Can you induce flowering

[cshulha]

Hey guys my hop plants here in Perth australia are getting big but so t flower. I have given them the right nutrition. Any tricks that make the. Flower asap.

 

[B-Hoppy]

Most all the info I've ever seen and my past experience points to them having to develop a minimum number of nodes and also the shortening of day length that are the two main triggers to flowering. Also, if you've given them plenty of supplemental nitrogen you may have kept them in a vegetative state, lots of lush foliar growth but minimal reproductive growth. I have seen them take quite a bit longer to begin flowering when grown from cuttings in their first year, how old are your plants?

 

[PapaBearJay]

Most all the info I've ever seen and my past experience points to them having to develop a minimum number of nodes and also the shortening of day length that are the two main triggers to flowering. Also, if you've given them plenty of supplemental nitrogen you may have kept them in a vegetative state, lots of lush foliar growth but minimal reproductive growth. I have seen them take quite a bit longer to begin flowering when grown from cuttings in their first year, how old are your plants?

B-Hoppy is en pointe! This is also made difficult because each variety requires a different number of nodes for flowering.

 

[Apimyces]

Indeed, different critical node requirement, and different critical daylength requirement. A few numbers are published for a few cultivars, but for most of them... who knows? Not to mention temperature also plays a role in this.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Hey guys my hop plants here in Perth australia are getting big but so t flower. I have given them the right nutrition. Any tricks that make the. Flower asap.

Well Perth is above 32°S so you are outside the usual latitudes for hop growing - they are temperate plants, the traditional areas in Europe are all around 50N, and the usual rule of thumb is that they go down to within about 35 degrees of the equator. As mentioned above they are very sensitive to day length, and they need a good cold snap in winter to force dormancy.

Here's an article about a guy trying to grow them commercially in Jindong - he's chilling the soil in winter to force dormancy, was talking about installing LED lights to extend day length in summer, and has a misting system for when the temperature goes above 40°C. For comparison, Faversham is at the heart of the East Kent hop gardens and also happens to hold the all-time UK temperature record - of 38.5°C.