when to harvest twice?

Here it is not quite June and I have some well developed cones. I have read a little about harvesting twice, but not enough to make me feel confident. So 2 questions.

1. How do I know to harvest in general.
2. how do I know if I should harvest twice?

Harvest if you have ripe cones. The 'flick test' is the easiest way to tell. Snap a cone with your finger. If it breaks off it's ready and most likely anything below it. Leaving ripe cones doesn't impact the bine either way, but they might go brown in hot weather.

I have the same issue. Ill start harvesting in the next couple of days or so. I use the squish test combined with breaking one open to make sure there is lots of luplin.

Squish a cone between your fingers - if it expands back very quickly and is papery in feel then its probably ready to go. Next break one open and check the luplin.


These nuggets are just about ready..about 3 to 5 more days I suspect.


These guys are just about ready - they need a bit more time as inside they look good - however the aroma is still a bit weak. So Ill give them a bit more time.

The camera sucks up cloose...but I think you can get an idea from it though.

Cheers

sweet thanks!

Badass pic ctheis. My first year plants are going strong and I can't wait to see if I get anything from them.

Man, I just can't believe that you are harvesting so early. June? That's real early!

Thanks for the question and the responses. I'm new at this with second year Cascades that grew and produced well the first year. This year the sucker started out with a vengeance and now has at least 3 main bines covered with much larger cones than last year. I was under the impression that hops were a late summer harvest. I was inspecting last night and the cones looked and smelled ready and I have a pale ale that is ready for dry hopping now. I came here today to ask the same question, but since it has been answered I'll follow up with another: In the 4 weeks the main bines have not grow any higher, but a tremendous number of secondary bines are making their way to 6 ft. After I do the first harvest, should I cut the primary bines and let the secondary do their thing or leave the first bines in place? I did not know if this would allow more nutrients to flow to the new ones. Thanks!

Oh, the early growth must be related to the fact that the NC did not have a hard freeze after late Feb early Mar, and April and May have made our spring the warmest on record by far. We had near 80-90 deg temps for nearly a week in early Apr when the climatological last freeze is around mid Apr.

If you harvest from the main binds let them grow. This early of a harvest will most certainly produce a second. Good luck.

alright so I harvested an Oz or two, but my bines are all stages of flowering from still growing to full flower. Will i be harvesting on and off all summer?

hoppymonkey said:

alright so I harvested an Oz or two, but my bines are all stages of flowering from still growing to full flower. Will i be harvesting on and off all summer?

Click to expand...

Yep pretty much.

Just did a quick harvest this morning off the nuggets. Got about a lb wet. they are out drying and the oast house (small building) smells like hop heaven. Ill have quite a bit more to harvest as the weeks progress...

Nice! I didn't anywhere near that much, but it is my first year.

So I have some pretty big cones...it wouldn't be absurd for some of them to be ready at this point? Second year plants, no flowers at all year 1.

Just harvested my first ones. Are they dry to the touch? It you mash them, do they puff right back up?

They still feel kind of squishy but they do come right back after a squeez. They sound a little brittle and the tips are a little brown. I guess I just have to pull one and if it got a lot of lupulin I'll pull some more.

One of the dangers in harvesting this early is that you might miss out on really large cones with a huge amount of lupulin. Again, I'm very surprised to hear that anyone is harvesting this early.