are my hops ready to harvest? (pics)

I know everyone says they can tell by touch if their hops are ready. i have no idea what that touch feels like. Ive also read they feel papery. I dont really know what that would feel like. Some of the outter leaves feel a bit dry and flaked off when i cut these below. I can see the luplin. my point and shoot camera doesnt focus too great really close, but hopefully you can give me some insight as to weather or not my hops are ready to harvest.













LOL - and previewing the post, i see that this was taken on a parents magazine. We have a kid on the way if you cant tell!

ps - these are first year hops, not sure if that makes a difference or not

They look like red Xs! I don;t think they are ready yet!!!

are the pictures not showing up for you? I can see them

I cannot!

I can see the pictures. Quite a bit of yellow lupulin glands there.

I can't see them.

They look ready - can you smell them without breaking them open?

Not seeing the pics either...

Hard to tell from a pic, though the slightly browned outer bracts and bright yellow lupalin glands are a god sign. The "dry and springy" feeling is what I go by. It is just one of those things you have to learn from experience. As mentioned above, the aroma should also increase as they get more ready to harvest. My experience (3 years growing) is that waiting a bit longer is a good call: if you are not sure about the dry/papery/springy feeling then you might want to wait a week. Harvest too early and you have really grassy and weak hops. Good luck!

I got the pictures working for sure now. I think ill let them go another week and give them the "dry and springy" test.

nootay said:

I got the pictures working for sure now. I think ill let them go another week and give them the "dry and springy" test.

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Well I could see the pics...now I cant...

I see em. They still look like they need a little more time. Do they feel a little papery or do they still feel like fresh green plant?

they are starting to feel papery. i dont get any hop aroma from them unless i squish them. ill let them go another week.

on a side note, the damn spider mites are back with a fury!! i swear ive had a garden for years and have never had issues like this before!

I too have some first year hops that look a lot like yours. I have the same questions. IS there anything wrong with letting them go too long?

i think too early is worse than too late, but im not positive. ive heard of grassy flavors from picking to early, but havent heard much about picking late

Someone will have to correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the grassy flavours from fresh hops comes out if you dry hop - but if you use them for boil hoppiness, the grassiness isn't noticeable (??). I know breweries use fresh hops all the time (harvest ales) and they are quite good.

rniles said:

Someone will have to correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the grassy flavours from fresh hops comes out if you dry hop - but if you use them for boil hoppiness, the grassiness isn't noticeable (??). I know breweries use fresh hops all the time (harvest ales) and they are quite good.

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We are not debating the use of fresh hops, but whether the hops are "ripe" enough to be used at all. What happens if you bite into a unripe plum? Sour city. Hops are the same way - they need to grow to maturity on the vine just like anything else.

nootay said:

they are starting to feel papery. i dont get any hop aroma from them unless i squish them. ill let them go another week.

on a side note, the damn spider mites are back with a fury!! i swear ive had a garden for years and have never had issues like this before!

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The spider mites are back here as well with a fury. The recent rains have done more to help than anything else. I have used everything but the big pesticides. I am hitting them with H2o2 (6%) and harvesting as fast as I can. I know there will be many that arnt ready...but I dont see that there are many other choices. Next year I will be using Zeal

Just a single application per season and its regestered for hops.

Well, if you gotta save em, you gotta save em! Spider mites suck - I have had them too.

how much is zeal and where can i find it? definitely looks like a worth product

well a quick update on my hops. I definitely know what the papery feel is like now! today i checked them and can definitely tell a difference in how they feel. They also have a very faint hop aroma. I plan on harvesting/drying tomorrow!

So what is the harm in letting them stay on the bine for 'too' long?

extra_medium said:

So what is the harm in letting them stay on the bine for 'too' long?

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The lupulin will start drying and will easily fall from the cone or be dislodged during harvest (and the cones may disintegrate to a pile of leaves as well if left well beyond).

I clipped the following 3 cones form my plants this past weekend. The first is a brown dried up cone. The 2nd is very green, but when I pinch it, it only slowly returns to some shape... The 3rd is lighter green, and when pinched crunches like crepe paper and pops back to full size.

I take it the 3rd one is the type I am looking for for harvest, yeah?

Also, I see some new burrs strarting even this late in the season. I've heard some growers can harvest multiple times in a season.. However, I assume the big guys just cut down the entire bine and harvest once. When I harvest my papery dry cones, should I only snip those, or should I cut all the cones at that time?

Thanks all, this has been a fun growing season! Thanks for sharing!
--LexusChris

LexusChris said:

I take it the 3rd one is the type I am looking for for harvest, yeah?

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Bingo. In fact, that 3rd one may be a little OVER ready if the lupulin comes flying out. You want enough moisture that it is still sticky and retained in the cone through some mild handling.

And multiple harvests occur if you have bines that are trained at different times or if you perform an earlier harvest. You can pick what is ready and leave the rest and hope they have time to mature. Won't hurt anything. Farms cut down the bines, twine and all, so you are correct they have just one big harvest and no secondary harvests.