Hop Harvest

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Brewdad422

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I have some 2 year old Centennials, they got a good start and I have a substantial amount of cones already. Now what I am not sure of is when to harvest?

I have many large cones but there is also many, many flowers getting ready to form. I'm in PA and I really have no idea when to cut them down for harvest.

My thought was to wait till fall but now I'm not sure what to do.
 
Sounds like the PA growing season has been fantastic for many hop growers!

The way that I've always harvested has been by look, touch and smell. I touch the cones to feel for papery leaves. I look for the tips to begin to brown. Finally, I smash a bract between my fingers and smell it. If you know the hop you'll know the smell. After a few harvests you'll only have to use one or two of these methods to pick.

If you already have some full cones and some fuzzy flowers, you won't be able to chop it down and harvest the whole thing at one time and expect a good crop. You'll have to select the best when they're ready.

Good luck, and if you wind up with more centennial than you can use put me at the top of the list :D
 
Sounds like the PA growing season has been fantastic for many hop growers!

The way that I've always harvested has been by look, touch and smell. I touch the cones to feel for papery leaves. I look for the tips to begin to brown. Finally, I smash a bract between my fingers and smell it. If you know the hop you'll know the smell. After a few harvests you'll only have to use one or two of these methods to pick.

If you already have some full cones and some fuzzy flowers, you won't be able to chop it down and harvest the whole thing at one time and expect a good crop. You'll have to select the best when they're ready.

Good luck, and if you wind up with more centennial than you can use put me at the top of the list :D

I was just checking them tonight and some of the lower ones that I can reach have brown tips, the higher ones are hard to tell. It is about 17 feet high and the plants grew about 3 feet past that. I might try to stand on a ladder to check the higher ups. I don't think I will be able to spot pick, I'll give it a few weeks here and see how things are progressing. The one I picked tonight was very full of the yellow stuff.

We had a lot of rain in May and then later in June it got very warm, things shot up very fast, now we are having more rain and the garden is growing like crazy. This will be my first harvest so I'm hoping for a good crop, especially since these are hard to come by lately.
 
I have some 2 year old Centennials, they got a good start and I have a substantial amount of cones already. Now what I am not sure of is when to harvest?

I have many large cones but there is also many, many flowers getting ready to form. I'm in PA and I really have no idea when to cut them down for harvest.

My thought was to wait till fall but now I'm not sure what to do.

I harvest mine whenever they're ready, regardless of how late into Fall we are. They're ready when they are bigger and start to look yellow. The yellowing comes from the development of the lupulin glands. You can test them by smell if you pick one and rub it around in your hands. If it smells like citrusy Centennial hops, they're ready...
 
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