Unusual Vegetable Plants |
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Commercially, Hop producing plants have always been grown from root cuttings and not seed to ensure uniformity of crop and the resultant flavoured beer. Planting is best done early in the season, or even in late winter. An unusual feature of the Humulus Lupulus is that female plants will produce the seed cones without the presence, or fertilisation, of male plants. However, if wind pollination does occur bigger cones will result, so traditionally one male plant is grown with every 200 females. Hop plants may well need irrigation and are very greedy feeders that will rob the soil of all its goodness and as such need a rich soil that is manured regularly. Care must be taken to prevent fungal type infections to which they are prone such as sooty mold and mildew etc. After harvest the hops contain 65 - 80 % moisture which has to be reduced down to 10% before they can be baled and used in the brewing industry. Traditionally hops were dried in large specially built kilns that were as big as a house and were called "Oast houses." These unusually shaped buildings used to be a common site in the south of England and many still exist, but have been converted into real houses as the beer industry has moved on with modern technology.
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