They'll grow before you know it. How tall are they now? I usually start securing the stalks to stakes when they're about 15 inches high, then work up from there.

When you pinched them, how tall were they? I had one break off very early, maybe 2 true leaf sets. It was very slow in rebounding with new growth, but it is leafing out nicely now.

Mystery Day seemed to bloom fairly early when I grew it: maybe 70 days from planting the tuber.

Hope that helps.

Well, I am at 65 days now. I started these guys on April 9. The problem I had was that they got REALLY lanky before I could put them outside (like 2 feet or more), so I had to plant them laying down, with just the top 6 inches. So, in a way they are starting from scratch, which I'm sure has an impact.

Guess I should start tying up the papageno's, since they are getting more sturdy and succulent (and starting to flop a little).

Thanks for the advice. I'm pretty sure that next year I will plant them about 3 weeks before the frost date (instead of 6) so that they don't bolt on me.

Do you fertilize? I plant with a good amount of Bulbtone and then use an all around fertilizer at least once in the summer. Then follow on with more Bulbtone in mid summer. Tomato fertilizer or bonemeal works well also - anything is higher in P an K, than N. A typical fertilizer like Miracle Grow is going to promote a lot of leaf growth, whereas you want flower production.

What do you mean you plant them lying down? I start
sprouting my tubers in mid April. Sometimes my plants are a foot and a half tall when I plant them. They are leggy
of course, but I tie them to the stake as soon as I plant them and not too soon after they thicken up, once they're
exposed to the sun.

I had a few leggy early starters too, dahliaboy and igwiz.
But you know what? Those early starters are just sitting there while many of the sprouted ground-planted tubers are catching right up to them and doing it quickly. I don't have an answer as to why.

In planting lying down, I believe Igwiz was following Plantlady's previous sage advice on how to handle a leggy dahlia. You plant it sort of sideways, lying down with only the top growth exposed above the soil. Often 'stem tubers' will form at the buried leaf nodes. I've done it myself with success, just didn't have room for such practice this year.

Understood Poochella!
I agree with you about the sprouted ground tubers catching
up with the ones benched up earlier. I find the same thing
happens in my garden. Unfortunately I keep benching up in mid April cause I need to do something with all those hundreds of tubers I have in our living room! I think it has to do with the long, cold NY winters and my desire to get things going as soon as possible.....even though it's little bit early!
DB

youse guys need a greenhouse with all the tubers you have!
I was in such a hurry I put all my tubers in 1 gallon zip lock bags with 2 cups of soil and a tablespoon of water - they put out some roots and shoots but still didn't really do much till they got in the soil. Somehow they just know.

Hey Alyrics,
You're right about the green house (I was just looking at them today.) I can gladly take a couple months off when done digging dahlias, then doing the holidays and just plain wrestling through January; but it would sure be nice to have a place to putter with plants thereafter until Spring arrives.

Mostly I use the baggie thing to see who's got eyes/growpower and who doesn't. If they produce shoots, they go into a pot if I have one.

dahliaboy: hundreds of tubers in your livingroom! Now that would be a sight. A sure sign of a dedicated dahlia lover. LOL!

Poochella - if you had seen how I mistreated my tubers.... I should have planted them out weeks before I got them in the ground. I also did something new with my container mix and I'm nervous that they won't like it. Last year I used straight Pro-Mix out of the bag for my containers and it stayed very wet all summer - has a lot of peat in it. My tuber production last year was really weak and the tubers didn't grow well - altho I had plenty of flowers, but I think we broke records for cloudy days and rain. So this year I mixed up container mix, Sweet Peet ( composted chips and cow manure ) and about 25% of a heavy shredded mulch for drainage. I put in 2 layers of Bulbtone - 1 way down in the pots and then one closer to the tubers. I use big 40 and 60 gallon containers on my deck for dahlias. Its going to be a very porous mix and of course this year is already a scorcher. It will be 95 tomorrow and we haven't had rain in 2 weeks.

I am trialing just 6 dahlias out in the garden to see if I can keep the critters off them. At least there are uninteresting perennials in front like peonies that the deer won't eat. This year of course I have my Otto's, and I decided to do screaming hot colors - orange Papageno, purple Thomas Edison, White Perfection, and pink Omega.

I also grow lilies in pots and I set a nice container of unknown asiatics that I forgot I planted last year till they sprouted.. out next to a bench. This morning my strongtoothed friends had nipped off the buds and left the pretty green stalks for me to enjoy. I sprayed pepper spray over my whole garden today. Blasted 4 legged rats.

I find that the direct planted dahlias catch up to the ones started in the greenhouse. The only benefit to starting early in my mind is with the late flowering varieties, and the tubors that don't look to good in early Spring. This gives them the benefit of not getting eaten by nasty little critters at soil level.