Confused Chinook Hops-One or Two Harvests

[DoctorFermento]

I have a second year chinook plant that is growing like crazy. It is also starting to have some wimpy side arms with single hop cones. Last year my plant did the same thing. I harvested a little less than an once of hops by the first part of July. After my initial harvest the bines shot out some new growth and I trained those new bines and was able to get a second harvest (about 2 oz) in the middle of September. The second growth had longer side arms (about 3-7 hops per sidearm).

Sierra Nevada Brewery also located in Chico, CA has the following information in a blog:

http://www.sierranevada.com/blog/hops/the-timeline-of-our-estate-bines

"A too-warm spring can confuse the crop, which is sensitive to day length and temperature. Hot, but short, spring days convince the plants that they’re actually beyond the longest days of summer, triggering the formation of hop cones. If that’s the case, Lau and his team trim back the affected hop rows so they can start anew."

If you grow in a hot area such as Chico, how important is timing the hop flowering? Should I try for a single harvest or can I expect as good of an overall yield if I get two harvests?

 

[Homercidal]

Some people harvest more than once, but only during the proper time. What I mean is, July seems way too early for a proper harvest. When people harvest in the fall, they sometimes hand-pick the flowers that are ready, and leave the ones that should stay on the bine a bit longer. Then they pick those maybe 1-2 weeks later.

This year I had my kid trim all of the tallest sprouts. (They can be eaten like asparagus) I did this because I wanted to reduce the number of bines that climb, and I read it's better to grow the second sprouts, rather than the first. Plus, the frost season wasn't really done by then either.

 

[DoctorFermento]

Thanks for the feedback. The Chinook is definitely my problem child. I also have Cascade, Sterling, and Crystal and they seem to be on a more normal schedule (no hop burrs or sidearms yet). I expect that I will not harvest these varieties until at least August. This year I did prune a couple of the first shoots on the Chinook trying to eliminate bull shoots. Once it started to climb it started to produce cones within about a month of hitting the string (seems too soon to me). Maybe next year I will cut it back aggressively until early/mid May before letting it climb.