Seeds in dried hops viable?

[BarryNL]

I noticed that my pack of dried East Kent Goldings (Brewferm) contains some seeds - would I be wasting my time trying to grow from these, or should they still be viable?

Anyone try this yet?

[charlie]

Planting seeds is never a waste of time.

I don't know but I would suspect that the drying process has killed the seeds but what have you got to lose, however, one thing that you can be certain of is that you won't get East Kent Goldings, which will be either a hybrid or some other product of selective breeding.

Commercial hops will be propogated from dividing or cuttings so that they are genetically identical to the parent.

If the seeds are viable, you will get something that is more close to wild hops but may still produce something worth brewing with. I can vaguely recall several instances of micros using wild hops with success.

Give it a go, what have you got to lose.

[Matt]

This is only anecdotal, but I remember reading an old JHBF post where someone said that they had noticed hops growing in their garden and attributed it to having come from their home composting process, which included spent hops in the composter.

Matt

[johnmac]

I often get hops growing in my compost heap from hops which have survived being boiled. Presumably the ones that survive are those that go into the boiler for the last minute.

[Chiltern Brewer]

Same thing has happened to me, although I don't know whether it was from the spent hops or the old bines being composted. The wild variety I already had (propagated by my Dad from a cutting he took from a plant he found where he worked in High Wycombe) sends runners several feet along the fence. The hops are OK, but I don't bother collecting them every year.