[ginalolap]

I am on Vancouver Island and my hop plants are not where I live. They are close to ripe now but If I don't pick them now I won't be able to pick them for another 3 or 4 weeks, probably too long. Has anyone tried cutting the vines and letting the cones ripen on the vine. Works great for tomatoes but wondered about the hops. Look forward to any suggestions. Thanks

[denny]

I am on Vancouver Island and my hop plants are not where I live. They are close to ripe now but If I don't pick them now I won't be able to pick them for another 3 or 4 weeks, probably too long. Has anyone tried cutting the vines and letting the cones ripen on the vine. Works great for tomatoes but wondered about the hops. Look forward to any suggestions. Thanks

Based on my experience I don't think it will work.  Once the bines are but they'll stop growing.  And they start to compost themselves within an hour after harvesting.

[ginalolap]

Well now, I don't think I want to make beer from compost! On the other hand I don't want to miss an opportunity so I will pick a few, leave a few and take an unpicked vine home with me and see how it goes. Will post the results. Great forum by the way, have really enjoyed the posts, both the info and the tone. It seems a good number of the paricipants are the wiser folk, full of doubts, but not afraid to put it out there.