Ordering from Thyme Garden?

Hey guys, I'm new to the Homebrew scene but I'm looking towards the future and I know I'll want to try my hand a growing hops this spring. I've gathered that Rhizomes don't ship until ~March or April but thymegarden seems to be taking orders for this upcoming season. Does anyone have experience with this site, can I trust them with my cash until spring?

 

no exp. with them but most places will start the preorders in late jan early feb because no matter what they don't dig rhizomes till late feb mid march.

edit make sure that they are doing rhizomes and not seeds.....hops are like pot in that they have a male and female and we only want females. try freshops, hopunion, or hopsdirect these are good reputable dealers in all things hops

 

Hmmm, never heard of them 'til now.

I looked them up and searched for hops using their search function. Only 3 varieties came up two of which were ornamental. However I then did a search for hops rhizomes and they were the second hit after Fresh Hops which is a place most folks have had good luck with. I believe the supply many of the homebrew shops as well.

Anyway, Thyme garden seems to have most varieties (once I found the right page) and they claim them to be organically grown. As I mentioned they never came up in searches before so I am guessing they just started offering hops recently. My guess is they are taking preorders now to drum up some business before the other business start their regular season.

If you are interested in organically grown give them a try I suppose. Their prices are not too far afield compared with others.

 

You might check, but I would be surprised if they tap your card until the rhizomes ship in the Spring.

 

I'm quite certain they are Rhizomes and not seeds. I've seen the site come up in some of my browsing around so I assumed they were well established. I kind of just want to put my name in to make sure I get my hands on some, do the Rhizome retails tend to run out in a mad rush or should I have an ok time sourcing some?

 

This year was crazy because of the hop shortage, but if you get your order in at the beginning of the season there won't be any problems. Freshops shipped 20 times as many rhizomes this year compared to last year.

 

I'm in the same boat as you, I placed an order with them a couple weeks ago. My order history still says 'order pending', I guess I'll see what happens come march.

 

Great...now the question is how much to order? I guess I still have some time to decide, but at $5 a piece it doesn't seem like you can go wrong.

 

I've visited Thyme garden in person multiple times. Their prices (general herbs/ plants) are a bit higher than some local places, but they seemed like good, honest people (MAJOR hippies but that's ok with me). One of my favorite stops along the hwy 34 route to the coast (nice twisty road... FUN ride...). Their live plants (for sale and those on display) were generally in excellent condition.

I've never mail ordered from them, however, but would not hesitate to.

 

I ordered from them last year. Very good quality. I got Nugget, Cascade, Fuggles, Willamette and Hallertauer. I actually harvested 4ozs(dried) of Cascade and 8 dried ozs of Nugget in their 1st year. The rhizomes of these 2 were really large thus they yielded easily. Good company. They might be taking early orders because of last years mad rush to secure hops. My guess is that in 2 years a lot of homebrewers will be yanking out their hop plants because they become so overwhelming. So if you can wait there will be many freebies out there:cross:

 

Good to know. So I should probably only plant like 6 then huh.

 

Yeah,that should do it. It take hours to harvest 1 plant by hand. Most mature around the same time. A few days, maybe a week apart. Count on many evenings in a 2-3 week period in August-September to harvest. Usually hot and buggy in these parts during the harvest. I harvested a 4 YO Mt. Hood and took 2 evenings and still did not get them all. More than enuf tho'.

 

I also used them last year and my nugget rhizome was massive. I have 7 from last year and i'm planning on getting another 4 this year. I made the mistake of not getting any cascades so i built a planter box to house the 4 that i will be getting in the spring.

 

I got cascades and Nuggets from them last year and they were well packed and healthy

 

I ordered from them. They're very nice. They called me when they ran out of the Northern Brewer that I wanted and subbed it with Sterling. Sent it out same day. I ordered last Feb.

 

I too ordered from them, since they were the only place that (still) had Saaz.
I don't blame Thyme Garden, but the poor rhizomes spent 5 days in transit (holiday/UPS?) and when they arrived, and with the weather the way it was at the time, they looked like they had been steam-cooked. The rhizomes themselves were surprisingly thin - not much thicker than a pencil (I figure that's variety dependent) - but they both had really nice shoots already growing. The only problem was that one of the tips had started to rot by the time I got it. I eventually had to cut both shoots on that rhizome before planting and I was pretty sure it was toast. How happy I was to see that rhizome eventually sprout as well! And to think I had considered digging it up to check on it after the obvious demise of one of my Crystals. Withstanding that kind of abuse and still growing has got to be some sort of testament to the quality of their rhizomes. The two Saaz plants went on to grow quite well, and produced maybe a couple ounces between the two; I figure that's not bad for a first year Saaz. Can't wait to see how they do this year!
Anyhoo, to make a long story a tad longer, I would not hesitate to order from Thyme Garden again.

Chris

 

Oh yeah, note to self: DO NOT harvest hops at dusk without insect repellent!

 

Thanks for the tips. I'm thinking 2 plants of 3 varieties. I know I want cascades. I know I want something with a high alpha for bittering, magnum? Not sure about the third, maybe something a little less common?
EDIT: I pre-ordered 2 each of cascade, magnum, chinook. What % should I expect to survive?