3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
Has it been planted more than one year? If there's a huge clump of tubers competing for food in a small area you'll have lesser blooms.
Do you disbud- removing the two or more little side buds and leaving only the central one to get all the nutrients and get as large as possible? You can remove the new growth at the leaf nodes one leaf section below the buds too.
I don't know about disbranching, but someone will. I think it's done for the same reason- get the maximum nourishment to that one bloom.
The trouble is with dahlia....you plant A tuber...one.
In a few short months, what you have now is more than one.
You have maybe a clump of size and lifting it I'm sure would cause the plant and flowers to wilt badly.
Unless you can lift a sizable root ball and deposit into the its new home, I'm afraid your plants might suffer.
But hey....when there's need....
Earwigs. At the first sign of problem, this pest is number one on the list.
Try this; put a short lenght of hose...about 12 to 18 inches in the vicinity of the plants. Early in the a.m. go out with a bucket of soapy water, lift the hose and tap it over the soap. See what falls out.
Earwigs is the one big reason why I never try to take dahlia inside, they are a beggar since they hide in amongs the petals.
The earwigs like it moist and munch at night, but hide during daylight hours. Trying to see them during the day is pretty well impossible.
Another method if you dont have a handy hose to destroy....roll up a newspaper section....place it in the vicinity and dampen it. In the morning, go out and collect your newspaper.
Sometimes too, just like catching slugs and snails, lay a board....about 6" wide...12" long near the plants. In the early morning, peek under it. They're fast movers so be prepared.
Ooops, I didn't explain myself very well -- I want to start the tubers early to plant out when the soil warms to get a jump on the season.
I wondered what the easiest way is -- and the cheapest, too -- I don't want to use $30.00 worth of Potting soil! I am worried about the roots getting tangled up if I put them all on one container (just for 4 weeks until I get them in the garden.)
The pipe sections are just that plastic tube stuff. dh puts it on the band saw and cuts a bunch all at once. If you put them vertically in a newspaper-lined cardboard box shoulder-to-shoulder, fill with a couple inches of potting soil, you can put glads, caladiums and small dahlias in them in April for setting out in May. The sections I have now are 4" long (high)
Do you know what dahlia classification 'Mystery Day' is? I wanted to tag it since I like the flower so well. I have it in too much sun right now (the leaves are bleaching out) but next year I can move it elsewhere.
I got off tangent a little -- I am wondering what some easy and cheap ways are to start lots and lots of tubers to get a jump on he season. LOL! Maybe 50 total, so maybe not lots and lots to you folks! Can yo uput them all in a big box, or would they get tangled up and become too difficult to remove for garden planting?
Thanks,
Lime
You can start them in a box or carton if you want. They'll not get all tangled up in the short time they are eyeing up & sending out some feeder roots, We save the 1/2 gal milk cartons, staple the top shut, lay it on it's side & cut the side out of it, leaving enough of a flap to write the name on. Put in some potting soil or whatever medium you are using, cover most of the tuber leaving the neck out. We start 2-4 of them in there & they do well. If you want a cheap medium for starting you can use vermiculite or sterile sand. In late June I found a flat under the potting bench that had 2 dahlias in vermiculite & the plants were green, healthy & 8" high- hadn't been watered at all nor had they received any care since being shoved under there & forgotten about. They got put out in the garden & are just as beautiful as the rest of the 10,000!
I'm not giving up my coffee!
Suebb- have you noticed a lack of slugs in your neck of the woods in WA this year? There is talk here in the NW that it is a very slow slug year and while watering (yet again) tonight I can attest that my own usually slug-infested gardens are virtually devoid of the creatures even under the nicest, coolest foliage or rocks.
It's really weird.
I find one on the rare occasion but not in the gardens. Early in the season, Sluggo bait went down pretty routinely but I've used that before because nothing, nothing is going to eat my dahlias, if I can help it LOL! I've used Sluggo before regularly, but even then there were slugs 3 ft up on dahlia plants, more damage evident on other plants. Even my hosta leaves barely have a nibble out of them.
What's the slug report in your area?
Well - they're simply not blooming, or blooming very little and very slowly. Unlike the special dahlia bed that DH dug for me this year - (this is the first time they have been in the ground, and I know he put a ton of home-made compost there). Maybe that's the key - more compost in the potted ones? I was reluctant to put too much as my compost is rather on the raw side - not fine - tiny worms, etc.
Is it true that the more you cut the blooms, the more blooms will appear?
Well I'm right there with you on the SLOW thing. I didn't get many in the ground until June I guess, but it seems really pathetically slow this year. Our weather has been wonderful so I don't know the answer.
When I prepared my pots for dahlias I had a big pile of my wormy compost, some topsoil comprised of about 1/3 sand and good potting soil. I mixed those 3 things together along with Soil Moist crystals and planted in that. They were the first or near the first flowers to bloom, but the pots are black and soak up sun/heat like crazy. Maybe more compost next year? I don't think it could hurt if mixed in well and worms are good! The only tubers I've seen worms bother are already rotting ones.
I believe those pictures reflect cutting the tuber off both to save space and avoid a lazy tuber the next spring when they're planted. With long, or plump tubers they will sometimes take their sweet time kicking out a plant. That can be avoided by giving the dahlia less tuber to nourish itself and prompt it to put out foliage and roots to get its nutrients.
Something to that effect. Bernie might give you his answer as I think you refer to his photos.
`I read this somewhere and it works well for me. After digging your tubers in the fall take time to replenish the soil with whatever amendments you need. when spring comes you are ready to plant. Where I live you don't have to dig dahlias, but I can never leave them more than 2 years or they get so big I can't even lift them out of the ground.
I personally get almost all of my dahlias through the spring tuber sale put on by our local dahlia society (Puget Sound Dahlia Association); they will replace tubers which don't grow or are not true to type. If you get in on the first day of the sale, there are loads of varieties you won't find through the big suppliers.
For those in different areas of the country, now is a good time to find out who your local dahlias societies are (they should be having dahlia shows soon) and ask about spring tuber sales. Also, if you go to one of their shows, you will see all the beautiful blooms in person.
I also get some dahlias in trade on this board...
Christine
My Keating Estate finally opened, and many MANY more are to follow. Here she is (a tad smaller than I thought she might be, but that's ok, she's still a pretty thing)
Nikki~
Here are a couple more in bloom now.
Pink Daybreak
Sparticus (this pic does it no justice....it's simply stunning...rich velvety red)
Wine and Roses (very pretty little flower)
More for sure will be to follow...I just can't wait, I have my Papageno just starting to bloom...and I'm on the edge..
Nikki~