Hops: the birds and the bees

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EinGutesBier

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Now that I've ordered my hop rhizomes, I just realized something important. How the heck do you get those hops pollenated? It seems that most rhizomes are female...and without male pollen, how do you get hop cones? Or is this somehow a non-issue? Hopefully I'm wrong, but I didn't find anything to answer that question during some brief research last night. Any answers would be great.
 
They don't need to be pollenated to produce cones. And you definitely don't want to pollenate your hop plants because if you do, all you will gain is seeds.
 
Exactly. The cones are actually the female reproductive structure, aka flowers. You don't need your flowers to be pollinated for them to smell good, only if you want to produce fertilized seeds.
 
And any energy that goes into making seeds means less goes into the flowers & resin.
 
You guys get an A-/B+ for those responses (what, didn't know you were being graded!)

Hops are grown using rhizomes so you get a female clone. No males around insure you don't get it to pollinate.

However, Fuggle is another story! It is the only hop used for brewing that is allowed to germinate. This is why it looks much different if you buy whole fuggle hops vs any other variaty.
 
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