Hop Rhizomes/Plant Presale/Preorder Time

[NewPA_Brewer]

Ok, so officially its apparently hop rhizomes presale/preorder time (three different sites/groups/etc. on Facebook all mentioning it), as well as several emails and stuff.

I currently have 2 Chinook and 1 Cascade.

I'm looking to expand somewhat heavily (about 6-8 plants in total).

I'm located in Central PA (think Harrisburg/Hershey area). What are some good hops to get to grow in this area?

Drinking wise, I enjoy mosaic, azacca, simcoe, comet, galaxy, galea, citra, and chinook. My favorite beer currently is Nimble Giant by Troegs (as well as their Nugget Nectar and Mad Elf). I really like beers in the vein of Nimble Giant (as far as DIPAS/IPAS/TRIPAS go).

Any recommendations? Suggestions? Etc.

Thanks all!

 

[NewPA_Brewer]

Bump.

Thank you all.

 

[jayjaytuner]

you should be gtg on just about anything, theres a local hopyard near my in farmington, NY...so if they can grow em outside there, then im sure you can there....i dont know much about the growing part tho...

 

[jbhollis1180]

I live in central CT and grew cascade, centennial, and nugget with good results. I'll be adding a few chinook this year as well. Your list included several proprietary varieties, so you won't be able to get any of those, but most people stick with aroma hops. Either way, have fun with your expansion

 

[NewPA_Brewer]

What do you mean by "proprietary varieties" ?

 

[Sadu]

Proprietary means someone has bred the hop variety and basically owns the copyright / growing rights. You won't be able to find them for sale at the plant shop but there might be some underground channels. Pretty much all the New Zealand hops are proprietary, which is rather frustrating when you just wanna grow some hops.

 

[DU99]

the company's that grow them own the rights to them only...proprietary varieties

 

[lewandowski46]

What do you mean by "proprietary varieties" ?

Some hops like Citra are registered trademarks with the company that bred and developed them. Some varieties like Cascade were bred through public funding and are available for anybody to buy. Basically your taxes paid for Cascade to be developed, a private company paid to develop Citra.

 

[NewPA_Brewer]

So which ones are proprietary and which ones are public?

I like Mosaic, Nugget, Azacca, Simcoe, Comet, Galaxy, Galea, and Citra.

So I take it from the above post, Citra is proprietary and therefore unavailable. What about the others?

 

[NewPA_Brewer]

I also like the idea of trying Neo Mexicanus. Would that work in Central PA? Is that proprietary?

 

[B-Hoppy]

Have a look here, the ones that have an R or TM after the name are protected: https://www.usahops.org/cabinet/data/2016_VarietyManual (1).pdf

 

[NewPA_Brewer]

Thanks for that. I'll have to read over that.

 

[haus88]

Sorry newPA, those hops you like ... like the most of us would love to have them. They are protected and only sold commercially for x amount of time due to the cost of breeding them. Citra simcoe and mosaic are under that. But if anyone can get a hold of a pice and send it to me I will not complain.

 

[haus88]

I live in NY cacsade does amazing here. I have some on multiple properties and only check on them in the fall. I would grow more cascade.

What I focus on and I think you should too, would be more cascade for late hops and dry hopping. You will use a lot.
Then grow a strong workhorse buttering hops which is strong and resilient against disease like chinook.

I do a 3:1 3 plants for aroma and 1 for bittering.

Dam B hoppy you beat me to it

 

[keppybrau]

So which ones are proprietary and which ones are public?

I like Mosaic, Nugget, Azacca, Simcoe, Comet, Galaxy, Galea, and Citra.

So I take it from the above post, Citra is proprietary and therefore unavailable. What about the others?

Nugget and Comet are public. Nugget grows very well. I just planted two comets last year, and they did good for 1st year.
The rest of those are proprietary.
They do say that comet is "the sister of Citra." Which is why I decided to grow it.
I haven't seen any comet rhizomes anywhere. I got mine as a plant from Great Lakes hops:
http://www.greatlakeshops.com/store/p98/Comet

 

[pshankstar]

Hey OP, I would try to contact a local hop farm in your area to see what they are growing and if you can buy rhizomes from them. Also, if they can grow those hops then you should be able to as well. I did see there is a hop farm in Carlisle, PA which looks pretty close to you.

Someone else on this forum last winter/early spring recommended that I contact a local hop farm in my area (Western, NY finger lakes region). They sold me the rhizomes at a much cheaper price than I could get online and the farmer even cut them fresh right there on the spot. Also, the farmer made sure that the rhizomes he dug up looked good (i.e. big healthy rhizomes).

Last year I ended up purchasing 3 Chinook and 3 Centennial rhizomes. Some rabbits and other critters dug up and killed two of the three Chinooks early in the season, but all of the other rhizomes did great! I will be picking up two more Chinooks this spring to replace the dead ones. I might even pick up two more rhizomes to plant for this year. Just need to figure out if they should be Cascade, Willamette or Glacier. Since I like my IPAs and Pale Ales, it will probably be Cascade.

Anyways, good luck OP and try to contact a local hop farm in your area. Cheers!

 

[NewPA_Brewer]

Thanks for all the advice!

I did contact Sunny Brae Hop Farm (the one in Carlisle) and they said their not ready to do rhizomes quite yet, but in the near future (2-3 years) they said they probably will be.

 

[pshankstar]

Keep searching and if there's another hop farm contact them. I personally think it's the best option (if possible) plus you support local business.

Keep us posted as to what you end up doing.

 

[Greatlakeshops]

I'm always surprised to see people gung ho about rhizome pre-ordering when there are a lot of premium suppliers of actual live plants. I would urge anyone looking at rhizomes to weigh the cost/benefit of planting live field grade plant material instead. I understand we may seem biased as our company offers plant material, however, whether your buying from us or a supplier that is local to you, it is a vastly suprior product.

-1 plant per hill vs. 2 rhizomes (recommended)
-cleaner stock (less virus load)
-first year cone production
-year-round availability (never sold out)
-50+ varieties available...

and the list goes on.

Just food for thought

 

[NewPA_Brewer]

I had gotten a Chinook rhizome from Troegs and had cones on it first year. (Planted in April, harvested in August/September). Is that uncommon - did I just get lucky?

 

[NewPA_Brewer]

Greatlakeshops: What varieties do you (personally) recommend for the PA area?

 

[B-Hoppy]

I had gotten a Chinook rhizome from Troegs and had cones on it first year. (Planted in April, harvested in August/September). Is that uncommon - did I just get lucky?

What it looks like is happening is that since the proliferation of hop growing has exploded over the last 10 or more years, folks are pretty vocal over their issues with success (or failures) when it comes to growing from rhizomes.

For the most part, rhizomes are sold through 3rd parties (mostly homebrew shops) who buy from the folks that dig the hops. If you can find a supplier who both digs and sells rhizomes, you'll have much better success than buying from a third party due to the fact if they are mis-handled when going from the farm to the retailer, this may cause some failures.

Making cuttings of my own for the last 20+ years I can say that it's really rare that I don't see cones on first year growth.