Usually, when I pot the dahlia up, I put newspaper in the pot; add potting soil; add the tuber; top up with soil and then water. Once it is established, and the temperature is good to plant in the garden, I carefully remove the plant and soil from the pot ( keeping as much as possible around the root - hence the newspaper) and plant directly into the ground - without the pot.

That being said, one can also plant the dahlia, using the same method, into a large patio pot.

You don't want to leave a large dahlia sitting above the ground in a small pot. It will never stand up. The pot will get too hot, and hence the roots will get too hot. Also the wind will forever be knocking it over.

I am not certain if this is what you were really asking about or not. ..... my two cents worth ....

There is a commercial grower in California who grows all of his dahlias in pots that are placed in the ground. I do not know exactly how deep in the ground but I assume more than half way. I do not believe that the pots are all that big either one or two gallons at most. He sells cut flowers.

I have bought large pots to plant them in as I thought that would be easier than digging them up. I was just wondering how others did it. I don't think I have to worry about them tipping over. I thought maybe I could plant something else around them to cover up the pots.

There is someone who knows the answer to this as I have seen the tread before and was going to try it this year in a place that has alot of voles. I am going to put the pot into the ground level with it's top.

I've planted 3-4' dahlias in larger shrub pots (~14" across x 12 tall") and it worked fine, just as long as you water more often than in-ground plants. I'd use polymer beads in the potting mix for moisture retention. Same number of flowers, same number of tubers.

I've never sunk a pot in the ground, PD, but sinking them to soil level makes sense that their roots would be protected from most varmints.

Here is a link that might be useful: ADS article on growing dahlias in pots

Wow, after reading that article, I better repot. Than of course I read the article about the mites and should run out and get all the mite stuff. Just kidding. I pupt all the pages in My Favorites in case. Thanks so much for the article Pooch.

That was a good detailed article. Boy, do I have a lot to learn about dahlias. I wonder where she gets the plastic covered metal stakes.

proudgm, you can use any kind of stake. I've used both wood and rebar in pots. The thing I liked least about staking in pots were those messy cross wires cited in the article. I understand the rationale, I just hate dealing with wires/cords etc.

I found that just putting the stake in at planting time, as one would if planting in the ground, worked just as well as tethering it with crosswires. Using upright supports of a deck railing or fence worked just as well for supporting plants with an untethered stake.

I plant my dahlias in pots all the time, I use a good potting soil mix (moisture control MiracleGro) and add extra compost, peat moss and lava sand (for good drainage)...I fill my pots at planting time too. I stake at planting time. I get good results this way. Oh also each spring I add about a 2 inch layer of compost to each pot...so far so good!

FWIW, all of my Dahlias are planted in 4" pots. I plant both tubers and cuttings in the plastic 4" pots from a popular online store (Lee Val...) I use moisture control MriacleGro also.

Tubers are planted pointy end down, crown up, with ~50% of the tuber sticking out the top of the pot. Larger tubers have more sticking out the top of the pot.

Cuttings are planted the same was as they are taken.

All pots sit in trays which hold 24 x 4" pots. I give the tray ~1" of water a week, and all trays are under T5 lighting.

When I plant them in the ground, I will plant them in the 4" container. The depth will vary according to whether its a tuber or cutting. Cuttings will be put so the top of the pot is ~2"-4" below the surface. Tubers will be planted so the top of the crown is ~2"-4" below the surface.

When I dug mine up last year (planted this way) most of the pots were intact and the tuber clump completely contained inside. A few had broken or cracked their pots. They were dug out by running a knife around the outside edge of the pot as I was not interested in any tubers that were outside the pot itself.

I tried propogating them straight away last fall, cutting off the stem and taking all tubers out of their pots and cleaning them. Completely unrelated to this, I lost them all due to spider mites.

However, if I were going to over-winter my tubers in storage, I would simply cut the stem of the tuber off, leave them to dry out somewhat, then and wrap them up in newspaper and box them up (leaving them in their pots.)

In the spring, you bring out the pots and let the tubers start to sprout. You can then either replant the pot, or take cuttings and make more...

Cheers,
Russ