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pitch or save???
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Posted by
gardenlady48 z5 IL (
My Page) on
Sun, Jan 29, 06 at 16:06
Hello, I am very new to Dahlias. I grew them last summer here in Illinois and fell in love with the planst for the first time. However,I think I messed up. I dug up the tubers, put them in a 5-gal bucket in the garage where they have been ever since. I realize now I did not take proper care of the tubers. Should I just throw them away and start over buying new ones this late winter? Or will them hydrate and grow again? Also, is it true you can plant these tubers deep enough to survive zone 5/6 in Illinois? Thanks so much in advance!
PM |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: pitch or save???
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| Are they competely shriveled and dry?? Have they been stored in freezing temps? Freezing would be a killer for sure. If not completely dried up you might salvage them. Our would you class them as half shriveled? Once they dry out it's practically impossible to hydrate them again. Where are you in Illinois??? I'm near Dubuque in Iowa. We could be almost neighbors. Anyway Illinois is as close to home as I have found on the forum. |
RE: pitch or save???
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| I will agree with Jam on that they might still be good, as long as they look good - no shrivelling or mold. If they froze I am not sure what that would visually look like. To be safe I guess I would store them a bit warmer and start them out in pots until you can tell in the spring. |
RE: pitch or save???
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| If they froze they would be mush. Or partial mush, or mush contained in tuber skin until you go to pick it up; generally darker in color than a healthy tuber and possibly foul smelling. You didn't say if you stored them with dirt on their tubers or in some other medium. It hasn't been that cold for a midwest winter, has it? You might get lucky and should save them until warmer weather to see what happens. If they are looking like little shrivelled mummies rather than plump firm tubers, you'll probably have to replace them. But that's half the fun! |
RE: pitch or save???
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Hey! I think I'm in luck! There were a few that was shriviled which I tossed. The rest still have some dirt on them and look firm with no shriviling! I think I will leave them as they are until the end of February, and then pot them up to see what I get. Or should I mess with the saran wrap???
Thanks in advance. |
RE: pitch or save???
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| Good for you. I'd leave them as they are, but do protect them from freezing however you can. Near an adjoining house/garage wall in the garage, root cellar, cold place in basement, outside with personal attendant and blow dryer or space heater: whatever it takes! Ideal storage is between 35-45 or 50 if the warm winds are blowin' and you can't do anthing about it. I just today found a bag of tubers I had discarded but they hadn't made it to the compost pile just yet.) This was a brown paper grocery bag used for garbage while I saran wrapped last fall. In it were some skinny little mummies, a few tubers in good shape with fuzzes of mold I don't think I could fix, and a couple lightly molded and only barely mummified on the root end. I'm going to try to save those with lysol spray, cutting off the mummy end to healthy tuber and wrapping up as I did all others. It can't hurt to try. Congratulations on saving those tubers! |
RE: pitch or save???
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| Poochella, you spray the fresh cuts with lysol spray and then let dry and wrap?? |
RE: pitch or save???
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| I'll use lysol after 'surgery' on a tuber that had some rot, or discoloration found when dividing, also if I have just a few to cut or trim I'll give the cuts a shot of lysol. Then, yes, let it dry and store as usual. Mostly I'm trying to use up the old can of Lysol- that stuff stinks! LOL |
RE: pitch or save???
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| I was poking around in the garage yesterday - afraid to open the bin of dahlia tubers I slaved over - and discovered a big pot of tulips I had planted in November. Oops! I brought them in and watered the poor dry things and they are already poking up. |
RE: pitch or save???
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| OK. I've got several dahlias that put out extremely large tubers. These dudes would not lay flat in a quart milk carton___too long. I remember someone saying cut it in half, throwing away the end away from attachment to the stem. The eyes of course will be where the stem was attached. Would you spray the cut area and let it dry before planting? Or does bleach solution do the same thing for it? I want to try some cuttings just for kicks. Besides what else is there to do during February besides starting my snaps and petunias. |
RE: pitch or save???
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| Not sure if I already asked this question.....but now that I discovered the tubers in the garage unprotected and looking firm, should I go ahead and pot them up??? Now??? |
RE: pitch or save???
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| Alyrics, did you look at the tubers or just rescue your tulips? Gee, I just got done planting my spring bulbs out here- always so late, but they work. Many are coming up already. Jam, I've had to hack a couple huge tubers in spring before planting. I just let the cut end dry to the touch, rub or shake on some sulphur dust to the cut area and plant it. Then hope the spring NW weather/wet doesn't rot it after all. Gardenlady, I'd wait at least a month to pot up in your zone, but I've never potted anything early so am not sure.
I'm going to try potting some for earlier starting this year for the first time, but won't do that until March or so. |
RE: pitch or save???
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| Jamlover- if you don't want to take the chance that your tubers will rot if you cut them in half, you can start them in a flat- just line the flat with newspaper, fill with some moist potting soil & tuck the tubers in- leaving their necks out the same as you would in a milk carton. You can get quite a few tubers in a flat - you don't have to worry about how close they are together as they're going to be taken out & planted long before they start to grow new tubers. The same with the milk cartons- you can get at least 2 regular sized tubers per milk carton. Just don't forget to label the tubers if you have more than one variety in each flat. |
RE: pitch or save???
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| I was given some dahlia tubers and some of them have mold on them. How should I take care of this? I would love to be able to plant them asap if possible. Or should I just chuck them? Please e-mail me your responses. marjorie.weikert@yahoo.com |
RE: pitch or save???
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| Do you have a picture? It kind of depends on how far the mold has spread and where the mold is as to whether it's got a chance. |
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