The day I got my rhizomes in the mail last year it was 63 degrees and I planted them on March 9th. I ordered a couple of centennial rhizomes to plant this year. I just got noticed that they’ll probably be shipped next week. Well, they’re calling for a foot of snow Sunday and Monday followed by bitter cold temps. There’s no way that I’m getting a shovel into the ground anytime soon. When these come, I’ll check and see if they’re moist and in a ziplock (they arrived this way last year) and toss in the fridge. If they are dry, I’ll dampen a paper towel and wrap around the rhizome, bag and toss in the fridge. I’ll get them in the ground ASAP. Is this the best method of storing rhizomes?
I really don’t want to put in a pot and start indoors. I did this two years ago, and they didn’t grow hearty. I lost seven out of ten plants.
Think about it this way. Someone who digs and sells rhizomes usually gets out and digs before the soils get warm enough to initiate growth so the buds are nice and compact and haven’t started to elongate. Once they’re cleaned and graded, they immediately put them in the fridge to help keep them in a dormant state until they’re sold and shipped. I’m very familiar with Freshops and know that Dave usually stops shipments sometime in June. He’s been digging rhizomes for a few weeks now, so you know they’ll store for at least a few months in the fridge which will give you plenty of time not to worry and drink plenty of beer!
Thanks. I’m not too concerned. I thought I had the right idea here. I just wanted to make sure. I had tremendous first year hops last year. I don’t think ill batch it this year. I put most if it on getting them in the ground immediately and the rest on the absurd amount if rain we had through June last year. I ordered from the Thyme Garden again. The quality and customer service this is incredible.
How did you plants do last year planting them on March 9th? Up here in NH even it was warm then, I’d be afraid to plant new rhizomes when there was still a 98-99% of a frost.
No. These things grew real well, but I did a lot of prep work with soil and compost. We had frosts after I planted, but I covered with a thick layer of wood mulch. Also, you want to water and feed with acidic water and fertilizer. Our well water is very hard, so I catch rain water and use.
After great results from the variety of hops that I planted last year, I decided to order a couple more centennial rhizomes from the Thyme Garden. They don’t disappoint. I was not able to get large or rooted centennial rhizomes this year, so I just got a standard cutting. The one on the right is super nice. These guys have a nice product and wonderful customer service.
I tried to prep the planting grounds yesterday since it was 55 out. I got the grass peaked back, but below that, the ground is still frozen solid. I’ll store in the fridge until the Ohio permafrost thaws.
I have to dig up and root prune all of my varieties this year, and I’m also going to replant them in alphabetical order just to help keep things straight. So, trying to get a jump on the season, I went out and spread a very fine layer of peat moss over the foot or so of dense snow on top of my hops bed. We finally got some spring weather this week in MN, and believe it or not I’m down to bare soil in only 3 days of strong sun and decent weather. The rest of the garden is still buried.
Now I’m hoping to institute Phase 2 of this plan and get the soil defrosted so I can start digging. I want to speed up the defrosting without harming my bines. I thought about putting down some plastic (either black or clear) but I’m afraid I’ll cook the crowns. Maybe I’ll just count on the black soil to heat up on its own.
Homebrewing has taught me one very valuable lesson over the years: don’t rush things, be patient.
I know it’s easy for me to say when my ground doesn’t freeze but I can’t see any real advantage to rushing it. I usually wait until I see sprouts before I trim my roots so I know how far they’ve spread since the previous year.
I’m not worried about getting an early jump on hop-growing season. I’m thinking about how much work it’s going to be to dig up 10 established hop crowns and then move them all. These have been in the ground here for 4 years now, so I’m guessing they’re about 3 ft down into solid clay. I did till up the bed and till in a ton of horse manure initially, but since then I’ve only top-dressed with compost. I could be looking at a very difficult job, trying to get all of the hop mass out!
Who needs a home gym when you have a hop garden? ;D
I was just thinking about manure compost the other day. I tilled some into the soil when I planted the hops. Then they’ve been under heavy wood mulch since then. I think every few years when I did into the root system to keep them under control, I’ll recompost them at that time.
I give mine plenty of compost every year. I found they did really well when I excavated a shallow ring around them and gave each crown ~1 quart of vermicompost. I keep a worm bin or two going in my classroom all year with the express purpose of feeding my hops the best soil amendment I can get. This year I’ll use some of it in a soil block seedling mix, but I should have enough to still give the hops crowns a boost after relocation.
Not a bad idea and not real time consuming. I might look into doing this during my next brew…which will be next Saturday. They are also buried under about 4 -6 inches of mulch. That needs pealed back too. I also hope to get my new rhizomes in the ground then too. Cheers to a fellow teacher!
Got my trellis built today. Bines are starting to break ground so I figured it was about time. Hopefully they work.
They’re 12’ total so about 10 1/2’ from top of the pots.
Nice! I was finally able to get my new rhizomes in the ground last Saturday. Good thing I mulched heavily since it dropped to ten degrees back to back nights again. I’m not one to complain about weather, but this is getting ridiculous this year!
That’s a pretty gnarly storm cloud over your house! Do you think those trellises will hold up to hops load and wind gusts? Might want to think about some sort of redundancy plan. We get some huge winds here and I’ve had my bines come down several times. It’s no fun.
