# Hops From Seeds



## Housecat (20/12/10)

Hi all,

Just wondering, I was lookin at my Nelson Sauvin flowers before adding them to my wort and saw a heap of seeds in there. I have saved about 20 of them in the hopes I can grow a few plants from them.  

Is this possible/likely or am I wasting my time?

Cheers

HC


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## Bizier (20/12/10)

They won't be Nelson Sauvin, but that would be an interesting parent, so I say go for it if you have the room and determination... but expect complete randomness, and some random males.

ED: to get a NS plant, you would need to acquire a portion of female rhizome, and I would guess that to be difficult.


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## ekul (20/12/10)

They will be related to nelson sauvin though, both parents may even be nelson sauvin. If a hops plant gets stressed then it can throw male flowers, which would pollinate the hop cone, making seeds. However the pollen could come from nelson sauvin or any other variety that the farmer may have growing, or it could even be a wild one.

I reckon it would be worth giving a go just for the fun of it. 

I had some flowers have seeds a few weeks ago, but none of them were viable, on account of being discovered after they were boiled. I dug around in the hops and found a few more but they were all immature.

To see if they are immature just break open the seed, if its got white fleshy stuff inside she's good to go.

good luck


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## Dazza_devil (20/12/10)

Growing hops from seed can be challenging. I managed to get a good strike rate a few years ago now from some seeds which I purchased from an Organic seed company in Snug, Tasmania. I have no idea what the parents were but they have a nice aroma. My first attempt resulted in zero germination but the second packet I ended up with a nice lot of plants with just one attempt. I believe this was due to scarification of the seed husk, giving the husk a gentle rub with bit of sandpaper before planting. I can't remember the exact details of the nurturing process but I think I planted during a Tasmanian spring, keeping moist in full sun. I probably still have the old seed packet somewhere with the propogation notes inside, I'll have a search for it later and post some info if I can find it. I ended up with 1 male plant in my bunch which decided to come up last season and fertilise my crop, filling all my buds with seeds. If your seeds are fully matured you may be fine but this will probably be a major determining factor. They make take some time to mature in the attached flower before they are capable of germination.


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## Housecat (20/12/10)

Nice one, thanks for all your speedy replies. I have them soaking and will let you know how I go.

HC


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## Dazza_devil (20/12/10)

Found it.

Sowing time - spring and autumn
Germination time - 15-25 days
Optimum Soil Temperature for germination - 25 degrees C

'Sow seed 1cm deep in rich, deep, moist soil. Prefers full sun. Growth from seed is slow in the first season. Scarification tends to enhance the germination process.'

Space Plants 60cm apart

It also mentions that young shoots can be cooked and eaten.

There are notes on scarification in the catalogue,
'This means allowing moisture to enter the seed my nicking, chipping or filing the seedcoat opposite to where the seed was attached to the plant (usually made obvious by a small protrusion at one end or side of the seed). A knife, sandpaper or nail-file can be most useful here. Be careful not to damage the embryo though it is important to cut right through the seedcoat. For some species hot water treatment is useful for softening the seedcoat to facilitate germination. To do this simply pour boiling water over the seed in a suitable container and leave soak for 24 hours.'


As I remember I followed the propagation notes fairly closely and scarified the seedcoat, not husk as I wrongly mentioned before, with sandpaper. I may of even tried the boiling water trick, not sure, but I know I have had success doing so with a close relative of the hop plant.

I would be cautious not to rot the embryo of the seeds by soaking too long. From memory I think a seed will soak up 10 times it's own weight in water before germinating.
Some seeds may be viable whereas others may not. If the seed colapses when given a gentle squeeze then it's a dud. The solid ones are goers.

Edited to add that I would be most interested in knowing the results of your efforts.


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## Tim (21/12/10)

I am pretty sure that the 'Cascade' rhizomes that are being sold traded are grown from seed. I have never seen cascade being offered by the hop growers or through the retailers such as Grumpy's and Goliath back in the days when they were the only places you could get them.


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## Quintrex (21/12/10)

Tim said:


> I am pretty sure that the 'Cascade' rhizomes that are being sold traded are grown from seed. I have never seen cascade being offered by the hop growers or through the retailers such as Grumpy's and Goliath back in the days when they were the only places you could get them.



I'm pretty sure that you'll find that the cascade rhizome was imported, it was being sold from a hop nursery in tassie (which is where grumpy's and G n G used to source their rhizomes from). You can also buy commercially grown australian cascade flowers etc grown in tassie. IF they sell it as cascade it wouldn't be grown from seed, as it wouldn't be a true cascade (seeds have genetic variation, split rhizomes are genetically identical). That being said it doesn't taste like US cascade but that's probably a terroir issue.


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## Tim (21/12/10)

Quintrex said:


> IF they sell it as cascade it wouldn't be grown from seed, as it wouldn't be a true cascade (seeds have genetic variation, split rhizomes are genetically identical). That being said it doesn't taste like US cascade but that's probably a terroir issue.



I am referring to the home grown cascade rhizomes that pop up on eBay. I have never seen Cascade in the list of Rhizomes being sold through the Hop farm channels, so unless someone has managed to acquire one from the growers in Tasmania aside from the usual channels I think they are seed grown. There was discussion regarding this years ago, a search would probably show something up.


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## Dazza_devil (21/12/10)

Tim said:


> I am referring to the home grown cascade rhizomes that pop up on eBay. I have never seen Cascade in the list of Rhizomes being sold through the Hop farm channels, so unless someone has managed to acquire one from the growers in Tasmania aside from the usual channels I think they are seed grown. There was discussion regarding this years ago, a search would probably show something up.




I wonder where they keep the male plants used for fertilisation to get the seed?


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## Quintrex (21/12/10)

Sorry for the OT


Tim said:


> I am referring to the home grown cascade rhizomes that pop up on eBay. I have never seen Cascade in the list of Rhizomes being sold through the Hop farm channels, so unless someone has managed to acquire one from the growers in Tasmania aside from the usual channels I think they are seed grown. There was discussion regarding this years ago, a search would probably show something up.



Ah fair call, 

Taken from the following discussion about this very issue Link



eric8 said:


> I asked one of the sllers how he knew it was Cascade and got this reply.
> 
> "Hi. Thanks for the query. I obtained a cascade rhizome from Brew Goliath (was an online brew shop operating out of Adelaide) who obtained the cascade rhizome from a grower in Tasmania some years ago. I've been growing cascade for a few years now and all the cascade rhizomes I have for sale have been propagated from that plant. The percent alpha acid is never a set number for a variety as it can range in value depending on climate, growing season, processing etc. Under Aussie conditions you could expect somewhere in the range of 5-8% a.a."
> 
> ...



My cascade has grown prolifically interestingly, the hops taste like lemon iced tea, not an unpleasant flavour at all just not like US cascade, but this is a problem with most home grown hops, they don't taste like the commercial stuff. The tassie cascade tastes like watermelon-lolly flavour.


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## Tim (21/12/10)

That's strange as I never saw Goliath advertise cascade? Maybe they sold them on pre-order and never had to advertise?

There was a rumour doing the rounds years ago that cascade had a virus which was why you couldn't get rhizomes in Australia. I'm not sure how true it is though - it was just a rumour. 


Boagsy - male plants are often planted at the ends of rows as pollination/seeding often increases yield of cones in female plants.


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## Dazza_devil (21/12/10)

Tim said:


> Boagsy - male plants are often planted at the ends of rows as pollination/seeding often increases yield of cones in female plants.


Interesting.
Strange that it increases yield because it has an adverse effect on the close relative of the hop plant. In it's case pollination causes the plant to put all it's energy into formation of the seed, as opposed to production of resin and increase in the size of the flower.


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## Steve (21/12/10)

Tim said:


> There was a rumour doing the rounds years ago that cascade had a virus which was why you couldn't get rhizomes in Australia. I'm not sure how true it is though - it was just a rumour.



Heard the same thing and was surprised at the amount of cascade plants available over the last couple of years. Where did they come from?, if indeed they are actually cascade.

Edit.....that the second time is as many months Ive heard of seeds in peoples hops. Whats going on? We dont pay for seeds.


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## Housecat (14/1/11)

just thought I'd update you all.

I tried to germinate these seeds about twenty different ways but no luck at all.

Oh well. maybe next time 

HC


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