Ive just ordered some hop rizzies

[pantsmachine]

edit now, i planted 2 in a very wind sheltered area which does not get much sun. One of these is the primadonna and it has 3 shoots on it 1 of which has grown about 2 inches since they went in. The Northdown is shooting as well in the same area. The Brambling cross and the progress are not really living up to the name but they are in a more wind exposed area and get lots of sun! I did not bury the rhizomes completely but instead left the top of them clear of the earth as there were a couple of very small buds on each of them. I dug out about a 6" deep hole and mixed the earth from the hole with compost and chicken s**t/straw from a mate(strange mates i have). I also did a slight mound as well and covered it with smooth pebbles to discourage groundcrawling beasties. I hope you did similar stuff yourself? I also watered well and do so every 4 days or so. Good luck,which variety did you buy? I ask as the prima donna is the run away winner for me with the Progress being dead last with pretty much nothing happening yet.....

[edit1now]

Fuggles...

[mdex]

Can I still order and plant some now or is it too late?

Where is the best place to buy from?

Mat

[edit1now]

I would heartily recommend Hopfen-Shop in Germany. Viable plants turned up, quickly, in little pots. When planted out, they've made longer shoots and more leaves quite soon.

Their website is partly in English as well as German. You have to choose from the Europa/Europe selection, then the hop prices include the P&P to send to the UK. (Outside the EU you have to email them so they can sort out the customs paperwork and plant disease certificates.)

NB when you order from Hopfen-Shop the form where you fill-in your address won't take a UK postcode in the Postleitzahl field. Put your postcode after your Post Town in the Ort field, and put 00000 (yes, that's five zeros,) in Postleitzahl. I had to email them (Franz.Seidl@t-online.de), and got a helpful explanation from Herr Franz Seidl.

I ordered two bare-root Fuggles plants from Aplus Hops, but these haven't come up yet after planting on the 14th of March, so they may be defunct

The hops I planted about 8 years ago from Deacon's Nurseries are going great guns, but I don't know what sub-variety of Hallertauer they are, as Deacon's don't specify.

[pantsmachine]

Nic one, that shortcut is now in my favourites folder for next year if i get any hops this year.

[FlourPower]

I'm saddened by the emails sent by martial ant. It's often the case when ordering plants, especially germinated crop plants or rizomes that the company can't give an order date. Rather they'll wait until they have the quality product that you require and send it out then. I'll agree that a note on the website is often normal and would suggest the supplier puts one on.

The only problem I can see is the taking of money at time of purchase. Money should only be taken when goods are sent out. Though this may be a paypal thing. I'd rather the convenience of paying by paypal than the hapenny interest you'd earn.

We as brewers should see that things take longer in the real world.

[MartialAnt]

I'm saddened by the emails sent by martial ant.

Why?

[pantsmachine]

If anyone is having a slow start to the year with their hops and they are in a windy area i would suggest trying a polythene tunnel or similar around to screen the plant and up the temperature. The difference between my 2 exposed hop plants and my 2 sheltered plants is huge. The shetered plants now have approx 6" growth on the largest bine whiloe the exposed plants have under an inch! I don't think this is a co-incidence but i will leave them for this year in their sites and move the exposed ones next year if need be.

I am not saddened by martial ants comments, maybe a bit OTT but then again i waited 90+ days for my plants which is not on at all. Different people react differently to poor service and let's face it we are buyers they are suppliers and if they want to run a biz they should up their game a bit. Nah noy a bit a huge amount as they are consistently slagged off on this forum and have been for years.....

Anyway,
Sheltered hops
Prima donna with a tin can beside it for scale ref

Northdown


Exposed Hops
Bramling cross

Progress(good name)


Going to take my own advice and rig tunnels round the bramling and the progress tomorrow.

[pantsmachine]

I've just been out and watered my hops and thought about my last post(sad or what). I am not having a go at you Flourpower but check this out. Yesterday afternoon i ordered a 25 kg sack of lager malt from Barley bottom. Within a 1/2 hour of placing the order i had Paul the owner on the phone telling me he had checked his grain store and no more lager malt to be had, it would be next week and was that ok?

That was the first time i had spoke to Paul(my my the fun he must have had trying to understand my GlaswegianAberdonian accent)! Anyway my point is, that was a service i did not expect but he did it off his own back any way when he could have just waited till next week and i would have been none the wiser.

So there's Paul at one end of the scale supplying us beerboys and there's APlus at the other end of the scale with a long bloody way to go till they even get to the middle going on my and MA's experiences. Communication is everything. Anyway that's me off my high horse and i'm off out to look at my garden coz i like that sort of stuff.

[MartialAnt]

Taking my money is like taking the Kings shilling. Once you've taken it, there's no going back.

Aplus got it easy. You should have seen what i did to a company over a dodgy piece of 5hit poxy radio controlled helicopter i bought my son for his birthday. I put up a video response on youtube to show 5hit it was & then commented on all products that there products were 5hite. Ooh, i got a brand new heli + a free 240v charger worth £6.99 + a free set of propeller blades worth £9.99 in the post within a week.

You dont get anywhere if your a soft arse. Plus i get off on being a persistant, sarcastic 5hitty barstard.

[pantsmachine]

Welcome back to your thread. I thought you were dead. Unlucky on the hop trampling dog, bummer.

[MartialAnt]

Welcome back to your thread. I thought you were dead. Unlucky on the hop trampling dog, bummer.

The dog trampled em to start with but its been my bloody fault most recently. Yesterday i removed the wire mesh from around em & 1 mesh caught the 1 i was about to remove slicing straight through it. Then today i was putting a bit of ply boxing around the bottoms in place of the mesh & somehow the bine just snapped. Cant explain why, it just happened. It was the longest bine of 2.5'. Spose if i just leave em the feck alone they'll have a better chance of living.

If i can get the 2 bits to root i'll guerrilla garden em next year somewhere quiet.

[SiHoltye]

I must preamble that I've not read all the pages of the A-Plus threads, and those I have read do not excuse their lack of keeping the customer informed both from the pre-order delivery and subsequently 'where are my hops - you've got my money' stage, .......but.......as someone who likes a bit of green fingered-ness, surely they can't supply high percentageably viable 'gonna grow-on' product at just any time of the year. Their selling season is during plant dormancy and early growth stages only??? To further increase reliability of growing success (and continued business) they should tell people "order when you like, but you'll only get our best presented product when we're are ready to send it to you for it's best potential for successful planting into a new environment". They should tell people this because it sounds like what they're doing.

[simple one]

I had no probs with Aplus hops.... and they even phoned to say that the hops were going to be delivered in 5 days rather than 3. (thats the truth!)

Now Martial is really cross.....

Theres this bully taking all my lunch money, martial will you sort him out for me? (thats a lie)

[Waffty]

Bought my hop plants from Aplus hops, when I knew they had them in stock and ready to go. Paid via PayPal, received confirmation emails (multiple), root stocks arrived (Northdown & Progress), planted both, one took, the other looked to be dead, fired off an email asking if I should be doing anything different. Got an email advising of underground slug attacks, so to use pellets + the offer of an new rootstock to replace it

Good customer service in my books, ok not as good as Paul at Barley bottom but there again, his service levels are excellent, so therefore in a different league.

Looks to me like Aplus are a good company to deal with but do accept that if they haven't got the stock offering ready to go, then they should advise this i.e you're buying a item that isn't ready to ship or, please come back when it is. I guess live plants/stocks are a little different to commoditiy items, in so much that they have a limited delivery window i.e like seed potatoes i.e order when you like but get them delivered no earlier than late Jan, early feb

I guess we all live in the want it now world Now Hop & Grape owe me a grain bag from 4 weeks ago & I had to chase them for a date i.e what does 'to follow mean' in real terms ?