Where is everyone getting their Hop Rhizomes from? Does your LHBS carry them? A plant nursery? If you all go online: what are some of your preferred companies to shop from? Obviously I’m competent enough to google “Buy Hop Rhizomes”, but I’m wondering if there is a preference among the AHA brewing community.
I’ve only been brewing for less than a year, so I figure a 2 year wait for super fresh hops gives me plenty of time to “grow” and expand my knowledge on A.G. brewing to really get the most out of my harvest.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard any reports of someone getting bad rhizomes. Unless the whole rhizome is DOA when you get it, hops are so hardy that within a couple years I doubt you’d be able to tell the difference between the different rhizomes in terms of initial quality.
Just make sure you pick hop varieties that you won’t mind having a lot of. Also, if you have growing conditions that are drastically different than ideal hop growing conditions, then you might want to ask around to see what varieties grow well or have a tough time in your area.
That’s interesting. Out of curiosity, do you happen to know who the growers are? And also is there any history of hops that used to be proprietary, but became public after some time? (They’re my favorite and I can’t help but get my hopes up for hops!)
You’re not going to obtain any of said hops, but I got some high quality rhizomes from the thyme garden this past year. You can pre-order now and you’ll get them on a first come first serve basis in March. I pre-ordered rooted rhyzomes mid October last year. They all produced first year hops for me. Ihave pics of them on this thread under “hops planted 3/13/13” or something like that.
I also think they grew with such quality because I got them in the mail and was able to plant them that day with abnormally warm weather. I don’t think the rhyzomes really thought they were out of the ground.
Great Lakes Hops out of MI sell the actual plant plugs and for fall planting they are awesome! Come spring they take off like beasts but due to certain agricultural laws they cannot ship to certain locations so you need to inquire.
As for the proprietary hops, good luck, you won’t get them however hard you try!
I don’t think it’s a question of vendors selling ‘bad’ rhizomes, it’s more a question of who the vendor is. Is it the guy who digs the rhizomes and stores them properly then sells them to you, or is it a vendor who’s actually a middleman? Not saying that middlemen are a problem at all, but the more times the plant material gets handled the more times there’s a chance of it being mishandled somewhere along the line which can lead to poor performance.
Some of the folks I know who dig and sell are http://www.freshops.com/, http://rnventerprises.com/, http://hopsdirect.com/. And as was mentioned, you can buy actual plants which will perform better than rhizomes in their first year being that they already have roots and can concentrate their energy into top growth.
I agree with an above comment. Cut out the middle man. The thyme garden grows their hops on sure organically. Here is the quality rhizome they offer. I recommend them so because my first year hops from them (all 8 of them) out produced my second year hops from another vender. You get rhizomes like these as opposed to dried up pencil looking rhizomes. This is a rooted cutting, but the standard cuttings did very well too.
FWIW, I’m pretty sure Freshops doesn’t dig the rhizomes. AFAIK, Dave doesn’t grow any hops at all. But he’s near the major hop growers and gets everything very fresh.
Believe it or not, “they do” and “he does”. I don’t know were he gets all the energy to keep up with all that he’s got going, but I want to find that place! Might have something to do with his ginseng porter though?
Thanks for the correction, Bob! Obviously, I didn’t realize that! Dave does seem to have superhuman energy…but that still won’t get me to drink that porter!
Believe it or not, “they do” and “he does”. I don’t know were he gets all the energy to keep up with all that he’s got going, but I want to find that place! Might have something to do with his ginseng porter though?
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Thanks for the correction, Bob! Obviously, I didn’t realize that! Dave does seem to have superhuman energy…but that still won’t get me to drink that porter!
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Hahaha, I know what you mean. The Bourbon BBL Porter is quite a different story though.
All the LHBS in the Portland area will have some for sale in the spring. Craigs List will have some listings around here too. In fact I will be posting to sell one or two of my Cascade plants, not just the rhizomes come spring 2014. I can also dig out some of my Centennial.
If you are interested in those types, just let me know. You might be able to pick them up for a couple of bottles of your last batch.
