Half-ripe Hops Cones

This is a picture taken August 18 2006 showing what female hops "buds" turn into when maturing. These are not fully ripe yet.

Golden Hops are typically all yellow, almost chlorotic looking; they make lots of yellow pigments that 'mask' the green chlorophyll that is also there. Look at the green shades in these leaves, the older ones are all green, hardly yellow at all.

I had been foliarly feeding this plant for weeks, and as a result the green colour began to overcome the yellow pigments. I watched the hops plant get a "wave" of greening sweep up the plant, begining from the oldest parts. This "greening up" then reached into the far ends of the vines, and if you can notice, it's just starting to happen in the leaves around these cones.