If you’re growing hops, you’re probably dreaming of that big harvest. But before you can get your hands on those aromatic cones, your plants need to bloom! Hops flower over quite a long stretch during the summer, and the fruit starts ripening almost immediately after the blossoms appear.
The Lowdown on the Blooming Season
It’s hard to pin down an exact date for when hops will flower because the season is actually pretty long. You’ll usually spot the first hop blossoms in June. From there, the plant keeps producing new flowers all the way into September.
The fruit develops pretty quickly after blooming. Most of the time, you’ll see the first ripe cones ready for picking in August. You can harvest them as they ripen, but keep in mind that the season usually wraps up by late September. At that point, the plant starts getting ready for winter and begins to die back down to the roots.
What’s the deal with male and female flowers?
Hops are dioecious, which is just a fancy way of saying a single plant is either male or female. You won’t actually know which one you have until the flowers show up, because they look totally different.
Here’s the kicker: you really don’t want male plants around. If a male plant pollinates the females, it changes the quality of the cones—which is a big no-no if you’re planning on brewing beer. In fact, in commercial hop-growing regions, planting male hops is often strictly forbidden!
If you want to grow more hops in your garden, I’d definitely recommend staying away from seeds. Since you won’t know the sex of the plant until it’s already blooming, it’s a bit of a gamble. Instead, you should always propagate your hops using these methods:
- Cuttings
- Root division
Or, to play it safe, just buy a certified female young plant from your local nursery.
Using Hops as a Privacy Screen
Because hops grow incredibly fast and produce such lush leaves, flowers, and cones, they make a fantastic natural privacy screen for your backyard, patio, or balcony.
