that I left on the plant (any damage is done and I'm harvesting in a fee days).







Thanks in advance for the info,

Yup, those look like male parts.

Other than the energy the plant wastes to build them, there's no real problem with them - especially if you're harvesting soon...

Cheers!

There are the beginnings of seeds ib some cones but not a majority. We had a pretty hot dry July/Aug around here, so I figure she was just trying to survive as a species.

A friend's Goldings sprouted some too thus year.

You didn't indicate your variety of hop, but most of the newer varities are diploid or triploid, and are sterile. Male flowers don't have viable pollen and female flowers will not accept pollination even if a viable male plant is around. So no worries unless you have an non hybrid standard like Fuggle. Heat and dry definitly trigger the male flower response. My workers accidentally shut down the drip irrigation for about 3 days during the hottest days we had. The Columbus immediately threw male flowers in the tops - bummer cause those could have been female cones

You know, I keep hearing about this 'stress' response but this is the 3rd year for my Zeus and, by far, was the hottest and driest of the three, yet I had almost no male bloom this year as opposed to the first two. Maybe the soils have something to do with it? Maybe she got over the whole 2012 thing and got in the groove this year!

A three year old hop plant should have developed a pretty substantial root system which can greatly mitigate the effects of a hot spell. Same thing is true for shrubs, trees - even lawns. The more developed the roots, the better the plant can handle stress...

Cheers!

day_trippr said:

A three year old hop plant should have developed a pretty substantial root system which can greatly mitigate the effects of a hot spell. Same thing is true for shrubs, trees - even lawns. The more developed the roots, the better the plant can handle stress...

Cheers!

Click to expand...

I certainly understand your logic but I split it this Spring and sent half to another on this forum. I still think it's the whole 2012 thing!

This is definitely an old variety....found them growing on an old rock fence row last year. I trellised a few in place just to see what they are like. Too far to haul water out, so they had what nature provided.

I'm agree with Bhoppy, none of my plants "flipped" this year though I know a local guy who's Columbus did. I'm over it. I'm a home grower and it's a non-issue for me now.