Hops in North Idaho\Rhizome availability and storage

Hello all,

I'm thinking of planting about 10 hop rhizomes this year. Up here in North Idaho we can get snow well into March or even later. I was wondering if there is a problem with Rhizome availability and if I should order now before they sell out? I'd hate to get to early May (best time to plant, I'm guessing?) and find there are none out there. If I got them now would being in the fridge that long be a problem?

Looking at the stickies it seems Cascade\Columbus\Chinook might be good choices for up here. I'd love to hear feedback if anyone else is growing locally though!

Cheers,

Dan

You can order now and just keep them in the fridge until it's ok to plant in your area. Where do you think the folks that sell them keep them? One year I planted some that I had in the fridge since the preceding Spring and they actually came up. They died after a few weeks but it was just an experiment and they weren't cared for properly. I'm sure you'll be fine as long as you can keep them cool until the right time as they're pretty durable. Hop On!

The bigger issue is finding a place that will ship rhizomes to ID. I have tried a few places, but most will not because shipping to ID requires a certificate saying the plant is disease-free. If you can find someone on craigslist selling rhizomes, you will have an easier time getting them. Great Lakes Hops was able to ship to ID because they sent the necessary paperwork with their crowns. If you order a crown and it arrives before it is safe to plant it outside, you could always plant it in a 5-gallon bucket in the garage and transplant it later. I purchased centennial and chinook last year, and both grew great in the CdA area. Anheiser-Busch grow hops up by the Canadian border. I would assume that most varieties would do well up here.

Hops Direct in Yakima is a great place to get hops. They will arrive in two days. I ordered three each of Cascade, Mt. Hood, US Tettnanger, and Willamette. They sent me four each. Great people, and shipping within the NW is no problem.

Wow, thanks for all the great info. I'll be ordering here in the next week or so. I didn't know about the certification for Idaho. Interesting.

I knew about the AB farm up by Canada. It seems this is generally a good area for hops