3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
See my recent posting.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/dahlia/msg1008264021451.html?2
I keep a clump, or part of a clump together, and split in the spring. It works. Even Bernie, thought so. I do believe though the secret is the fungicide, or bulb dust. I rarely lose a tuber.
I thought the tuber might split the pot. Some of mine had 30 to 40 single tubers on them. They never would have stayed in a pot? Why do you want to do it that way? One tuber looks just like a big foot with a leg! I have no idea which is the stem and which is the leg so I don't know where to cut? It will take up alot of room if I plant it the way it is.
I did receive tubers from one company that were sliced in half. You can see the cut very well. So it will work.
You might be surprised pdshop, to learn that >90% of the Dahlias did no harm to their 4" pots. I was surprised it was so high.
I wanted to grow them in 4" pots in order to make it easier to lift them in the fall. My understanding was that the 4" pot would *keep* the clumps small...obviously that's not true.
Referring to that foot-like tuber, here it is cleaned up out of the pot:
I agree, I had a very difficult time splitting this tuber up...as I did with many of the tubers. In fact, I had so much trouble with them I have decided I won't be planting in 4" pots in the future. I will certainly get them started in 4" pots, and likely grow them in these pots until they're planted out into the gardens...but when they go in the ground I'll remove them from the pots.
My reason is simple, trying to divide such tight clumps yields fewer tubers and makes ensuring I have viable crown material on tubers more difficult. Even if I only want a couple of tubers, its still more difficult to do with tight clumps.
Cheers,
Russ
Lots of things can affect whether a Dahlia blooms. That it did at all usually means its viable. Ask yourself:
When did you plant it? You should have been able to plant it in mid to late May...whenever the ground is no longer frozen. If you planted it later, that could explain late blooming.
Did the stem break at any point? I had a Lemon Tart that was coming into bloom in late May (I started it inside in January.) Shortly after it was planted out, one of my dogs decided it was in her way and broke it at the ground. It finally recovered and bloomed 2 weeks ago.
I'd go ahead and lift the tubers and give them another try, earlier next year if you can. Might also want to check your soil. Take some into a garden center and ask them if its good for tomatoes...if not, Dahlias won't like it either and may not do as well because of it.
Cheers,
Russ
I'm with Russ on this. I give any variety at least 2 years' trial before tossing it. Good advice to try starting your tuber early next year and see how/when it blooms. Seems silly to waste the space for one flower that shows up just days before the season's over.
"Ripples" got two years in my best sun and still didn't bloom til October- out it goes. Some just bloom later than others no matter what you do.
So I found a neat new toy from a company called UPM, its the EM100 Energy Meter. You plug it into a wall outlet and then plug in anything you want to meter into it.
In my case I have all of my lights for my Dahlias plugged into it to see how much power they're consuming.
24 x 54 watt T5 bulbs for 14 hours = 15.5kwhr = $1.77/day (in our area.)
If you ever wondered just how much something was costing you in electricity charges...its a great way to find out.
Cheers,
Russ
FWIW, what you have looked at and enjoyed was the result of someone caring about the flower/plant name game. You may not care, but if all of us didn't, you wouldn't have what you have...and, you may not have it next year, because people aren't caring about the flower/plant name game.
I don't mean to sound negative, but we aren't simply harvesting some naturally growing beauty here. Knowing a little bit about genetics helps a whole lot...or else we'll be here 3 years from now trying to explain to someone you've given tubers to as to why they don't look anything like your description now.
I here portulaca is nice?
Cheers,
Russ
Well, Russ, I'm glad there are people like you in the world. No need to get on your high horse. I do know a little about genetics and open pollination and I find crosses to produce some very interesting combinations. I was just stating that I grow my garden for enjoyment and not so that I can say I have an original so and so. It so happens that I have posted on my exchange page that all plants are open pollinated and that sometimes you get what mother nature creates. People who understand that and enjoy crosses like me are the only type of people I trade with. Perhaps you should cross some of your dahlias. You might actually enjoy what you get.
I paint the insides heavly and the bottom of the legs. I put several coats of bull eye shalack on the out side. We love the look of natural wood. Then I dump potting soil in. They get quite heavy when the soil is wet. I us a refegerator cart to move them.
Yes, Swan Island has an open house in the summer & they cut everything off at the same height so people can take pictures of the fields & they will be uniform. It will set the blooms back - you'd have to figure out how much bloom you want to give up & how long it'll take the plants to recover.
Do you "stop" your dahlias when they get to about a foot tall? This is done early in the season to keep plants shorter & bushier & doesn't get rid of as many blooms as mowing them off later in the season. This article on the Colorado Dahlia Society site tells you how to do this.
Here is a link that might be useful: Topping dahlias
>Do you "stop" your dahlias when they get to about a foot tall?No, I didn't do that this season. I'll definitely try it next season and hope it prevents them from becoming 8' gangly giants with tall stems that snap off as the flowers bloom. And that link you provided showed an excellent how-to. Thanks so much! :)
Absolutely Gorgeous!!!!Steve in Baltimore County.
Realy nice and sad that your season is over for this year.