# Do hop flowers have seeds ?



## abyss (4/2/17)

G'day all
I would like to know if it's possible to germinate a plant from an online purchased flower or even a fresh one ?


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## wide eyed and legless (4/2/17)

No, it has to be germinated to grow from seed, but there are many ways to clone a hop plant, layering is the easiest.


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## abyss (4/2/17)

what do you mean by germinated WE&L ?
Another question is ......is it possible to graft a Cousin cutting to the bine ?
Thanks for your reply.


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## Camo6 (4/2/17)

And the plot thickens...


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## wide eyed and legless (4/2/17)

The flower has to be germinated by a male, and much like its cousin you don't want a male coming anywhere near your hops (or its cousins), otherwise you will not know what the male is that lives nearby so therefore not know what you will end up with.
You can graft it's cousin onto the hop vine but it will not do any good, you will not get any THC or anything beneficial, it will just be a waste of time and effort, grow its cousin and buy all the hops, barley and yeast you will need for a few years and still have money left over for a new suit and a stone of monkey nuts.


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## good4whatAlesU (4/2/17)

wide eyed and legless said:


> The flower has to be germinated by a male...


Pollinated I think. The female flower is pollinated by the male (usually through insects or by wind).

Germination is the sprouting of seedling from the seed.


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## abyss (4/2/17)

Camo6 said:


> And the plot thickens...


A thick plot would be cool.


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## abyss (4/2/17)

wide eyed and legless said:


> The flower has to be germinated by a male, and much like its cousin you don't want a male coming anywhere near your hops (or its cousins), otherwise you will not know what the male is that lives nearby so therefore not know what you will end up with.
> You can graft it's cousin onto the hop vine but it will not do any good, you will not get any THC or anything beneficial, it will just be a waste of time and effort, grow its cousin and buy all the hops, barley and yeast you will need for a few years and still have money left over for a new suit and a stone of monkey nuts.


Thanks again mate 
I'm not interested in the Cousin. One of my dumb mates asked me to ask you.


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## Brownsworthy (4/2/17)

Why wouldn't it produce any THC?
The part that is grafted on still has it's own genes and if it came from a THC producing plant I would imagine that it would continue to produce THC.


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## damoninja (5/2/17)

abyss said:


> One of my dumb mates asked me to ask you.


>I'm asking for a friend but ay


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## MHB (5/2/17)

I've only seen seeds in UK Plugs, Fuggle and Golding. Up until the early 80's it was quite common for UK hops to be "seeded" and there was quite a lot of debate about whether or not seeded were better/same as unseeded, have even seen recipes that specify seeded hops.
When hops are grown in a broad acre farm with just the one variety, and that being a fairly old variety with a pretty similar genome the seeds would probably produce a daughter with very similar traits to the parents.
Where it gets interesting is when you have a mixture of different varieties and even wild hops, but that's where new hops come from see (the much loved Cascade)

The seeds are very small, around the size of a mustard seed, if they are unfertilised they can look like black specks more like cracked pepper.
Mark


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## wide eyed and legless (5/2/17)

good4whatAlesU said:


> Pollinated I think. The female flower is pollinated by the male (usually through insects or by wind).
> 
> Germination is the sprouting of seedling from the seed.


Absolutely correct, can't think why I said germinated.



Brownsworthy said:


> Why wouldn't it produce any THC?
> The part that is grafted on still has it's own genes and if it came from a THC producing plant I would imagine that it would continue to produce THC.


They are known as cousins but in actual fact the truth is they may well be only very distant cousins, until the genetic make up of plants botanists just looked at the plants and when they saw similarities between them they assumed they were related, its only in recent years that the genetic make up of plants has started to be investigated. You can graft the members of the solanaceae family together usually the tomato grafted to the potato or egg plant grafted to the potato. When tomatoes are grafted together it is usually because a weak root stock of one tomato is exchanged for a strong root stock variety.
I don't know whether anyone has ever even grafted a cannabis and hop plant together because their genetic make up is entirely different, and a plants genetic make up is by far more complicated than ours. People tend to regard plants as a low form of life when in fact they are not, they have been evolving a lot longer than ourselves and there are scientists who believe they even have a brain, I prefer the nerve centre theory, which is located in the root. Plants can communicate with other plants, they can count and even communicate with insects and one plant can even use a bats echolocation system for its own advantage, they are like small chemical factories producing toxins as a defense mechanism, I also like to think that the chili plant actually knows that us and other mammals have a receptor in their mouth that makes us think it is hot to eat, where as birds don't, therefore allowing the birds to eat a chili and spread the seed, all about survival.


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## Goose (5/2/17)

wide eyed and legless said:


> People tend to regard plants as a low form of life when in fact they are not, they have been evolving a lot longer than ourselves and there are scientists who believe they even have a brain, I prefer the nerve centre theory, which is located in the root. Plants can communicate with other plants, they can count and even communicate with insects and one plant can even use a bats echolocation system for its own advantage, they are like small chemical factories producing toxins as a defense mechanism.


Fascinating. I would never have believed that the size of the human genome is less than most flowering plants until I did a bit of research. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genome_size#/media/File:Genome_Sizes.png

:icon_offtopic:
makes me wonder how some people justify their choice to be vegetarians. one bloke told me he never ate anything that had to die first. a fair comment, but a matter of perception.


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## wide eyed and legless (5/2/17)

It is certainly an interesting topic, some people believe that genes jump species but it makes more sense that the same building blocks are used in most species, as for the hops scientists are close to synthesizing compounds in hops for use in the fight against cancer and diabetes.
https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/2016/march/healthful-beer.html


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## peteru (5/2/17)

If you just want to grow hops, without being too specific about the exact variant, then starting from seed might work out OK. However, if your intent is a specific variant, then the only way to go is via cloning.

Hops are a lot like apples. The offspring of a particular plant is unlikely to produce end results that are even close to the parent.


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## abyss (5/2/17)

Thanks for all replies.
I will just buy some new rhizomes next season and have a proper go with them. 
I already have Dr Rudi, Sazz and ( Cascade which doesn't appeal to my taste, so I will give it away if any body wants it )
I'm after POR and Cluster next.
Im starting to realise how addictive hops can be.


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