First fruits

[Nathan Buckner]

My 2nd year hop plant has ~10 full size hops towards the bottom. The rest of the plant is forming hops but are much smaller or are still little spurs. I'm not worried s about over all yield as there are many spurs all over the plant. Do I harvest this hand full of hops when they're ready? The rest of the spurs look like they have several more weeks before they'll become full size hops.

 

[JohnSand]

Good question! I often wonder that too. With any other fruit I would pick when ripe, so my guess is Yes. In practice, I generally only pick at one time, when they're ready and I'm brewing.