scuppeteer wrote:
This is quite rare to see. I wonder why they do this, maybe a lack of good local pollination?
I exchanged e-mail with Lynn at Great Lakes hops. She mentioned that growers are experiencing this problem with several hop cultivars this year. The cultivars that I can recall off of the top of my head are Zeus and Cascade. Apparently, environmental stress experienced around the summer solstice can cause hops to go hermaphroditic. I planted this hop yard last fall with whole crowns and field-grade plants just in time to experience a record cold winter.
Nice cones by the way, you must be 4-5 weeks in front of the UK.
Maryland has a much shorter peak photoperiod than the British Isles. My Wye Challenger and Cascade hills did not start to flower in earnest until the photoperiod dropped below 14 hours and 40 minutes, which occurred on July 16th. The photoperiod in Wye, Kent will not drop below that threshold until August 14th, which correlates with what you have said. My Fuggle H hills started to flower at the beginning of July, which does not bode well for the cultivar. It tells me that Fuggle may be too photoperiod sensitive for Maryland. I experienced photoperiod-related problems with Golding and Saaz. With those two cultivars, the bines would grow, but little to no cone production would occur. I am hoping that Fuggle H will prove me wrong next year. The jury is still out on my Horizon, Santiam, and Spalt Select hills. Horizon is a challenging hop to grow for even professional hop growers.
