So far, so good.

[Stokes_]

Had a notion to grow some hops this year so I ordered some rhizomes in March. Going pretty well so far(considering this is my first time growing anything). I'm growing cascade, magnum, centennial, columbus, nugget, and zeus. The only thing I'm unsure about is when to harvest. I've read that it's when they are more potent, but mine really don't have any aroma to them yet. Does that come in later August or September? The cones are pretty large, do they quit growing and then become potent?


Here's some pics:

 

[johngaltsmotor]

If you do some research online you'll find the common descriptions. Some of the basics are:
They should not feel wet or sticky on your fingers, but more like tissue paper or dry tree leaves.
They should spring back when squeezed gently between your fingers.
They should have a lot of yellow lupulin (like pollen) in between the leaves.
The lupulin should have started to change from a bright yellow to more of a golden color.

 

[nagmay]

"do they quit growing and then become potent"
That's the basic idea.

As johngaltsmotor says, hops aren't ready to pick until papery and full of fragrant, yellow lupulin.

If you have a kitchen scale, I encourage you to weigh the hops before and after drying. Dry hops should weigh about 25% of the wet measurement. Less means that you picked too early.

 

[day_trippr]

[...]Dry hops should weigh about 25% of the wet measurement. Less means that you picked too early.

Walk us through this, because I'm seeing a huge hole in it...

Cheers!

 

[nagmay]

day_tripper,
You may have seen this before, but here are all the details:
http://blog.uvm.edu/hoppenin/2012/08/24/hop-harvest-readiness/

Assuming the hops are picked at 23% dry matter and then dried to 90% give you:
dry / wet = 25.6%

Now this is a generalization - the dry matter varies somewhat per variety. It also assumes that you are drying them to the correct levels. However, I have found it useful when talking to new growers. Several times I have seen people jump the gun and end with a dry weight closer to 10%. By taking measurements and notes you can more accurately judge when to pick the hops the following year.

Or, did I miss something?

 

[day_trippr]

Ok, thanks, I had not seen that article before, but it covers the holes: it defines "dry" as an optimal value, and requires experimental sampling and dry to 0% moisture levels to correlate a baseline against the wet weight. Without all that, the scheme pretty much falls on its face.

It's all very scientific and clearly beneficial for the commercial yards it was aimed at, but for most of us, doing repeated sampling at even half the scale used would put a decent dent in the year's production. I have fifteen third year plants and expect to fill my freezer again, but even so I think I'd miss multiple side-arms worth of cones lost to the sampling for each of my four strains - as I doubt you'd want to use the dried out test samples.

So I harvest based on observable characters. My plants are over 20 feet tall, but nearly all of the cones are within arms reach from my second story deck. I can get up close and personal with each plant and start the first harvest (I always end up doing two) when I'm confident they're ready. It's more intuition bolstered by a couple of years of experience than science, for sure, but I've been very pleased with the results...

Cheers!

 

[tieflyer]

If you do some research online you'll find the common descriptions. Some of the basics are:
They should not feel wet or sticky on your fingers, but more like tissue paper or dry tree leaves.
They should spring back when squeezed gently between your fingers.
They should have a lot of yellow lupulin (like pollen) in between the leaves.
The lupulin should have started to change from a bright yellow to more of a golden color.

we need feel o vision on here so those of us who have no clue, thats me, can feel what they should be like before picking. I did mine for the first time last year and have no clue if I was right or wrong in my timing so I will try again this year.

 

[Cape Brewing]

Columbus and Zeus are essentially the same hop... aka Tomahawk... aka CTZ.. (columbus/tomahawk/zeus)

 

[Stokes_]

Columbus and Zeus are essentially the same hop... aka Tomahawk... aka CTZ.. (columbus/tomahawk/zeus)

That's some good information right there.

 

[70ls1nova]

another tell tale sign is that the hop cones will start to turn brown. Leave them on there and they will become completely brown and past use.