I have planted a couple of hop plants in my garden. A Fuggle and a Wye Challenger. (I also planted an EKG, but that disappeared without trace). The fuggle is a triffid, growing 20 foot long, 7ft tall, and 10ft wide, but this year we got 6kg of green hops off it. More than I'll use in a year. The Wye Challenger grew up a tree and put all it's cones in the canopy where I can't reach them. The couple I could reach smell amazing, but there aren't enough to make beer with yet, it's too young.
Today I was out in the garden tending the strawberries which have put out runners so I can get some more plants. I notice in the container I had runnerbeans in that there was a climbing plant in there. On closer inspection, I realised I was a hop. I didn't plant it, so it must have self seeded itself. The obvious Mother is the Wye Challenger, some of the cones of which hang pretty close (on the horizontal plane) to this container. But the father? that's a good question. Hops are wind pollinated, so it could be anything. It's unlikely to be the Fuggle at the other end of the garden, It's a female plant. So somehow, this mysterious hop has self seeded itself in my vegetable bed. In the winter I will pot it up and move it to a more permanent location, until it's big enough to brew with.
The question I have (I knew I'd get there eventually), is: Has anyone experience with growing hops that have self seeded this way? Is there a way to tell if this bine is male or female? If Male it'll get culled as being no use for brewing. Does anyone know how far pollen like this can travel on the wind? I'm not aware of a hop garden anywhere within 5 miles of my garden, and the nearest wild hop I know of is a good 2 miles away in a hedge near the railway.
Thanks
Julia
Today I was out in the garden tending the strawberries which have put out runners so I can get some more plants. I notice in the container I had runnerbeans in that there was a climbing plant in there. On closer inspection, I realised I was a hop. I didn't plant it, so it must have self seeded itself. The obvious Mother is the Wye Challenger, some of the cones of which hang pretty close (on the horizontal plane) to this container. But the father? that's a good question. Hops are wind pollinated, so it could be anything. It's unlikely to be the Fuggle at the other end of the garden, It's a female plant. So somehow, this mysterious hop has self seeded itself in my vegetable bed. In the winter I will pot it up and move it to a more permanent location, until it's big enough to brew with.
The question I have (I knew I'd get there eventually), is: Has anyone experience with growing hops that have self seeded this way? Is there a way to tell if this bine is male or female? If Male it'll get culled as being no use for brewing. Does anyone know how far pollen like this can travel on the wind? I'm not aware of a hop garden anywhere within 5 miles of my garden, and the nearest wild hop I know of is a good 2 miles away in a hedge near the railway.
Thanks
Julia
