Hops can also be grown in your own garden. You can propagate the plant yourself by cutting cuttings or growing hops from seeds. However, you should only sow hops if you do not want to harvest any fruit from the hops.
How to grow hops from seeds?
To grow hops from seeds, stratify the seeds in the refrigerator, sow them in the spring in a seed tray with loose potting soil, cover lightly with soil, water gently and keep warm but not warm too sunny. Separate and cultivate the plants in individual pots after emergence.
Hop seeds need to be stratified
If you have harvested hop seeds from your own hop plants, you must stratify them before sowing. Place the seeds in the refrigerator for a few weeks. The cold overcomes the inhibition of germination.
How to sow hops
- Prepare the seed box
- Spreading hop seeds
- cover lightly with soil
- water carefully or better yet spray
- place warm but not too sunny
The best time for sowing hops is spring. Fill the seed box or small pots with loose potting soil (€6.00 on Amazon).
After emergence, separate the plants and continue cultivating them in individual pots. You can plant the hops from May. You can plant the hops directly outdoors or keep them as a privacy screen for the balcony or in a bucket.
Whether a hop plant is male or female can only be determined when it develops flowers. The genders can only be distinguished based on the shape of the flowers. You should therefore only sow hops if you want to grow them exclusively as an ornamental plant, privacy screen or for greening a pergola.
It is better to propagate hops vegetatively
Sowing is not the best method to propagate hops. You don't know beforehand whether female or male plants will emerge. Only female plants bear the coveted hop fruits containing lupulin powder.
Instead of sowing, it is better to propagate hops by cutting cuttings or dividing roots in autumn. Only with vegetative propagation can it be ensured that the characteristics of the mother plant are retained one hundred percent, both in terms of gender and aromas.
In commercial cultivation, only vegetative propagation is used in order to obtain female plants of particularly high quality.
Tip
If you live in an area where hops are grown commercially, you should avoid sowing hops. If male plants develop from them, you must destroy them as they could fertilize female flowers and thereby impair the quality of the hop fruits.
