Three months down in the Brew Dudes homegrown hops odyssey and we finally have hop flowers. The 2 main bines sprouted multiple new bines so now I have four lines of twine (total) hung up to support the plant.
Around mid-July, I started to see little spiny flowers underneath the main bines big leaves about halfway up. Then, they started to appear on all the other bines, especially the new ones.
I just let everything grow for a while, constantly training new bines to wrap around new or existing twine. Last week, I followed a tip of cutting off leaves at the bottom of the bines to ensure more energy was going toward the maturation of the hop flowers into hop cones. I hope this tip pays off.
The spines of some of the flowers are starting to brown and curl up. They are now looking more like cones, so we’ll see.
I read that the maturity of Magnum hops is “late”. With a good sunny August and a warm September, we may just get something out of this first year plant.
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