marcownz747
Certified Cicerone, YPG vet
Hey guys!
So I've made a few hop rhizome purchases over the past few years, and in my last purchase, I had the most amazing experience. I wanted to share that with you all.
So my second-to-last experience was with a hop grower two states over. It took 2 weeks to deliver, and by the time I had received them, one was beautiful, the other was moldy and rotted. The mold ended up showing on my beautiful rhizome, but I got it under control after a week or so.
However, I wanted to put a few more rhizomes in and had NO desire to buy from that farmer again. They might have awesome stuff most of the time, but with my first experience being as bad as it was, I figured I'd check some other places first.
So I looked into Freshops.
First thing I noticed was their prices. They were REALLY reasonable. They were all the way in Oregon (I'm in NY), but I figured I'd give it a shot, as USPS states that shipping from Oregon (To my house) is 3 days, on average.
Well, I put in an order for Tettnang, Spalter Select, and Saaz. With shipping, I only paid $27. It took them two days to ship out my order (Expected, as I do most of my purchases after work, around 10pm). The rhizomes shipped wednesday and arrived saturday, just in time for the weekend.
When I opened the package, I was floored. Three rhizomes, no mold, no soggy dirt. Tettnang and Spalter Select looked like you'd expect. Little twigs. However, both had about 4 buds on them, and there was a bit of growth already. The Saaz, however, was easily a second year rhizome. Lots of roots, and tons of growth.
I dug through and found my order slip. A nice "Thank you for your order" was written by hand on my order (Nothing much, but I like the gesture of taking the time to write out thank you by hand). They had also left a really detailed pamphlet on growing hops in the order. 4 textbook sized pages of information on EVERY aspect of hops a home grower could ever want to know. Info on the plants history and growth cycle. Information on how rhizomes work, what soil is ideal for hops, information on spacing your plants out, on (multiple kinds of) trellis builds, on home vs commercial growing, on processing and drying hops, on diseases/pests and how to deal with them, and a spreadsheet on the most popular hops they sell covering yields, harvest times, and cone structure.
Honestly, the pamphlet that they wrote and provided was something I would have purchased if I found it in a garden store.
These guys got me my hops quickly (from across the country), in beautiful condition, and completely blew me away with their customer service.
I wanted to share this with all of you. They're worth checking out.
So I've made a few hop rhizome purchases over the past few years, and in my last purchase, I had the most amazing experience. I wanted to share that with you all.
So my second-to-last experience was with a hop grower two states over. It took 2 weeks to deliver, and by the time I had received them, one was beautiful, the other was moldy and rotted. The mold ended up showing on my beautiful rhizome, but I got it under control after a week or so.
However, I wanted to put a few more rhizomes in and had NO desire to buy from that farmer again. They might have awesome stuff most of the time, but with my first experience being as bad as it was, I figured I'd check some other places first.
So I looked into Freshops.
First thing I noticed was their prices. They were REALLY reasonable. They were all the way in Oregon (I'm in NY), but I figured I'd give it a shot, as USPS states that shipping from Oregon (To my house) is 3 days, on average.
Well, I put in an order for Tettnang, Spalter Select, and Saaz. With shipping, I only paid $27. It took them two days to ship out my order (Expected, as I do most of my purchases after work, around 10pm). The rhizomes shipped wednesday and arrived saturday, just in time for the weekend.
When I opened the package, I was floored. Three rhizomes, no mold, no soggy dirt. Tettnang and Spalter Select looked like you'd expect. Little twigs. However, both had about 4 buds on them, and there was a bit of growth already. The Saaz, however, was easily a second year rhizome. Lots of roots, and tons of growth.
I dug through and found my order slip. A nice "Thank you for your order" was written by hand on my order (Nothing much, but I like the gesture of taking the time to write out thank you by hand). They had also left a really detailed pamphlet on growing hops in the order. 4 textbook sized pages of information on EVERY aspect of hops a home grower could ever want to know. Info on the plants history and growth cycle. Information on how rhizomes work, what soil is ideal for hops, information on spacing your plants out, on (multiple kinds of) trellis builds, on home vs commercial growing, on processing and drying hops, on diseases/pests and how to deal with them, and a spreadsheet on the most popular hops they sell covering yields, harvest times, and cone structure.
Honestly, the pamphlet that they wrote and provided was something I would have purchased if I found it in a garden store.
These guys got me my hops quickly (from across the country), in beautiful condition, and completely blew me away with their customer service.
I wanted to share this with all of you. They're worth checking out.
