Well, I don't know if this helps, but last year I was able to get some 5 inch peat pots at Lowe's. I think they came in a pack of 8. Walmart also has some cheap plastic pots in their garden dept for under $1 a piece.

why do you need to start them indoors????

they will do just fine in z5...planted in the ground around 5/15 .... they will still be underground the last couple weeks of potential frost

do you ever find.. that you start too many things indoors.. too soon????

ken

I start them inside because I get bloom so much faster. The first 2 years I did plant them right outside, and got first blooms in September. This way they are blooming vigorously when most other perennials are over, in late July. Considering how much foliage they have compared to other things, my garden real estate is too valuable to be taken up by something that it spending most of its time just getting ready to bloom.
On average they are 4 to 8 inches tall when I plant them out. This also enables me to do triage on the underperformers. Only the most vigorous get a prime location: the others are banished to the vegetable garden.

Half of what I plant are also miniatures for mixed planters. By starting them ahead they are ready to go in the pots when I have bought the other annuals in May. Those, being smaller, start blooming in June and keep going until frost.

I do have limited space for them (and anything else I start) in the house: I only have 2 windows I can use. Which means when 2 card tables are full I stop! (I draw the line at grow lights. If I have to spend time and money on an elaborate set-up IÂm not doing it.)

I was in Walmart yesterday and they only had fancy pots; the stores must vary in what they have.

Last year I started mine in flat containers and used the paper recycling bags to separate the tubers. I just cut up the bags and taped them to the inside of the flat to create cells in the flat. It was a bit tedious, but it worked.

Cheers,
Russ

This year I have started planting my tubers in large and exta large dunkin donuts coffee cups. I have over 100 tubers to do. This is a inexpensive way to go.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I donÂt think IÂll be drinking that much coffee soon enough to get enough cups, but IÂll keep it in mind and start saving. Sandwich bags sound like they will work just fine. DoesnÂt get much easier than that! Funny I was thinking of paper lunch bags, of nesting a couple together and rolling the top down, and wondering if that would work or just fall apart, never made the connection to plastic bags. I have foil trays I bought last year (for the winter sowing that never happened) to set them in.

Do they pretty much stay upright if fitted together closely? About the duds: I have 2 iffy ones, firm and fresh looking but no eyes: do you put them in dirt like the others, or bag them up plain until they do something?

what poochella says sounds great but does that answer your question about the light? I wnat to do the same thing but I don't see getting them all in the light.

Each year I use 100 or more of the thin walled Styrofoam beverage cups to grow on cuttings. The important thing about using beverage cups is to be sure to make some drainage holes in the bottoms.

My tuber clusters are pretty big, and won't fit in a cup. I had to use 1 gallon nursery pots for some, with the top half cut off to make them shorter. (I don't divide them because I'm not good at it, and usually have to buy new every year anyway). I do use cups for smaller things like begonias.

I was just about to post the same issue of tubers being too large for dunkin donut coffe cups or peat pots, how do you fit them in those small containers?

This will be my first year growing dahlias, I purchased two different kinds and am so excited to see them grow in my garden. I'll be visiting this site quite frequently, as being new, I don't want to do anything wrong.

Linda

What about using small card board boxes or shoe boxes? Would that work?

I started 2 dahlia plants in normal house pots that I had around, but I improvised for the rest of the plants. I used the plastic 4 liter jugs that milk comes in, and cut the top off. Then I poked some holes in the bottom for drainage, and planted one tuber to each 4 liter jug. I then placed the jugs on a covered cookie tray to catch any water than runs through the jugs. I just planted these tubers 3 days ago, so no sprouts yet. I don't see why this wouldn't work, since the winter sowers use these jugs all the time.

The only draw back is that they take up a lot of space in front of my window. I have quite a while to wait before I can plant them outside, so I have to have a bigger pot to start them in. I anticipate a long hardening off period, since I will try to put the plants outside during the day time as soon as the weather allows. In my area any tender plants should not be planted before the end of May, so I will be dragging these containers back a forth for a long time! Hopefully the longer bloom period will be worth it.

Just in case though, I have left some tubers in my spare fridge that I will plant directly into the garden. It will be a good experiment to see the difference in bloom time.

Janet

Paper is going to get wet and fall apart, or at the least not hold up well enough to allow you to pick them up. Consider aluminium pie plates or roasting pans, especially since they can be bent to suit whatever flat space you have (e.g. they can fit well into a window sill.)

Cheers,
Russ

By the way, everyone keeps talking about poking holes in things for drainage. This is only needed if you don't think about how much water you're giving them. Push your finger in and you'll be able to tell whether its moist or soaking wet.

For most, houses are fairly dry during winter months, so humidity is going to sap water out of your soil.

All of my flats are solid, no holes, and I've kept my soil pretty dry while sprouting for cuttings. All of the tubers that eyed up have done well, despite little water.

I just think that considering they're going outside eventually, why go through the hassle of having to have a tray under a pie plate (or cups, or whatever you're using) when its really not needed.

Remember, to get a head start on the season you don't need to bury your tubers, just keep them warm, moist, and well lit. The more shallow you put them in soil the easier they'll be to transplant. Those of mine that I'm going to plant as tubers are only pushed into the soil half their thickness.

Cheers,
Russ

Do you cover the eyes?

The eyes donÂt need to be covered. Like Russ said, they donÂt need to be fully planted; as they are just being "started" preparatory to going outside. This is my 3rd or 4th year doing them this way, which I learned about on this forum. On mine the clump "shoulders" are actually exposed as well, really only the bottom half is in dirt. You save potting soil, pot space and some effort. My plastic pots are lined with newspaper which acts like a peat pot: at planting time you pop the tuber and its paper liner out of the plastic pot and plant the whole thing very easily. (do a search here for "paper pot" for the whole system, or look at Jroot's post for pictures.) http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/dahlia/msg041343391520.html

I am going to go with the baggie method for the rest (thanks, poochella!) as I need to conserve further space. For underneath I have deep foil trays I bought at the dollar store. It will be a good comparison of the two methods, as making the paper pots (when you do a lot: I have ~ 30-35) does take some time.

No, I haven't and wouldn't. The tuber sprouts the roots, not the eye or where the stem is. Once they're planted outside in the ground then I would cover the entire tuber, including any remaining eyes.

Cheers,
Russ

do you ever find.. that you start too many things indoors.. too soon????
* * *

all the time. keeps me sane between New Years and spring. ;>)

I used 4 sheets of newspaper, folded them in half, wrapped them around the kleenex box(cube shaped ones), folded the bottom and stapled, one more staple for the sides. I used the potting mix and sat them in this newspaper pot in February, now they are 2' tall! Thanks jroot.

I use brown paper bags. Spray the inside of a bag with vegetable spray.
Then put another bag inside it. The oil keeps the bag from disintegrating.
I can put to 8 bags on a flat. I roll down the excess of the bag. You can
Plant the whole bag in the ground. Really cheap and easy.

How deep do you plant these tubers that have been started early indoors? I usually plant tubers around 6 inches deep in raised beds.

If I were to start plants early with only a few inches of soil over them, I would be burying part of the green shoots when planting out. Is that what you do?

I purposely plant my tubers deeper then they grow in the pots, just like tomatoes. I grow mine to about 16-18" before planting, because our soil warms late here, and because they withstand slug damage better that way. Then I bury atleast an extra 6" of stem. THis gets the tuber low enough in the soil that the stems stay upright better and if I do not bring them in in the fall they may survive the winter (8b). You might also want to pinch back the first stems to get a nice well branched clump for cutting. (Not if you are growing big ones for exhibition).

For those of you that start them only half buried in the soil............How tall do they get before you plant them out? Last year I started mine early enough that they were between 8 and 14 inches by the time they were moved outside. I cant imagine that half buried tubers would stand up. Whats the trick?

I would love not to have to search for large pots and use so much soil.

I want to try the plastic baggie method. I will put one tuber and a handful of soil in each bag. Then I will put the bags in a foil lasagna pan from the dollar store. The pan will go in front of a glass block wall on a shelf in a bathroom.
I think this way I will be able to throw out the duds?
when do I take them from the baggie and plant them in the ground?