Canadian Supplier of Hop Rhizomes?

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mrkeeg

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Joined
Mar 4, 2005
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Location
Sundre, AB
I hope "general" is a good place for this post.

Anyone know of a Canadian supplier of hop rhizomes? I want something that will grow in my climate and I know it's a pain to ship live plants over the border.

Thanks
Keegan
 
freshops can't ship them to you?

FWIW, you need about 120 frost free days to grow any hop variety, but beyond that, they grown in darn near any temperate area to some degree.
 
I just found this place: http://www.crannogales.com/farm.html

I don't know anything about them, but I think I'll place an order anyway. I'll probably spend about $100 with shipping so if I don't get what I need then I'm not out too much, but if I do, I'll be in hop heaven.

By the way, they ship to Canada ONLY.
 
Fingers said:
I just found this place: http://www.crannogales.com/farm.html

I don't know anything about them, but I think I'll place an order anyway. I'll probably spend about $100 with shipping so if I don't get what I need then I'm not out too much, but if I do, I'll be in hop heaven.

By the way, they ship to Canada ONLY.

Their small scale/organic hops growing manual is a decent read as well.
 
McKBrew said:
Their small scale/organic hops growing manual is a decent read as well.

I have the capacity to do small scale commercial hop growing. SWMBO is on board. I may have to look very closely at this.
 
Fingers said:
I have the capacity to do small scale commercial hop growing. SWMBO is on board. I may have to look very closely at this.

One of my post retirement dreams is to grow just enough hops (< 1 acre) that I can hook up fellow homebrewers at a reasonable price.
 
My mom's considering going into small scale commercial hop farming when she retires in a few years, hopefully you guys can start first and figure out what NOT to do :D
 
cool, thanks guys.

we don't have anywhere near 120 frost free days though.... likely closer to 100. I may try to plant some right by the house anyway. The other option would be to have a vine or two in the folks greenhouse....
 
You have to be the ultimate lurker, mrkeeg. Only 90 posts since March 2005 and you respond to my post within days. That's awesome!

You should post your location in your profile so we Canucks can recognize each other. You can't give the secret handshake over the googlewebs.
 
boo boo said:
I live in Mt. pearl and grow hops. in fact I'm in my third year of growing them.

where are you from? OK I see now.


Really? I'm in St. John's, and I'm in school this summer, and had been planning on getting into growing, so that's great news! What varieties do you grow, and have you had any that did less well?
 
That seems like a fair bit? I guess it would depend on how much you brewed, and what they were like after they dried, but it looks pretty good. Those two and Fuggles were the ones I was thinking of trying to grow, so that's pretty encouraging.
 
Fingers... I am a bit of a lurker, but that must have been mostly luck.

I think my location should show up now. :) Good to see another few Cannucks on here...
 
mrkeeg, my brother is just finishing his visit to Manitoba today to return to Hughenden Alta. You anywhere near there?
 
Hey Guys,
I am from Sherwood Park, Alberta and am also looking for rhizomes.
How did you make out this year mrkeeg?

Tim.
 
Just so you know, tsamis, I got very viable rhizomes from crannog ales. They all came up but one of them got drowned out. The other nine varied from 'holy crap' to 'niiiiiiiice'. I didn't string them up this year because I didn't really expect to harvest any. I let the root ball grow and will make a trellis for them next year.
 
Hey Guys,
(Talk about a slow response time..)
I didn't get my order in early enough last year, so this spring I will try again!

Fingers.. good to hear yours grew well.. have you tasted any yet?

Hughendon is a few hours from me...

Anyone ever look into testing the AA% of homegrown hops? My guess is it wouldn't be worth it... but...
 
I am in Edmonton and also considering getting some hops this year. It looks like there is still stock but prolly need to get on it soon!

Did you guys end up ordering some hops this year? I am currently doing research to find the hardiest / best yielding variety for the climate. I only have room / approval for a couple (well... she said one) of plants but at least it is something.

Cheers!
 
I just made my orders from Richters (someone gave the link a few posts back.)

Crannog looks good to, but... they have an online/ mail order business and don't take visa? Cheapo.
 
I put in an order yesterday at http://www.fourhorses.ca/
They're based in Ontario and have some stock still.

I bought Sterling, Mt Hood, Goldings and Fuggles.

I live in Thunder Bay, ON (top of Lake Superior). It gets down to -40C in the winter (never gets above -20 for a few weeks in Jan / Feb) and hops grows like a weed here - it's all over the place in people's gardens as an ornamental vine. I've never grown hops before but I practiced last year on the ones I found growing in our back yard.

I'm actually surprised there is no commercial growing operation in the region. Next to dandilions, it has to be the most prevalent crop in these parts!

We are looking to buy a house so I plan to move these babies at some point. I plan to buy 4 X 50L bags of garden mix, stand them on end, puncture the bottoms with a screw driver to let the water out, open the top of the bag and plant the rhizomes directly into the soil (I might reinforce the bag with packing tape so moving them doesn't cause a rupture).

If we haven't moved by Fall, I'll pack around the bags with hay and plastic for insulation.
 
I put in an order yesterday at http://www.fourhorses.ca/
They're based in Ontario and have some stock still.

I bought Sterling, Mt Hood, Goldings and Fuggles.

I live in Thunder Bay, ON (top of Lake Superior). It gets down to -40C in the winter (never gets above -20 for a few weeks in Jan / Feb) and hops grows like a weed here - it's all over the place in people's gardens as an ornamental vine. I've never grown hops before but I practiced last year on the ones I found growing in our back yard.

I'm actually surprised there is no commercial growing operation in the region. Next to dandilions, it has to be the most prevalent crop in these parts!

We are looking to buy a house so I plan to move these babies at some point. I plan to buy 4 X 50L bags of garden mix, stand them on end, puncture the bottoms with a screw driver to let the water out, open the top of the bag and plant the rhizomes directly into the soil (I might reinforce the bag with packing tape so moving them doesn't cause a rupture).

If we haven't moved by Fall, I'll pack around the bags with hay and plastic for insulation.


I just ordered from them too..
Centennial
Cascade
Chinook

Didn't have any Columbus which I really wanted.. but thankfully someone in the SoB group is mailing me some. I live in Parry Sound which is reasonably north (not Thunder Bay mind you). So I'm interested to see how they do.. more of a pet project than anything.
 
i ordered my hops from www.richters.com

Just placed an order myself.

These are cool to plant in the fall, right? September is usually pretty nice here, and October is okay as well. It's that NOV-MAR part of the year that is ****ty and cold and snowy... Oh well whatever - we'll see.
 
Hey guys, seeing as this thread started in '05 I don't feel so bad bringing it back to life. Besides, since when did it become uncouth to revive an old thread you're interested in??

I'd love to hear how your hops are coming along that you've ordered years ago. Many of you placed orders in '09, plenty of time for hops to get up to their full potential (3 yrs to maturity?) so I'd love to hear how you made out growing them, pics of hauls or the plants etc.

I'm just getting to the point where I want to grow some hops myself. My options are limited living in a high-rise condo in Calgary but I'm going to take a shot at it anyway. I've got a south facing balcony with a massive planter (I've read the root balls are prolific) so I'm going to give that a go, but i've also been getting into Hydroponics and I'm really eager to test out hops in a hydro system like DWC.

Given hops are a relative of dope and they grow like weeds themselves, I'm really surprised more people don't attempt these with hydroponics/aeroponics. I'm not sure how a rhizome based plant will end up but I'm really curious to try. I'm also wondering how the plant will respond to being grown year around.

After searching the net, I've found very little info on hydroponic hops with the exception of this lengthly blog: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hydro/msg0404205731932.html

I realize it's a little early for ordering rhizomes but I've got to get my pre-order in early this year (was too late last year) and I also found Hops seeds for sale on Ebay. This surprised me, I hadn't heard of them being sold as seeds before. It seems to me like growing from seeds would set you even further back as it would probably take a year to grow a basic rhizome from a seed. I ordered 10 to give it a go and see what happens but they haven't arrived yet.

I'm hoping to revive this thread and get some input. Anyone out there who have tried hydroponic hops first hand?

Looking for input as well on varieties suitable to the climate here in Alberta (Calgary). Sure I know hops are prolific growers and weed-like, able to adapt to any environment... however I cannot stress enough how arid the climate is here. From all I've read on the subject, hops prefer more humid environments and often grow best under shade or less light. This is why they grow great in the Maritimes and the Pacific NW.

Currently in Alberta we're hovering around 5% RH in the house although that is usually around 10%. This past summer I took trip home to Halifax and took some cuttings (and rhizomes) from a friends Cascade vine. Safely packed in a large Zip-Lock with water in the bag for moisture. Hopped on the plane home, took the hops carefully out of the bag the second I walked in the door, prepared a soil bed for them, transplanted them, watered them etc... I came back an hour later and the leaves were completely shriveled and dried. I touched one and it spontaneously turned into dust. Now that was definitely my fault for failing to recognize just how arid it is here compared to there but I wanted to describe that experience so you guys would realize just how dry it is here!

paul_beer mentioned earlier in the thread doing some research on the best varieties for his area... if you're lurking out there, could you share what you came up with?

Any extra info or input is invited! Thanks guys.
 
I don't have mine any more. I grew them in bags of compost mix for 1 year. They all went really well (even had cones) except for the Sterling which almost died. It was weak from the get go.

We had to move house in the middle of winter and when I came back to pick them up in the spring, the new owners had disposed of them :-(

Will try again we we buy a house (maybe this spring ??)

FWIW I live in Thunder Bay, ON. Hardiness zone 6-7 (it was -40 C here last week) and hops grow like weeds around here.
 
I bought one nugget, cascade and ultra from http://sacabane.com/ in spring 2012 had a bit of nugget last year, i just harvested half a pound (fresh) of nugget there seems to be around the same quantity of cascade and there is maybe 20 cones of ultra. All plant seems to fares well here. I live in zone 2a had -45C last winter and around 75 free frost days this summer (i lost 2 lines of radish in early july due to frost, never saw that before). Tomatoes and vines froze a few days ago, and no problem with hop. I harvested nugget because it looked like the time to do it, cones started to turn yellowish-brown. That's been a few years i have vines and i'm thinking to replace them for hop because of the numerous spring and fall frost. I'll just make more beer and stop worrying about the cold.
 
Does anyone in a wooded area know if the wildlife will obliterate a hop garden? My parents live in a location that gets warmth, lots of sunlight and has plenty of space, but they have lots of trouble trying to grow even a simple vegetable garden because the local wildlife completely plunder it. They're near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. I've ordered some hop rhizomes, and am debating with myself which of two locations will be more suitable.
 
I haven't heard of deer bothering hops in the past.
It grows so quickly, that it's above browse height within a few weeks.
It's also rather rough / prickly. There are probably more tasty things to eat nearby...
 
Does anyone in a wooded area know if the wildlife will obliterate a hop garden? My parents live in a location that gets warmth, lots of sunlight and has plenty of space, but they have lots of trouble trying to grow even a simple vegetable garden because the local wildlife completely plunder it. They're near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. I've ordered some hop rhizomes, and am debating with myself which of two locations will be more suitable.

I know hops can be poisonous if eaten by cats and dogs, so i imagine most wild animals can tell enough to stay away from them. It might be worth trying to plant a hedge of hops around your garden and see if it does anything to keep other critters away.
 
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