Hey gang,
As some of you might have read in other posts, I have a pilot hop farm project going on in Japan to see what varieties grow well here. My project consists of 10 varieties and 30 plants...3 of each.
My varieties are:
Cascade
Zeus
Mt. Hood
Brewer's Gold
Newport
Willamette
Goldings
Sunbeam
Chinook
Magnum
This last weekend, I had my first harvest. Of the 10 varieties, I have cones on 9 of them. Goldings are the lemons, but one of my 3 plants just started forming burs...they definitely won't make it to stage 2 of the project next year! I elected not to harvest from my Cascade yet, as they didn't seem ready...still small and forming, a bit hard, etc...I'll revisit them soon.
I left many of the cones on the bines to see about quality when harvesting later vs now, etc, as well as to monitor the aging process.
So while I am happy with my first year results (9/10 varieties making cones ain't bad!) my real question is about quality...
When examining the cones, the amount of lupulin seems very low. While the high alpha varieties do indeed have more than the mid and low alpha varieties, it is definitely lower than commercially purchased hops I've used.
All 30 of my plants survived the trip from the US and grew, and all look healthy for the most part...I had some bugs early season, did 2 mild sprays and that took care of the problem. I had something eat through the lower stem of a Newport that was my biggest bine last month that killed it, but another bine from the same crown rapidly took its place. My leaves look healthy for the most part, a few varieties have some brown here and there, but not bad at all. I noticed a few cones here and there had turned brown and were unharvestable, but cones right next to them were in fantastic shape, so I can't imagine that's a problem.
I have the harvested cones at home now drying...no fantastic hop aroma filling the room, most of them are more grassy/minty in aroma. On splicing, and rubbing the cones between my palms, more aroma is released and I get the resin sticking on my skin, but still...too low!
So, there's some background, now here's the questions...
Question #1: Do first year cones just produce less lupulin than more established plants? Can you expect 2nd year lupulin production to be higher?
Question #2: Environment is obviously a factor, but what factors can lead to low lupulin production in hops?
Question #3: Are there any ways you can increase lupulin production?
Any questions, comments, or attempts at educating me would be appreciated!
As some of you might have read in other posts, I have a pilot hop farm project going on in Japan to see what varieties grow well here. My project consists of 10 varieties and 30 plants...3 of each.
My varieties are:
Cascade
Zeus
Mt. Hood
Brewer's Gold
Newport
Willamette
Goldings
Sunbeam
Chinook
Magnum
This last weekend, I had my first harvest. Of the 10 varieties, I have cones on 9 of them. Goldings are the lemons, but one of my 3 plants just started forming burs...they definitely won't make it to stage 2 of the project next year! I elected not to harvest from my Cascade yet, as they didn't seem ready...still small and forming, a bit hard, etc...I'll revisit them soon.
I left many of the cones on the bines to see about quality when harvesting later vs now, etc, as well as to monitor the aging process.
So while I am happy with my first year results (9/10 varieties making cones ain't bad!) my real question is about quality...
When examining the cones, the amount of lupulin seems very low. While the high alpha varieties do indeed have more than the mid and low alpha varieties, it is definitely lower than commercially purchased hops I've used.
All 30 of my plants survived the trip from the US and grew, and all look healthy for the most part...I had some bugs early season, did 2 mild sprays and that took care of the problem. I had something eat through the lower stem of a Newport that was my biggest bine last month that killed it, but another bine from the same crown rapidly took its place. My leaves look healthy for the most part, a few varieties have some brown here and there, but not bad at all. I noticed a few cones here and there had turned brown and were unharvestable, but cones right next to them were in fantastic shape, so I can't imagine that's a problem.
I have the harvested cones at home now drying...no fantastic hop aroma filling the room, most of them are more grassy/minty in aroma. On splicing, and rubbing the cones between my palms, more aroma is released and I get the resin sticking on my skin, but still...too low!
So, there's some background, now here's the questions...
Question #1: Do first year cones just produce less lupulin than more established plants? Can you expect 2nd year lupulin production to be higher?
Question #2: Environment is obviously a factor, but what factors can lead to low lupulin production in hops?
Question #3: Are there any ways you can increase lupulin production?
Any questions, comments, or attempts at educating me would be appreciated!
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