two questions - second set of flowers & mildew

[MarkSheffield]

I just started 3 plants this year and one of them has taken off and has a dozen or so cones near the top starting about a month ago. Over the past week, there has been a second outbreak of flowers/cones about halfway up the plant. Is this normal? Should these be harvested along with the first cones?

Next question - I have some white mildew on the lower section of this plant. Should I just strip away these leaves?

thanks - Mark

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Yes.

 

[samc]

+1 yes, however don't harvest the second set of cones at the same time as they won't be ready.

 

[MarkSheffield]

Thanks for the replies. I had read somewhere that the leaves might need to be stripped back but I'm worried about hurting the plant. I'm about a month away from harvest so I was thinking that it was just a race to see if I could get the cones matured before the mildew made it up the plant but I'd better just pull them off because I'm losing the race. I'm surprised that I have this because this is the first year for these plants and nobody else around is growing these. I saw it in the book, though, and it looks exactly like what they have.

I thought the second set of cones was pretty weird because they all came together so long after the first set of flowers, but it must be pretty commonplace from your comments.