Hop seeds viable?

I found seeds in the last three types of hops i purchased, Goldings, centennial, and cascade. I was hoping to try getting them to sprout and planting them along a powerline road(to which i have access rights) and seeing what may come of them in future years. I already know that they wont turn out like their parent plants and that most people grow with rhizomes. I was just hoping somebody with experience would tell me if i was wasting my time. Basically, would these seeds be viable?

Check out the "Hops Growing" section to get your questions answered.

NRS

IIRC, seeds need to be pollenated (aka: knocked up) by the plant of the opposite gender. Also, IIRC correctly, the female hop plant is the only one that makes the hop cones/flowers, and therefore the male plant isn't planted in the hop fields, so the seeds you've found in your packs of hops are most likely not pollenated.

I'm not a farmer, but I did grow up in Salinas.

Try germinating them. Fold them inside a wet paper towel for a week and see if they sprout.

Seeds won't develop unless they are pollinated. You have no way of knowing what male did the pollinating so you would have no clue what the hop will be like. To make matters worse. Every seed is unique, just like babies, so some might turn out to be fabulous, or it might have the worst trait of each parent. You'd have to plant a whole bunch and then pick the best ones.

It still would be fun to do though

They will be viable but may not be the right sex. You want the female plants only and with seeds you have a 50/50 chance that they will be male. If you are growing just for hops, buy starts. If you want to grow them for decoration (like that's going to happen around here) you can use the seeds.

It's a seed, not an egg.. Seeds don't need to be pollinated. Eggs do.

Do what gunfighter suggested above... if they germinate, they are viable (but not necessarily any good). since it takes years before you get your first crop, I can't imagine how it could be worth the effort.

Im well aware of the fact that they could be completely different from the momma plants. They would just be a fun project to check in on as i go for hikes up in the mountians - i want to keep them far from the legit hops i have already planted. I remember reading somewhere that you have to refridgerate these seeds in moist environment or something to that effect, i dont remember but will read up on it. If anybody has any info id sure appreciate it.

Malintent said:

It's a seed, not an egg.. Seeds don't need to be pollinated. Eggs do.

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Pollination is required to get that seed though. A seed starts out as an egg

Pollen lands on the stigma of the female flower. The pollen tube begins to grow down the stigma and with it, the two sperm nuclei from the pollen grain. Upon reaching the ovary, one sperm nuclei fertilizes the egg, to form the embryo (future plant). The other sperm nuclei fertilizes the 2 polar nuclei in the embryo sac to form the endosperm. In dicots (like hops) the endosperm is "consumed" by the developing embryo. The embryo forms two cotyledons which store food for when the seed germinates. In monocots (like barley) the endosperm persists and enlarges and is the source of food for the germinating embryo - and us in the form of flour

Fuggle is the only hop that should ever come with seeds. The rest should never be introduced to males and thus never develop seeds. Return them and get your money back

hazedandconfused said:

I remember reading somewhere that you have to refridgerate these seeds in moist environment or something to that effect, i dont remember but will read up on it. If anybody has any info id sure appreciate it.

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Here's a post I made last year:

"I planted around 100 seeds just for an experiment in late April. I had read about the fridge method to, however my results were completely opposite of what should have happened.

I did 5 different stages with 20 seeds each. All of them had a 24 hour soak in water in the fridge. I planted 20 with no more time in the fridge, 20 with 1 week, 20 with 2 weeks and so on. The seeds with only the soak and 1 week had 75% germination while the others had a obviously declining germination rate. If I remember correctly the 4 week soaked seeds only had 2 that were good.

I would suggest doing something like this with a lot of seeds. They're far from expensive. Just make sure you kill the male plants so they don't knock up any of the females that someone around you might have."

I didn't keep any of them. I had to move and hops that were almost certainly junk were the least of my worries.