Do these look ready to harvest?

The top are Target, the bottom are Challenger. The Challengers feel light and papery (so I guess they're probably good to go), the Target feel more succulent (so I'd be inclined to leave them for now) - though the Targets have quite a bit of coloration on them. Is that just the variety, or is it a sign of imminent readiness? They also have some pale yellow lupilin in them, although not as much as the Challengers. Any thoughts gratefully received.

Not sure about the coloration though it appears to be reddish. If they were getting past their prime it would be brown and spotty and starting to change along the edges of the bracts not the tops. They look a bit green (the target) still. Rub one between your palms and then smell. If it smells grassy like chlorophyll they are not yet ready. You should only smell the lupulin oil. Also, the lupulin will get more "sticky" as they ripen, you will feel it on your hand. Other signs are the papery feel you mention and the color of the lupulin. It should be a darker gold color.

Hope that helps. Just curious where abouts approximately are you located?

They look beautiful btw. Oh and one more thing Watch closely for d@mn hop aphids while they ripen!

I assume these are 1st year plants and that the weather is cooling down either abruptly or steadily.

The same is happening here as well and the hops are indicating their discomfort. I am not sure what the commercial harvest schedule is like there, if you can find out for yourself you can use that as a guide. I suspect harvest is already done across the pond whish means it's prolly time for yours too based solely on climate.

Here is the rub, if they are immature plants then they are most likely ready. However, they aren't showing the typical signs of being ready (tip go brownish) this could be due to cool humid mornings and a lot of dew keeping them from drying out. Best guage you can use for this is to look the whole plant over for really browned, almost roasted looking hops to get the sign you need.

If it were me, I'd pick them and not think twice about it but, the beauty of homegrown is that you can afford to wait. It's not like waiting a day or another week is going to cost you $1000.00 in lost revenue. And at worst it will take you 2-3 hours to pick the hops off a single plant.

Are those turning brown or is it reddish coloration (like Zymurg asked). If they are reddish, I'd guess some sort of deficiency. If they are browning, like drying brown, I'd say don't hesitate and pick them. It seems the whole crop can turn into worthless in a very short period of time once you see the browning appear.

Zymurgrafi said:

Just curious where abouts approximately are you located?

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I'm in Sheffield, UK. That's at around 53.39 degrees north, slightly further north than Edmonton, Alberta (which I gather from my Canadian friends is fcuking cold). Thankfully we have the Gulf Stream to warm things up, so the climate is a lot more temperate - our average temperature for September is around the mid-50s.

zoebisch01 said:

Are those turning brown or is it reddish coloration (like Zymurg asked).

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Good point. The Targets are red, rather than brown. It could be some kind of deficiency, though the leaves on both plants look fine, so I suspect it may be varietal coloration, as the Challengers are in the same soil and look OK. But yeah, it's not the sort of brown that suggests they're ready for picking, so I'll hold off a while longer. As Gila says, it's no bother picking the hops (it's only a relatively small first-year batch), so based on all your comments, I think I'll wait a few more days until the cones start browning.

Thanks all!

I can't say for certain about those particular cultivators but I am certain I have read that some do have a reddish hue to them. They do not seem to look deficient. Patience...

They look ready to me.

I prefer more lupulin glands on my hops before they're plucked.
I can certainly see them in your photos and it looks like they could use a bit more time.

I'll echo what Zymurgrafi says. Rub em in your palm and take a sniff.

Danek said:

I'm in Sheffield, UK. That's at around 53.39 degrees north, slightly further north than Edmonton, Alberta (which I gather from my Canadian friends is fcuking cold). Thankfully we have the Gulf Stream to warm things up, so the climate is a lot more temperate - our average temperature for September is around the mid-50s.

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Hey, I resemble that remark! Actually, in Edmonton we've had a week of 23-27C weather this past week! It makes stealing my neighbours unwanted hops a worthwhile endeavour!

Danek said:

But yeah, it's not the sort of brown that suggests they're ready for picking, so I'll hold off a while longer. As Gila says, it's no bother picking the hops (it's only a relatively small first-year batch), so based on all your comments, I think I'll wait a few more days until the cones start browning.

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Um, please don't wait so long. Brown means "already too late, pick quick to try and salvage something" not "it's finally time to pick". If they are "papery" (a difficult thing to quantify, but they rustle) and do not smell "grassy" (another difficult thing to quantify) pick them before they start turning brown, which is also starting to go bad. The only way brown would be useful is if you had a time machine that would take you back a week so you could pick.