This is a picture of what I was describing in my last post. The two cones here are clearly different, with the left one clearly deformed compared to a normal one on the right. Its bracts seem to have curled upwards but also inwards, i.e. not flattened out properly - similar to how the leaves were behaving earlier when they were rolled up rather than flat like normal. The feel of it is different as well, it doesn't feel papery like the normal ones, but it doesn't feel moist like they do when they're not ready either. It's kind of soft but stiff at the same time, hard to describe. These deformed cones still have plenty of lupulin and smell pretty much the same as normal ones too.
There are quite a number of cones on the plant that look like this, although most aren't as badly deformed as that one. They appear to be going back more to what they'd normally look like but still retain some of this deformity.
I'm hoping this is just a phase it's going through, like it did with the leaves. New leaves began appearing rolled up not long after I killed off some weeds with broadleaf weed killer and managed to hit literally a couple of really low hop leaves with it, but then after a short while this stopped happening and all the new leaves since have been normal. These cones are obviously coming from the same bines that exhibited the rolled up leaves. I guess time will tell, and especially next season when it regenerates after winter, that first growth will give me an idea if this stupid poison is still causing issues.
Looks like a nice haul!
