3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
I planted my first dahlia tuber with the eye pointing down. Poor soul found its way up after many days. We had a good laugh considering what a fool I was.
That said, I planted all my dahlias in 16"x14" square planters. They are already staked.
Here is a link that might be useful: ADS Growing Dahlia in Pots
You can plant them either way but some are really long so you don't have to dig as deep a hole if you plant them laying on their side. We have a friend who uses a large auger & electric drill to dig her holes straight down, pops in the tuber & covers it up. She gets kidded that her dahlias are going to get tired standing up all summer- but they grow well & don't look tired to me!
The lowest set of leaves are known as the "cotyledon" leaves--the very first set of leaves that appear on the stem. Now, count 3 sets of leaes ABOVE the cotyledon leaves, and pinch above them. In other words, pinch above the third set of true leaves.
For absolutely fabulous information about growing dahlas, go down from the top until you come to the posting "Dahlias in pots" by "proudgm". Open it, and the 5th posting inside this post is a post by "poochella" in which at the bottom of his post is a reference to the American Dahlia Society. Read it, download it, and print it. It is authentic, detailed, and accurate. You could not ask for a better source, nor a better article! ENJOY !
Good Info can be found in the link below.
Here is a link that might be useful: Topping Dahlias
I'm a she and I agree that is a very useful article.
Below is a link to that and other articles for all to see.
Here is a link that might be useful: Links to ADS articles
You've got it, elle. The base of the new growth planted 4-6" under the top of the soil would be good enough, regardless if some green sticks out above ground. I usually mulch another couple inches on top of the soil once the plants get a foot or more tall.
Would like to add the word NOT to 'horribly wet' in the last paragraph of my previous post. As in 'not horribly wet' like my beds are now, and the rain begins yet again. Too bad they don't offer an edit feature here.
Good luck with your dahlias! They should do fine considering they can grow forgotten in a compost pile or garbage can for weeks on end.
If you will send me your name and e-mail address I will send you an illustrated set of directions. Be sure to tell me what you want, and KINDLY put the word "GardenWebber" in the subject area to keep your e-mail to me out of my junk pile. THANK YOU.
I agree with "grannymarsh", but my suggestion is to plant that deep, but cover the tuber only 1 or 2 inches, then, as you new growth appears, fill the hole until you are even with the surrounding garden. It would be better to lighten up the soil with compost, and, or, perlite, or, fill the hole with something like Promix, or Sunshine mix.
Good luck!
I would like to have some bird pepper seeds. I am from the Bahamas and was told that your Thai bird peppers are the same, can you confirm this? If they are the same, please tell me if you can send me some seeds?
I'm sorry I don't have a garden. I'm just starting out, so I have nothing to trade.
I was interested in seeing what this Dahlia looked like so I googled it. An LA Times article came up with the person who created this hybrid. Apparently it is grown in Southern California. Maybe you can try to get in contact with Pat Cunningham through the woman who wrote the article.
Good luck,
http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-dahlias11aug11,1,769471,full.story
It's a pretty nice weed, if indeed that's what it is. I say let it grow or else we'll never know the answer to this puzzle!
I let some promising 'foxglove seedlings' sprout and grow for weeks in my perennial bed one year til my nice neighbor kicked one and told me it was a horrible weed and best to get rid of it. Live and learn.
Another way to see if it's your dahlia is to gently dig it up and check out the roots. If there are tubers, bingo, if shallow rooted or no tubers, then it's a non-dahlia.
I do see the little tuber sticking out of the pots. I have some that are as big as my foot! Some of the eyes are on the crown part of the tuber that is sticking out. I have to cover that don't I? I now have to find something for my aching back. I just had to many tubers that made it through the winter and I hate throwing anything out. I may just order next year. Actually I am getting a big order of cuttings in late May so have to save some space.
Lol...big as your foot...;-] Well, ok, if they're that big then clearly they ain't fitting in no 4" pot. None that I received, nor any that I harvested from last year's crop were anywhere near that big.
Last year I did cut tubers that were extremely long, or had a funny shape (e.g. L shaped.) As best I could tell, they sprouted just like any other. I probably wouldn't cut and then store them, however...others might have more to say about that.
Best I can tell the tuber is only there to provide food for the sprouts at the crown before roots are established. Given we know that cuttings survive without roots, I'd probably go so far as to speculate that you could whittle your foot-sized tuber into something that would fit into the 4" pot and be fine...but that's just speculation. I would more likely simply throw that one away assuming I had more tubers of the same variety handy that weren't so large.
I hear Margaritas do wonders for back pain, btw...;-]
Cheers,
Russ
In 2 weeks my tubers went from more or less nothing to sprouts ~3" tall. Depending on how deep you've planted them, its not unrealistic that they still haven't broken the surface.
I'll vote for you being too impatient.
Do remember that any air frost may very well kill any growth above ground. I too am in Ontario and would not be comfortable putting out dahlias that are above the surface until the last week of May, at the earliest, unless I had a way to protect them from the frost. Might want to stick to your bring them back in at night for a while longer.
I remember a few years ago we had Zero C on the May 24th weekend.
Cheers,
Russ
See now I would say it isn't a dahlia. All of my dahlias that have gotten to that size have 3 leaves on a branch, whereas this one looks like it only has one leaf per branch.
But those who have spoken before me have more experience, so like Melaroma, I'd sure like to know if it turns out to be a dahlia.
Cheers,
Russ
I am so jealous and nervous about what I am doing. I have way to many dahlias. Some of the tubers have eyed up and I shouold put them in pots until they are ready to go into the ground. The others are in litterboxes on top of peat. Should I keep that moist? I put them out in the sun every day.
The question really is whether you think you'll get a hard frost (e.g. the moisture in the soil actually freezes to any extent) or not.
The tubers will survive in the soil with cool temperatures, just not frost. Remember, they are shallow root plants so you only need to freeze a couple of inches of soil and you'll kill or damage the roots. It would take several weeks of ground frost to kill the tuber (think about what happens at the end of the season.)
I too am in Zone 5, and am on the side of a lake (which usually means our temperatures are slightly higher than others) but you are more daring than I. But my reason is that most of mine are 8" tall already and I don't want to have to bother with coverings for frost warnings.
Most of my tubers took 15 days to go from nothing to a cuttable sprout. Were they in the ground, that sprout would have had a couple of sets of leaves above the ground and would have been highly susceptible to frost.
The up-side of your plan, however, is that even if the above-ground part gets frosted, a root system should get established as well, so a new sprout should come up quickly.
Good luck, and let us know how it works out for you.
Cheers,
Russ
I plant my dahlias in pots all the time, I use a good potting soil mix (moisture control MiracleGro) and add extra compost, peat moss and lava sand (for good drainage)...I fill my pots at planting time too. I stake at planting time. I get good results this way. Oh also each spring I add about a 2 inch layer of compost to each pot...so far so good!
FWIW, all of my Dahlias are planted in 4" pots. I plant both tubers and cuttings in the plastic 4" pots from a popular online store (Lee Val...) I use moisture control MriacleGro also.
Tubers are planted pointy end down, crown up, with ~50% of the tuber sticking out the top of the pot. Larger tubers have more sticking out the top of the pot.
Cuttings are planted the same was as they are taken.
All pots sit in trays which hold 24 x 4" pots. I give the tray ~1" of water a week, and all trays are under T5 lighting.
When I plant them in the ground, I will plant them in the 4" container. The depth will vary according to whether its a tuber or cutting. Cuttings will be put so the top of the pot is ~2"-4" below the surface. Tubers will be planted so the top of the crown is ~2"-4" below the surface.
When I dug mine up last year (planted this way) most of the pots were intact and the tuber clump completely contained inside. A few had broken or cracked their pots. They were dug out by running a knife around the outside edge of the pot as I was not interested in any tubers that were outside the pot itself.
I tried propogating them straight away last fall, cutting off the stem and taking all tubers out of their pots and cleaning them. Completely unrelated to this, I lost them all due to spider mites.
However, if I were going to over-winter my tubers in storage, I would simply cut the stem of the tuber off, leave them to dry out somewhat, then and wrap them up in newspaper and box them up (leaving them in their pots.)
In the spring, you bring out the pots and let the tubers start to sprout. You can then either replant the pot, or take cuttings and make more...
Cheers,
Russ
Poochella is right- sounds like your tuber is rotting before the plant has enough feeder roots to sustain it. If you did a cutting at least you wouldn't be out a plant- & if the plant recovers, you'll then have an extra Zorro. Do the cutting so you have 1 set of leaves to nip off & put underground & one set of leaves above ground. That'll leave a couple of sets of leaves to keep the poor thing going - sort of like you've topped it.
I did take a cutting before going in to investigate. I cut the tuber at the root end as you suggested, Pouchella, and the darn thing looked good with some very healthy feeder roots at both ends! I ended up "dissecting" it, so I lost that tuber. But in the end I think it was a good learning exercise.
The cutting was taken over 12 hours ago and still looks poorly. However, the cut turned out to be at a hollow node. IÂll cut it up further as you suggested, Plantlady, and hope for the best.