3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
Gotcha (RE: sunlight). I also got a bit of an answer this morning from one of my tubers. One of my sprouts sticking out of the dirt actually has a couple of tiny little leaves on it! Very exciting. I assumed I was just going to kill all my tubers (not that I'm out of the woods yet).
So my question now: before developing leaves, do the sprouts need sunlight? Is leaf growth triggered by light hitting the sprout? Or is it temp? Level of root development? Something else?
David is probably referring to topping the plant. It is a standard practice to pinch off the top growing shoot after the first three sets of leaves have formed. It encourages lateral branching below, and causes a forking in the top growth. More branches = more flowers.
Corn growers use herbicides that kill broad leaf plants(corn is related to grasses). The drift from the spray and even the "fumes" from the spray will drastically affect dahlias that are super sensitive to these herbicides. The "over spray" will probably not kill the dahlias but will cause them to have terrible twisted leaves and stems and not to grow properly and the symptoms can last the entire season.
I have used Round up around my dahlias but have been extremely careful and only do so rarely. Dahlias are not as sensitive to roundup as they are to the broadleaf herbicides used on corn. Still , why use it when a garden hoe does the job?
If weed grasses are the problem, there is a chemical herbicide that just kills grasses and does not affect dahlias at all. I have by mistake sprayed the dahlias and there was no effect on the dahlias. It works reasonably well on the grasses but takes over a week to see the results and may have to be applied a second time. Again, hand weeding and a hoe is probably a better solution.
Hi, Dave. Thanks for the advice. I was intentionally vague because I'm not sure what the farmer uses exactly so I was hoping for comments on all three.
Hi, Ted. That was very helpful. I'm afraid it would be a waste. I might have to make space for them elsewhere.
I planted one in a giant container. So I guess I will start there and see how it does. At least it won't be sprayed.
Thanks, again!
Most likely, it will be fine. As long as the eyes and neck are not damaged, the fat part of the tuber can handle a little love/abuse.
But here is the ultimate test. Leave it indoors or outdoors, even in a plastic baggy and watch for an eye to grow. Once you see either an eye bud out or a shoot appear, it will be fine. Eyes are appearing now in California so you should likely see something within weeks.
If there is no eye, it won't bloom anyway and wouldn't be the dog's fault. If it does sprout and then bloom, you will have teeth-holes in the flowers as a memento. (just kidding)
Very common question for gardeners that live in areas where dahlias do not freeze. If they have not frozen, most people wait until sprouts appear above the ground(they may not because of slugs and snails) and then decide whether to dig and divide the clumps or just let them grow another year. Each year they are left in the garden without dividing means a larger clump forms that is more difficult to divide. Since you are in new house you may have lots of other chores and leaving them in the ground another year sounds tempting.
The lack of response is because there are so many dahlia varieties that meet your needs. There are over 50,000 named varieties and 4-5000 that are still being sold. Some nurseries specialize in varieties for cut flowers. It very late in the season to be ordering as many of he varieties are sold out. Two of the largest vendors are Swan Island Dahlias and Dan's Dahlias. Both have web sites and they do tell you if a variety is a good cut flower.
Some recommendations:
White: Bride to Be
Pink: Chilson's Pride
Grace
Of my 90 some dahlias, at least 20-25 are in containers. I had a Rip City rot in a container a couple years ago and found the holes draining the water were plugged. It is something you have to watch for. Most of the time it can 'seem' dry on top or a few inches down but go 7-8 inches down and it is ALL WATER.
As for snails, don't get me started. When I first cleared my weed invested yard, I found everything living back there - rats, ants, even a small white mouse - but especially snails. Sluggo will NOT work (IMHO) and even though many people disdain using Deadline, it is the only product I found that would kill the snails. And I had hundreds. Now, I find or see 5-6 per year in the whole yard.
What I also noticed was when you put a ring of deadline within the container edges, those particular dahlias do not do as well as others or in ground dahlias. Despite what deadline says about it being safe for plants, that has not been my experience. But it's a catch-22: if I DON'T use it, the snails will eat the shoots right away and if I do use it, I might get blooms that look half strength.
(I think the only answer is to stand guard every night once the sprouts break ground and grab'em before they make it to the plant!)
Ants I have never had a problem with but if you PLANT a tuber within an ant colony, it makes sense they would be all over the tuber. If you planted the tuber where NO ANTS were, I'm not sure what to say - I've never heard of ants being a problem for dahlias or attracted to them. Earwigs, yes. Ants, no.
The vast majority of my callas are straight species white Zantedeschia albomaculata. I have propagated them over the years by both division and from seeds. Growing them from seed will get you nice disease free rhizomes but you can't count on getting blooming sized bulbs until the third season. I've tried some of the miniature colored hybrids but they seem to be more susceptible to both rot and frost damage. Picasso and Blackstar have done pretty good for me. The rhizomes cannot be allowed to freeze and must be protected by heavy mulch in a borderline climate or by lifting them out of the ground for the winter and storing them in a cool basement or root cellar. Storing callas in sawdust in my unheated basement has worked well for me.
I am not quite ready to un box my stored tubers yet, but what I do is place each tuber in a sandwich sized baggie. with some moist - not soaking wet - peat moss. It allows me to have 20-40 tubers in a standard tray. I keep the baggie mostly closed until I see sprouts, then open it so the sprout doesnt rot. I keep some in a south facing window, and others under fluorescent lights. The baggies take up a lot less room than pots do. The fast growers end up getting moved into pots, but space is at a premium in my growing area, so pots are on an "as needed" basis.
Thanks for your responses! For some reason I'm not getting the email notifications, or I would acknowledged them sooner.
I shall combine techniques and bag up the small tubers from the hybridizer since the eyes are just minuscule nubs, and leave the bag open. The others that have 2" sprouted eyes I'll pot up.
Thanks again!
Thank you Steve and Beverly!
I did water once and put in cool dry place. Well, acouple days as I was moving pots around I discovered it had grown about 7 inches tall! I was surprised!
We are still getting cold weather and nite time freezing temps. Winter seems to just want to hold on!
Is it okay to trim back now or wait for establishment in the ground? (probably near end of April)
Kind Regards
Most of the problems related in these posts are caused by trying to store tubers that have not been properly dried before being put into storage. Air drying for a few days works quite well. One commercial grower uses a box fan to dry them. Caution: We are talking about growers who dig in wet conditions, not growers in a dry climate. But erring on too dry is better than too wet.
I think that it all has to do with the proper hormones in the apical meristem (crown) of the plant. I actually like to divide my dahlias before any sprouts show. I am just very careful to give each tuber at least a sliver of the crown/apical meristem so that it has the proper tissues and hormones to produce a sprout. That being said, I too am trying to get some stray tubers (that have broken off by accident and without an apical meristem) to sprout. Yes, they do seem to form weird puckered nodules around the tip where they broke off. Maybe the cells are rearranging to produce the proper hormones and tissues to produce a new apical meristem??? I don't know. I just wish they would hurry up ;) We shall see. I am doing the baggie trick with mine right now. My fingers are crossed.
I have a five gallon bucket reserved for all my extra eyeless wonders that I can't quite compost on the theory that all they need are time. Occasionally, I'll root through them, and pull out three or four more that have eyed up on the neck where there was no sign before. Those are all sell/trade/donate tubers... The ones that I'm desperate for something to happen gets the bag treatment, or simply potted up and put in a warm place.