vendor Hirts Gardens (ebay hirtsgardens)

So I kind of knew what I might be getting myself into, from doing a lil research and previous reviews from this site. But I like to give the benefit of doubt when trying a new supply or vendor, mainly to formulate my own bearings and sound opinion. Also I'd like to give a current review for the 2012 stock of plants and shipping now.

I ordered a handful of species from them, of which the positive aspect was the prices were not too bad, especially when ordering more than one variety, as you receive combined shipping, and the plants were in four packs which averaged out to 1.50 to 3 dollars a plant shipped, Anyways, the shipping was indeed fast, the packing was less than beautiful though, no preventative damage techniques. The peppers were placed in a large box in their starter pots and drowned in starch based packaging peanuts, I specify starch based because I spent 45 minutes picking off sticky, gangley, pieces of white corn peanuts from the plants. I think they placed them in the box wet or sprayed them before shipping.

The majority of the plants were in OK shape, all were certainly root bound and nicely stunted. The free aphids that came with them were kinda cool....another 45 minutes of popping the miniature goo babies....for fun, then sprayed with Fox Farms "don't bug me" Most of the plants were also from a Michigan grower "Wenke Greenhouses" and had just been re-sold, they were still in the original starters from that green house with ID tags. The exceptions were the Fataliis and Butch T's.

Now the really "really?" part. I had read deep into their feed back history looking for a response on one of the purchased Butch T's. I found one, it stated "The plants I received were not the Butch T's purchased" ok, right on, well maybe they were in fact shipped the wrong species, truly by mistake of Hirts Gardens. Well, benefit of doubt, I also ordered a four pack of Butch T's, 11.99 for a four pack, sure why not. Well, I also sent them a message asking if they were indeed Butch T's, here is the response;

Dear tweaksairaxx,

We purchase the Butch T Seed from Outback Traders in Australia.





- hirtsgardens

Aw yeah sweet! The dirty "cayenne" Butch T special seed. Sure enough it is either the most horticulturally handicapped Butch I've seen, or one of dem dirty suprise cayenne type peppers that like to wear a different badge :liar:

More so than anything, just keep a heads up about these people, I'm not going to say they are terrible, or cant sell plants if the world depended on it, but I wouldn't by peppers from them again, for all i know they may be the worlds best potato people yah know? But they certainly have mis-represented a popular product and are collecting profit for false advertising, they've sold quite a few of these "Butch T" dirty guys. Watch now, its going to blow my mind and be something crazy..........

;)

Here's a pic of the Hirts Gardens "Butch T"

20120426_234151-SophiaBlack.jpg


Good Vibes

Alex




 
2 years ago I had a germination failure and bought some of their bhut jolokia plants. 4 plants arrived and looked healthy. After growing them all summer, I had some really nice Caribbean Red Habaneros. I won't order from them again.
 
there are people here that sell plants. You can probably (I'd bet a doughnut) that you can still order healthy genuine Butch t plants from bakers peppers out of Tampa. He grows healthy plants, and I believe he's on ebay with them too....
 
E-bay is just a small part of their business. They have their regular site and an amazon site as well. I had them remove stolen pics but they only removed them from their main site, now I have to do some more complaining :(
 
I have a feeling whoever is in charge at Hirts is not very involved in the growing or management. They not only have stolen pics, sometimes they just have wrong pics, wrong descriptions (often stolen from other sites), they have the appearance of knowing absolutely nothing about the plants they grow. They're in it for the money.

I mean, it's not as if they're always terrible, I did buy some plants last year and they turned out (more or less) true. They looked sad upon receipt, but they lived. They're motto should be "Take a gamble with Hirts!"
 
Mr. Hirt's told me that they buy all their pics. He doesn't seem to realize he's buying stolen pics, either that or he's just lying. In all fairness he did take my pics down from his main site when I addressed the issue
 
I contacted them about the habaneros I grew that were supposed to be red Bhuts. He told me that cross pollination is a very common thing with hot peppers and they could be a hybrid... :think: :think: :think: Give me a break.
 
Those look an awful lot like the Cayennes I grew last year, they look like an annum at least.

For plants you might want to try either Bakers Peppers or Cross Country Nurseries, though the latter has a minimum order of 12 plants and I think they only have the regular Trinidad Scorpion (still nothing to scoff at).

Oh, and there's also Refining Fire Chiles. I think they only have a 6 plant minimum.
 
Everytime I see a thread about Hirts Gardens, I have to share this story:

Two or three years ago, without knowing better, I bought a live (supposed to be Bhut) plant from Hirts Gardens. It didn't come with enough aphids for me to notice, but they bred quickly. I couldn't kill them all with popping or with spray, so I threw the plant out. Take a look at the damage the critters caused.

bhut1.jpg


bhut2.jpg


Can the experienced growers here let me know whether this was indeed a Bhut?

Thanks
 
Everytime I see a thread about Hirts Gardens, I have to share this story:

Two or three years ago, without knowing better, I bought a live (supposed to be Bhut) plant from Hirts Gardens. It didn't come with enough aphids for me to notice, but they bred quickly. I couldn't kill them all with popping or with spray, so I threw the plant out. Take a look at the damage the critters caused.

Can the experienced growers here let me know whether this was indeed a Bhut?

Thanks

It looks like a chinense, but there have been just as many people complaining that the Bhuts turned out to be normal red Habaneros.

Pretty much any plant you buy from them should be treated as a mystery pepper unless you go with one of the more common varieties. Last year I bought White Habs, Aji Amarillo, Cayennes, and Jalapenos from them before I knew any better. The seedlings looked liked crap but at least they turned out true. Best go through the reliable sellers here if you have your heart set on a particular variety. No sense supporting a company that hasn't addressed its customer complaints.
 
@ Tweak: i bought the same deal from hirt's. I am new to growing super hots. i had no idea of what the plant was supposed to look like, but now that the peppers are growing i can tell that they are NOT Butch T. they look like some sort of cayenne pepper.The plant and tag was the exact same as the one Bluegods posted. i have tried contacting them with no luck. did you ever get the issue resolved?
 
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