Hops!

[Rob2010SS]

Getting quite a few cones on my cascades and chinooks!!! Not really looking forward to the actual harvesting of them, but definitely looking forward to using them. The cascades are pretty fragrant already but the chinooks have a way to go yet.

Whats the best way to tell when they are ready to harvest? This will be my first year harvesting and I'm not 100% sure how to tell when they're ready...

 

[B-Hoppy]

Go out and pick one of the cones from the middle portion of the plant and feel it, tear it apart and rub it between your palms and note the feel and smell. Do this every few days to get a feel for them drying down. Also, as they get to maturity, the petals of the cones (bracts/bracteoles) will detach from the strig (the central part of the cone) cleanly rather than ripping or tearing apart. Once they get to this point and they feel much more papery than soft and pliable and the aroma deepens, you should be there. You can also do a dry matter test but you have to sacrifice 100g of hops each time you do that. This can be found by googling "dry matter testing uvm" and may be include hops. ps: the hops ripen from the top down as I mentioned testing the ones near the top.