First year hops in Minnesota

First of all thank you, I have used many of your experiances and tips in growing three successful hops plants this year. This is their first year and since the are being grown in Minnesota, I honestly did not expect anything. However, the plants have started producing many spurs and are not maturing into to cones. I have actually had a lot of success with other plants in the yard also, so I guess it was not too much of a suprise.

The issue is that some of the cones are starting to produce leaves of their own. Is this a problem? Or, some sort of first year cone thing?

I tried find a thread with this same problem but could not and the wife is hounding me to clean

I'll try to attach a pic of the "problem cone" and others.

Thanks guys and gals.
https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/uploads/9222/Hops_plants_005.jpg

Thats not a problem the hop cones are made of leaves. Hope this helps.

I have one cone on one of my Cascade plants that did what I think you are talking about. First and only time I've ever seen it:

Thats not a problem the hop cones are made of leaves.

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No, but angel cones can occur in all varieties. Magnum almost always has them.

Okay so my hops are not mutated, that’s good to know. Are the angel cones still usable? Do you just need to pick off the leafs?

Angel cones are fine. The leaflets will throw off your weight measurements, but only slightly. For flavor and aroma adds, I wouldn't worry about them.

Good to know. Thanks for your help and reassurance.