Hop seeds must be stratified
If you have harvested hop seeds from your own hop plants, you must stratify them before sowing. Put the seeds in the refrigerator for a few weeks. The inhibition of germs is overcome by the cold.
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This is how you sow hops
- Prepare the seed box
- Scatter hop seeds
- cover lightly with soil
- Pour carefully or, better, spray
- place warm but not too sunny
Spring is the best time to plant hops. Fill the seed box or small pots with loose potting soil.
After emergence, isolate the plants and continue to cultivate them in individual pots. You can plant the hops from May. You can plant the hops directly in the field or keep them as a privacy screen for the balcony or in the bucket.
Whether a hop plant is male or female cannot be determined until it has developed flowers. The sexes can only be distinguished based on the flower shape. You should therefore only sow hops if you only want to grow them as an ornamental plant, privacy screen or for planting a pergola.
It is better to propagate hops vegetatively
Sowing is not the best way to propagate hops. You do not know beforehand whether female or male plants will arise. Only female plants carry the coveted hops with the lupulin powder.
It is better to multiply hops by cutting cuttings or dividing roots in autumn instead of sowing them. Only with vegetative propagation is it ensured that the characteristics of the mother plant are taken over one hundred percent, both in terms of sex and in terms of aromas.
In commercial cultivation, propagation is exclusively vegetative in order to obtain female plants of particularly high quality.
Tips
If you live in an area where hops are grown commercially, it is better not to sow hops. If male plants develop from this, you must destroy them, as they could fertilize female flowers and thereby impair the quality of the hop fruits.