bugs in my Willamette cones

[gbx]

My 1st year Willamette was getting pretty close to ready but I noticed that some of the cones had aphids in them and were starting to get sooty mold. I just picked the entire plant got 4.9 oz wet off of it. About half of the cones have aphids in them and are starting to mold up...its not too bad yet that I would throw them away in disgust (just a few black spots on some of the petals) but are they still usable? I definitely wouldn't dry hop with them but will they be ok if I dry them and use them in the boil? Its frustrating as these first year plants are kicking ass. There were aphids early in the year but I had thought the problem had been resolved. Is Willamette prone to this sort of thing? Compared to my Cascade, the Willamette cones are loose and open with lots of easy access for bugs to crawl in.

 

[kbuzz]

pics?

 

[gbx]

Here are some poor quality pics I just took with my crappy cell phone camera. If I pull back the bracts you can see the black mold spots starting to form on the inside (the tiny white spots in the second pic are aphids) Hopefully the pictures are good enough to see what I'm talking about

 

[samc]

What would I do?

Throw them out and buy some commercial hops.

 

[Germelli1]

It is barely under one ounce of hops once dried, so I would either toss them or throw them in a batch to say you did. Whether it is bittering or flavor, <1 oz isn't going to make much of an impact!

 

[gbx]

Yeah...its not that much, but with these and the Nugget hops I have still on the vine (which seem to be unaffected so far) I will have more than enough for a mild, brown or scottish ale. ...and these are my first hops I've grown, unless the beer is gonna be moldy and rancid I want to use them.

And more importantly, what can I do to stop this from happening to the rest of plants? Should I soak them in insecticide soap? anti fungal? I don't think it would be possible to spray anything into the cones.