Seeds in my hop cones

[HokieBrewer]

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures. I cut open a few cones recently to see how they were progressing and I noticed they had a bunch of little seeds in them. I also saw that some of the cones had little side arms growing out of the cone itself.

These are second year cascades I got from Great Lakes Hops. Normal or no?

 

[Crito]

you have a male growing close by. Dang. I would grow the seeds and experiment, if I had enough land.

 

[HokieBrewer]

Hmm, strange. No other hops being grown around me that I know of. I have 2 cascades covered in hops, one chinook that's covered in hops, and one centennial that has never grown more than 2+ feet and doesn't have a single cone on it. Could that be the culprit?

 

[GVH_Dan]

Hop pollen can travel over a mile on the wind.

If the centennial has never had a cone, has it had a number of small, pea sized flowers? Those are boys.

 

[nagmay]

HokieBrewer,
I would love to see a pic. I've noticed that immature cones often have small, hard structures that look like the start of seed development, but go away as the unfertilized cone develops.

Leaves and sidearms developing from the cone (sometimes called angel wings) is when the plant can't decide whether to focus on foliage growth, or flower development. It's natural and happens all the time. However, if many cones are doing this, it can be a sign that there is too much nitrogen (which promotes foliage growth).

If they turn out to be real seeds, please let me know. I have been experimenting with small-scale hop breeding and would love to get my hands on some more genetics.

Cheers!