Seems to early to harvest?

I thought hops were usually harvested in the fall, like September. I live between Chicago and Milwaukee, so I don't know the typical harvest time here or what has been typical for this season. I've got a Fuggles plant that flowered early and by all the descriptions I've read, the cones meet the criteria for harvest. They are papery, spring back when squeezed, and are turning a little brown. They have a subdued hoppy smell before opening them. When I open them the hop smell is pretty strong. I can see the lupulin glands, but not sure if they are optimal ripeness.

Is it too early? Should I wait longer?

I'm no hop farmer but i don't think your plant can read a calendar. If they're ready, pick em. If they meet all the criteria of ripe hops, get them off before it's too late. Maybe you'll get a second harvest.

A lot of people on this forum who are harvesting early(the last 2-3 weeks) all seem to be from the Middle of the country. Michigan, Illinois, that general area.
It just seems thats how it worked out this year due to your weather.

My cascade plant in Oregon is just now at the very first stages of opening up the flowers.

I've seen a few people from the Chicago area post pictures of their hos and it seems like they are way ahead of schedule. Except for mine. I'm in the same place as Fuzze. In my case it they might be slower because they got damaged by hail and needed time to rebound. I pretty much lost the tip of every bine. RDWHAHB

I'm in St. Louis and mine seem to be ready to pick within the next week or so. I was kind of shocked, as I didn't harvest until sometime in august last year. There are quite a few cones still growing though, so I'll probably get a second smaller harvest.

I was wondering the same thing as well. My centennials and Sterling look especially ripe, although there are some small ones mixed in as well. I would say the subdued hoppy smell is not quite there yet unless I open them.

Thanks alot to everyone for all the input. I guess I need to learn how to harvest and dehydrate now. I was planning on brewing with wet hops, but I'm not really ready to brew again. Well, I am ... but my wife is not!

I will say that not all the cones on the Fuggles plant look harvestable, so I guess maybe I will need to have multiple harvests. I also have a couple of other plants (a Perle and a Sterling). The Sterling is just starting to burr and is generally not as healthy as the others. The Perle is just starting the process of turning its burrs to cones. It has a little less exposure to sun.

I'm in south east PA, and I'll be picking my Centennial later this week.

I just harvested two vertical twines, each of which as about two bines. It yielded 191 grams, 328 cones. I'd guess I harvested about 3/4 of all the cones on the plant. I'm not sure if the remainder will grow alot more, because even the smaller ones are getting pretty papery. Smelling these hops made me start salivating over the bitter I want to brew with them. On to drying ...

Sweet....Can't wait to have my full bowl this weekend.

Im in michigan and my flowers are jus starting to turn on 2 d year cascades yet 4 miles away my buddy is harvesting 2nd year chinook... Weird..

Also in Michigan, my centennials are just developing into small cones, the cascade and Zeus are full of burrs, and the Chinook are just starting throw side arms.

I was fearing that I had picked these a tad too early, based on some videos I saw on what is considered papery. Mine were definitely papery and springing back, but what I saw online as examples of ripe hops were probably drier. However, based on the drying ratio I'm seeing, I'm thinking they couldn't have been that early. Mine dried down to 39g (which is almost exactly 5:1).

I'll probably let the next harvests go a little longer.

Thankfully only my Hallertau has any over achievers. And being a certifiable hophead I end up picking the ripest ones each day to put between cheek and gum. Nothing sweeter (or bitterer?) than sucking on a few fresh hop cones. It's like an IPA without the buzz (for when you need to be in complete control).