Differentiate between male and female plants

Recognize male hop plants by their flowers

As long as there are no hops Inflorescences has formed, you cannot see whether the plant is male or female. The sexes can only be distinguished by the different flower shapes.

• Female flower ear of corn in the shape of a cone
• panicle-shaped male flower
• female flower inconspicuous
• male flower yellow-green and conspicuous

If the plant is female, grow on it blossomsthat have a spike in the shape of a cone. The bracts are tightly closed and the flower is small and inconspicuous.

Showy long panicles develop on a male plant.

That is why no male hop plants are grown

When fertilized by male plants, the hops become unusable. They change their taste. The cultivated qualities of the female hop plant are lost.

If female flowers are pollinated by male flowers, the beer made from the fruits does not later form a head.

If you would like to process the hops yourself, you should remove male plants as soon as the gender can be recognized by the flowers.

Where male hops need to be removed

Growing male hop plants is prohibited in areas where hops are grown for brewing beer. This is to prevent male flowers from fertilizing a female plant.

There you are required to get male hops immediately remove.

Growing male hops as an ornamental plant in the garden

Should the hops only be used as an ornamental plant in the garden bred gender is not particularly important. Both plants are suitable as a privacy screen or for maintenance in the tub.

Propagate hops

In the shops you can get almost exclusively female hop plants. Male plants only emerge when you make the hops sowing.

In commercial hop cultivation, the plant is only grown via cuttings, so-called fechers, or via root division increased.

This prevents male hops from being produced, which later have to be torn out.