3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias

Tubers quite often sprout while in storage. Most vendors cut off the sprout before shipping. They do this because the sprout will often fall off during shipping. When this happens, customers get worried that the tuber is now dead and contact the vendor for new one. Dahlias almost always sprout again from the same eye or another eye and this is a good picture of that process.

Thanks for your helpful answers.
I guess I am slightly paranoid because I kind of started a collection this season (picked about 20 new cultivars which is a big leap for me) and I was just worried that this wasn`t an early stage of crown gall or something nasty.

And yes, it did sprout, I marked the pott and it sent up two nice shoots.

So a great Dahlia season to you, bye, Lin

The cutting on this one was made May 1.

I've been taking cuttings off almost anything that has more then one sprout, simply cutting them off and sticking the cutting into the same pot as the tuber. I've been amazed at the results! These were in a nice humid greenhouse so maybe that is why they have done so well, but it sure gives you respect for nature!

Today a duck ate my Hollyhills Santa Baby plant while I was working on planting. Sure glad I had taken a cutting and it had rooted! I would have been devastated if I had lost this one... it is so cute!

I've even rooted cuttings of my new $25 Swan Island Introduction tubers...now that makes you feel good when those root. I get 2 or more for the price of 1.

David, some of mine are still pretty short but are at 3-6 nodes already and are ready to be pinched. I've pinched a few already, but they seem so short to be topping off(only 8 inches tall or so). What do you think? If you are looking to get rid of any of your purple flower tubers when you divide this year let me know;-).

Not sure what to tell you Grace. I would only pinch them back to the 3rd set of leaves when they are 3 times the size of yours - meaning 1 1/2 to 2 feet tall.

However, other than severely delaying their blooming, you will likely end up with a much bushier plant with lots of blooms.

I'll let you know when I divide the O'Condah. It won't be before 2014 however but I'll save you some tubers.

Did you just plant them directly in the ground? Or are you starting them in pots inside?

I usually dont plant tubers in the ground until they are sprouted and growing, especially soft tubers, they can rot pretty easily.

If you place them in an open baggie with moist peatmoss or potting soil, and stick them somewhere warm (as mentioned above) you can keep an eye on them and make sure they are going to be productive before you commit garden space to them.

You might want to do a search on this forum about storing tubers. There are several different ways to do it.

posting a follow up ....today i saw new growth coming from one of my re planted tubers,,,,,keeping my eye on the other pot ,,any day now i hope ....so my method of storing worked ...but i will research a better way at the end of the season

David, since that gold dahlia is well established it must have lots and lots of tubers underground, you could probably make 10 plants by separating tubers. Why don't you dig and divide the clump you have to make more? You could also try scraping down gradually to the tubers to see if you could remove one or two from above without digging the whole clump. Another option would be to use some of the sprouts to take cuttings for more plants.

Thanks Steve:

One is enough for me. I try to have as many different dahlias with different bloom times for each color area. Hence I have 4 yellows for the yellow section, 5 pinks in the pink section, etc.

The only time I have duplicates is if I am making a 'hedge' and want the same color or I take a troublesome bunch of tubers and plant several individuals (like you suggested) in different areas to see if they grow either at all or differently. (Like one in soil and one in a pot, etc)

WOW Come to think of it it does work. I have had moles RANCID in my backyard(which is fenced in) and I have been peeing, along w/ my male beagle for about 2 weeks and not have seen moles. AT ALL!! WOW ok 1 problem! Now they are in my front yard. NOT fenced in! What to do?! I guess when I wake up to take my 2am wee wee it will be in my front yard! Thanx for the posotive info I NEEDED IT! I feel like I'm in Vietnam battling these freekin moles! By the way I am a new home owner in Deltona, Fl so this is all new to me! any comments will awesomely help!!!

I had problems with moles digging tunnels through the root system of my dahlias. In the hot summer this would cause my dahlias to wilt so bad in the afternoon because of so much damage to the root system. Many would just die out after a few weeks, even with water every day. My solution was to get that small mesh chicken wire, small enough that moles can't get through the holes in the wire. Then I dug a hole about 12 to 14 inches deep, about 12 inches in diameter. Then cut the chicken wire to put around the wall of the hole, and cut another one in a circle shape to put in the bottom of the hole. Then just filled in the hole with dirt and planted the dahlia. Worked great. No more problems with wilting dahlias in the hot summer sun with reasonable watering.

Thanks,Steve. Actually, I had thought about starting the tubers in a tray and I bought some trays a couple weeks ago. The trays are 24" long and about 6" deep. Maybe I could start them in a few inches of soil and add more as they grow. My only concerns were the possibility of the roots growing together if they were planted to close and also having the necessary amount of light. I do have some shop lights that I used to start tomato plants. Sounds like I will have a new weekend project. Thanks again. unc

Unc,

From the info in your first post it looks like you only have about 3 weeks until you will plant the tubers outside so you shouldn't worry too much about root entanglement or less than ideal light levels. They are not going to grow that much in the next 3 weeks, especially if they are totally dormant tubers. Go ahead and get them started even if they are packed close together as this should get you a few extra weeks of blooming time over the course of the season.

Are they first year tubers?

In my answer (just now) to Califox, I noted that often my 1st year tubers in pots sprout and then seem reluctant to grow anymore. While I do not pack my pots with LOTS of other plants, I will share a larger pot with Glads or pansies for surface/annual color and it could be your other plants are getting the nutrients from the soil and leaving the dahlia short shrifted.

I think they will be fine and waiting is the right approach. But if it did rot, this is why many of us dahlia enthusiasts with LOTS of dahlias have 'graveyards' or ICU areas where we rehab poor growers or extra tubers just in casing we need to plug one in elsewhere.

They are first year tubers. I will wait and see. I guess it could be rot but everything around it including other dahlias didn't rot so hopefully it is just going slow.

I am zone 14 in Sacramento and have grown them for years. So our climate is similar. I would dissuade you from growing in pots because it's too hot here and the plants prefer to be in the ground where it is cooler. I do start my tubers in pots in the spring before I transplant to the garden soil. Another advantage of this strategy is that the tender sprouts are protected from slugs & snails when they are most vulnerable. I transplant when they are about 8-12" tall and they are less tasty to slugs & snails.

I have grown some in pots but generally I believe they are only marginal in pots here in this climate.

If you want to get some 4 to 6 inch cow pots, you could pot them up now and plant pot an all when it gets warmer n the ground.

Last year, as an experiment, I let several shoots grow on a few of my tubers, instead of paring them down to one.

My observation was that the main stalks were weaker, (not the flower stems). It was much more difficult to keep them staked, since there was more to stake and they needed more support. I did get more flowers though.

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'll leave multiple stems (two or three) and see how this bed compares to the single tuber single stem plants in the rest of the beds.