3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
It all depends on how warm the soil was when you planted, how deep you planted & your weather. Also some dahlias take longer to wake up than others. You can do a little poking around & see if there's anything growing under there but be careful you don't break off any starts. Walt (aka- the husband) usually gives them a couple of weeks & if nothing shows he'll carefully dig them up & have a look- if there's shoots replant quickly & pretend you didn't really disturb them!
If when you plant you just cover the tuber with soil it's easier for the shoot to get through the soil- then you fill in the hole as it grows.
Thanks for the advice Plantlady. I'm in coastal San Diego so we use the method of digging a deep hole, covering with a couple inches of soil, adding more soil whenever the plant growth hits a couple of inches, etc. (Not sure if that's how everyone else does it.) The weather has been much cooler than normal lately but the sun is still pretty strong so the soil warms up OK.
I guess I'll give them a few weeks before I start digging. Another one came up today but I still haven't seen anything from the tubers that had no eyes. Guess I just need some patience.
You can fill the pot to the top if you want- take off the leaves that would be covered. You can pinch them or when you plant them you can take off some of the leaves & lay the stalk horizontally with the top few inches above ground- or you dig to China- might find some cool new dahlias there! You could also take cuttings from these plants & have free plants.
They are probably startd from seed and grown in hot houses.
I have 18 that I have grown from seed this year but they are a long way from blooming size yet. They definatly cannot be planted until all danger of frost is past in your area. Same holds true for cuttings. and sprouted tubers. Since mine are all unknown, I may go ahead and set some out after the first of may here and take a chance on them making it, but still hold a few back in case of late frost. I would plant it a couple inches deeper than a 4" pot, if that is what it is in, and then fill in around it as it grows. Do they give any ideas as how tall it grows? jim
This is how I got addicted to Dahlia's last summer. I bought 2 in 4-inch pots around mother's day. They were already blooming. Since it was after my last frost date, I just planted them at the level they were at in the pot. They were border dahlias, got no higher than 18 inches with similar spread. I got regular flowers from May through September, though production tapered off as the days got shorter, and stopped just before the first frost. However, considering that they were $5 each, I considered it quite a bargain.
One was a yellow FD that looked like a ponpon (2-3 inches), the other a blood-red semi-double (2-3 inches). Both were very nice, but unfortunately there was little to no tuber production, so I couldn't really find anything to save. I later found out that they were called "border dahlias" and were grown from seed. I found some similar seed at Target around X-mas time, so likely could have started and grown my own, but decided to move on to full size Dahlias this spring.
Good luck,
Thane T. (igwiz)
Katy-"plant like tomatoes" means you can plant them deeper than they have been growing in the pots. Remove the bottom couple of rows of leaves & put them in deep. Your plant will be sturdier & as a bonus it will grow more tubers at the leaf nodes.
Beverly- to harden them off you put them outside in a semi-shady spot during the day- not too hot or windy a spot. Then you take them inside at night. You can, over a week or 2 get them used to more & more sunshine but still take them in if it's going to frost.
1- You can add soil so that just the shoot is out- & add more as it grows. When you plant out, plant deeper like you would a tomato transplant.
2-If they get 2' tall you'll just have a ready-made garden when you plant out!
3-Go ahead & pinch them at 3 sets of leaves- or around 1- 1 1/2' tall.
4- You can still get away with 2 to a stake- one on either side.
5- Just treat them as one plant with enough space around for good circulation. Later in the summer you can take off the bottom couple of rows of leaves to permit better circulation.
6- Have fun! They're not at all hard to grow!!
I whacked off my very long or large tubers, painted the wound with sulfur dust and pot them up just like that. Last year, I noticed that my dahlias with large tubers grew a lot of leaves but not as many flowers as before. I still have several more large tubers to pot up. I'll whack them all off one by one before planting. :-)
HOW BIG ARE YOUR SLUGS? If they are as bg as our slugs they can stretch themselves up and over 3" easily. We have really big slugs here! If they are the small kind it might work that low down. I would put the band around the top, myself. Also make sure there is nothing close to your bed that the slugs could climb up and then swing over into the bed on. THey are masterful gymnests!
Thanks for the advice, Lizalily.
You know I've never taken the time to actually measure my slugs. Sounds like a slimy task to me! ;-)
Your point is duly noted and I'll check out the little buggers to see if they are petite or gigantor variety.
I'll put the copper band around the top now.
p.s. the vision of a slug gymnast doing a tuck, pike, and double back flip onto my dahlias is quite amusing!
After having most of my tubers dry up badly 2 years ago when placed into shavings in a cold room, I wrapped them into saran last year and placed them into my crisper of my fridge which is a constant 40 degrees. I removed them and laid them out into trays 2 weeks ago. Some had eyes beginning to grow. Out of 200 I lost about 10 to rot. I had so many tubers from each plant it didn't matter that I lost them. They are just as firm as they were when I put them there last November.
Halloween day I cut the stocks down to 6" and waited 2 weeks before digging them up. Out of 40 Dahlias I could clearly see where the eyes were on most of them. I used an exacto knife to cut them.
The other tip I read once is never place Dahlia tubers directly on a cement floor. Place several layers of newspaper under them first.
I hope this has helped.
We grow our giants in the show gardens 2 to a stake, stakes 3' apart with the rows 3' apart.
In the seedling gardens the plants are 18" apart with the rows 3' apart. It doesn't seem to hurt anything to have them that close to each other & you can still get down the rows to deadhead & groom them.
I plant all of mine 15" apart and 2' between rows and the blooms are not degraded. Dahlias can take crowding and still have excellent blooms. Some commercial growers plant one foot apart with two rows back to back and then six feet between the double rows. You need to use a lot of organic material with a rate I have seen published of 6lbs of Black Kow composted manure per plant in the bed.
Daconil is a fungicide that can be used on Dahlias but always use as directed or a little less as too much will curl the leaves and leave a residue. I do use it all summer in my sprays to keep fungus away.
Fertilizer--You can use 10-10-10 or Miracle Grow Rose food or any fertilizer with a nitrogen content of 15 or less. Dahlias don't like a lot of nitrogen.