Re-locating rhizomes. Anyone?....Beuller?

[J.Brew]

So my brewing partner is moving and plans to harvest the hops before he does. He wants to move the rhizomes themselves as well and re-plant them at his new house. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of a situation? Should he just uproot the rhizomes and re-plant, or is there any special care/precautions/steps he should take before attempting it? Any advice would be appreciated.

[Brew Engineer]

I would think if you're replanting them right away, you can dig them up and replant them. Just give them a nice home (fertilize per the instructions on other threads here). I would think you'd want to do it relatively soon after harvest, to give the rhizomes time to settle in to their new home before winter. I planted one of my rhizomes last fall and it was quick to take off this spring.

If you're not replanting them quickly, store them like you get them from FreshHops, etc.

In a baggie in a cool place.

[Madtown Brew]

Agree with BE. Probably the most important thing is to not let the rhizome dry out during transport. If it's going to be out of the soil for more than 24 hrs, wash off excess soil and bag it, but make sure that it doesn't start to rot in the bag if left too long. Additionally, try to get it into the ground with enough time for it to regrow some roots and acclimatize before first frost.

[t-rocket]

Yes, dig up crown and replant quickly. Dig up again in spring and see if any of the rhizomes from crown are sprouting buds. If not then leave alone. If so, I'd take cutting from those and replant and discard the old crown.

[t-rocket]

if stored in a bag, there cannot be any moisture otherwise it will promote rot. I'd get in ground asap