Telling the difference of female and male plants?

I bought 4 kinds of rhysomes from Midwest Supply which are all female plants. I also bought 3 sprouted rhysomes of Kent Golding off of Ebay and one is now over 6 feet with but one bine while the other two have multiple bines and are maybe 3 feet tall. Hmm...could I have a male in with the ladies? So...
My question is this, how do you know if you have a male plant or not? What does it look like versus the females. Okay, all juvenile jokes aside!!! And if there is one in with the ladies, what will the effect be of the hop production?
Thanks, look forward to hearing about this.

Nurseries never ever have male hop plants for sale. There's no market for them, and too much liability with them pollinating the female plants and ruining them for the season. Hop farms don't even buy them because it's easier to get rhizomes from the same plants they have now. If you really wanted a male plant, the only place you could buy one is a hop farm research center out here in the PNW.

If somehow you actually DID get a male plant, it will look the same until it's flowerin time. The males will make these mini hop cones, but not bunched up and big like the females. Then your female plants will start getting tons of seeds in the cones.

Comedy answer; look under their little dresses. :fro:

One of the points of planting Rhizomes is to insure you only have female plants. If not I am sure that it would much less expensive for the farms to sell us seeds.

No hop operation raises male plants except breeding programs. If you purchased ornamental hop plants from a nursery, they might be male. You'll also get male plants from seeds.

How to tell the difference? Male plants won't form cones. The number of shoots has nothing to do with sex.

david_42 said:

No hop operation raises male plants except breeding programs. If you purchased ornamental hop plants from a nursery, they might be male. You'll also get male plants from seeds.

How to tell the difference? Male plants won't put out flowers or form cones. The number of shoots has nothing to do with sex.

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I have read absolutely nothing on the male hop plant as I have seen no benifit to having that knowledge but, your response does raise a question.

I understand that insects are venerable pollen transporters but, typical in botany, said pollen is taken from the flower of one plant and carried to the stamen of another. Hence fertilization.

If the males plants does not flower, then how does it pollenate the female?

Just curious.

Baunno said:

how do you know if you have a male plant or not?

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Cavity search anyone?

If they are like another well known plant the males flower and the females bud.

This is all good news! I also wrote to the guy I bought the plants from on Ebay and he wrote back to say ALL he sells are females. Like other responded, he also said there is no market for males and they would ruin the crop. So I feel assured that I have but the ladies in my hop yard. Yea! 5 varieties and they are growing fast! I don't expect much of a harvest for the first year but its good to know that I'll have plenty in 09.
Thanks yall for the great response!

GilaMinumBeer said:

If the males plants does not flower, then how does it pollenate the female?

Just curious.

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They do flower.

http://www.freshops.com/RHIZOME_PHOTOS/male3_flower.gif

david_42 said:

No hop operation raises male plants except breeding programs. If you purchased ornamental hop plants from a nursery, they might be male. You'll also get male plants from seeds.

How to tell the difference? Male plants won't put out flowers or form cones. The number of shoots has nothing to do with sex.

Click to expand...

They flower, they just do not form cones.

Right, my typo. Male flowers, no cones.

Just as an aside, another reason you don't see male plants around: if the female plants are fertilized, they form seeds in the cones. The seeds are useless, having neither bittering compounds or oils. Any energy that goes into seed formation reduces the yield of desired compounds.