Content
- This will tell you if hops are male or female
- Detecting male hops plant on the flower
- That's why no male hop plants are grown
- Where male hops need to be removed
- Pulling male hops as an ornamental plant in the garden
- Multiply hops
- Tips
Male hops flowers are rather inconspicuous
This will tell you if hops are male or female
A hop plant is either male or female. Male hops are grown exclusively for ornamental purposes in the garden because they do not produce fruit. This will tell you if you are pulling male or female hops.
Detecting male hops plant on the flower
As long as the hops have not formed inflorescences, you can not see if the plant is male or female. The sexes can only be distinguished by the different flower shapes.
If the plant is female, flowers grow on it, which have an ear in cone form. The cover sheets are tightly closed and the flower is small and inconspicuous.
On a male plant show conspicuous long panicles.
That's why no male hop plants are grown
When fertilized by male plants, the hop fruits are unusable. They change their taste. The cultivated qualities of the female hop plant are lost.
If female flowers are pollinated by males, the beer obtained from the fruits later does not form a foam crown.
If you want to process the hop fruits yourself, you should remove male plants as soon as the sex can be recognized by the flowers.
Where male hops need to be removed
In areas where hops are grown for beer brewing, the breeding of male hop plants is prohibited. This is to avoid that male flowers fertilize a female plant.
There you are obliged to remove male hops immediately.
Pulling male hops as an ornamental plant in the garden
If the hops are only bred as ornamental plants in the garden, the sex does not play a special role. As a visual protection or care in the bucket both plants are suitable.
Multiply hops
In the trade you get almost exclusively female hop plants. Male plants only develop when you sow the hops.
In commercial hop cultivation, the plant is propagated only through cuttings, so-called Fechser, or via root division.
So it is impossible that male hops arises, which must later be torn out.
Tips
Hops is the legal brother of cannabis. Unlike hemp, however, the fruits contain no THC with an intoxicating effect. Hops have a calming effect on the lupulin that forms in the fruits and are also used for medicinal purposes.