3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
Mary;
If you are willing go beyond North America in your search, there is sort of a European / UK availability list at the address below. I made a quick check and they showed eight INCAs mostly from the national collection. This link is also available at the top of the BigList.
Don McAllister
Here is a link that might be useful: Europe/UK Dahlia Availability List
In my experience tubers need:
1. Water
2. Light
inside. When they go outside, the need soil. In other words, you could start them in wet newspapers and they'd likely eye up and sprout.
Soil only comes into it when they sprout roots, and when you're starting tubers you're not really going after roots, you want sprouts. The more roots they grow indoors, the more work it is to transplant safely.
I'd use the loosest soil you can find, and keep the tubers shallow in the mix. I started mine in a 50-50 mix of Miracle Grow Seed Starter and peat. Worked fine, but I doubt the soil had anything to do with anything.
Cheers,
Russ
The only fertilizer I used last year was a small handful of bone meal in the bottom of each tuber hole. Worked great!
I should add that my sprinkler system gets its water from the lake, so there were likely additional nutrients being delivered via the water. My bay is very calm, shallow, and has 2' of mud on the bottom so its nutrient rich, I believe.
Cheers,
Russ
I take cuttings for two reasons, increase the number of plants from a special variety and to get a good root system started.
As for the difference in timing, if you plant a cutting, with say four sets of leaves, and stop the main growth tip, it will bloom earlier then a tuber. Why? The tuber has to emerge out of the ground, get four sets of leaves and then be stopped.
Now to really throw you a curve!!! I also grow for show. If I have a show on Sept 14, 2008, and I want A size (8"-10") dahlias in full bloom for that date, I'll count back 60 days and stop the main growth tip on the plant (tuber or cutting). It dosen't matter if there's eight sets of leaves (that is possible if using a cutting) or four sets of leaves from a tuber. The number of days to bloom will still be 60. I'll only allow four laterals to develop. So if that cutting is 3' tall, it's almost stripped right down to ground level (I only want four laterals and lower to the ground they are, the easier it is for the plant to supply nutrients). If I don't do this, they get too tall.
If you are growing for cut flowers, I'd suggest that you use only small dahlias (BB - 4"-6"), waterlily's, ball and miniature dahlias. If using cuttings and you take out the growth tip say by May 14, and then plant if conditions are okay, you can have blooms by the first or second week of july.
I just double-checked. I didn't pay the duty on the tubers until March 16th last year, and I now remember putting them in the fridge for a week if not two before they were finally potted up to start inside. So they were basically started around now and were in bloom on June 19th.
Cheers,
Russ
Linnea- you can put them in water- just get a small jar- like a babyfood or jam jar, cover the top with foil- anchor the foil tightly with an elastic band. Poke a hole the size of the cutting stem in the foil & insert your cutting into the water. Now you're really doing it hydroponically! The reason I use the sand is to keep the cuttings straight up- they do tend to flop around a little with the "just water" method.
Ellie
Linnea,
For what its worth, my cuttings are in Miracle Grow Seed Starter or Moisture Control, both potting soils. I switched to Moisture Control only because the local shops ran out of Seed Starter. I also think the Moisture Control helps reduce the amount of watering I do...a little.
I now have 196 cuttings to sell, and 29 cuttings for my own formal Dahlia garden...;-]
Cheers,
Russ
Cheers,
Russ
Yikes! Every garden is different. I have read the same things about the soil. I talked with a woman that has a beautiful garden of every kids of plant imaginable so I asked her how she fertilized all her different plants. She told me she uses Plant Tone on everything! I am going to use 5-10-10 month before I put in the tubers and when they are up about a foot, give them a boost of water soluable with a higher N reading and than let them go for about a month and see what they need. This is after I test the soil.
Hi,
If you are unsure about whether your tubers are viable, place them in some slightly damp shavings or vermiculite in a plastic bag, close loosely and put on top of your water heater or refrigerator. The gentle bottom heat will help pop the eyes and start the sprouting action. Be sure not to get the material too wet as this will promote rot. Sometimes tubers which have been kept fairly cold will take up to 3 - 4 weeks to pop their eyes. It's really easy to mistake bumps such as old roots and other lumps on a tuber for eyes. I've been doing dahlias for over 30 years and have a little experience in finding viable tubers. Hope this helps.
Linht, here's the thread. In the Sunday Nov. 6th post by plantlady will be a link to photos. As I recall, they have short crossbars welded onto standard t-fence posts. Christmas tree twine is strung through pre-drilled holes in those cross bars. I was priveleged to see them and so many beautiful flowers in person at Wynne's this summer.
Should have ordered Moonlight Sonata! Maybe next year.
By the way, you can just put a poster's name in the SEARCH box above and up will come all the posts they've made at various forums. Very handy to try and find past information by a known poster.
Here is a link that might be useful: Link to Plantlady2's support system
From all that I've read, soil is soil, whether its inside or out. Dahlias like soil that's good for veg, and don't like anything that's been treated with a herbicide.
So get something you could start tomatoes in and you should be fine.
I have several tubers planted inside in pots intended to stay indoors. Several were planted in Miracle Grow seed starter, others in MG moisture control, and still others planted in a left over potting mix (don't know which kind, but its been sitting in the pot for a year or more.)
All seem to be doing fine.
Cheers,
Russ