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| I see more than one shoot sprouting where I planted the tuber. Do I keep one and remove the other? Experienced gardeners, please advise.
Thanks,
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Follow-Up Postings:
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| Yes, remove all but one. Strength will go to the remaining stem. You will get better/bigger and more flowers. |
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| Thank you. |
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- Posted by keriann_lakegeneva 5B WI/IL border (My Page) on Sat, Jun 12, 10 at 10:28
| Just my 2 cents... It depends on your goal. Are you aiming for the biggest blooms possible, not staking the plant, a pretty shape? I leave 2-3 eyes/shoots on many of my dahlias that are in my cutting garden. Granted I try to keep them at one eye because I divided them and share them with others, but sometimes I miss one or 12 : ). Monet is correct, you will get bigger blooms with pinching the others off, but you will get more smaller blooms if you leave all of the eyes on and it will be a 'stockier' plant. Pinching is not required, it just helps focus energy and maintain/achive plant shape. Keriann~ |
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- Posted by flower_farmer 5/6 MI (My Page) on Sun, Jun 13, 10 at 9:25
| Totally agree with Keriann.........with one exception. We will remove the strongest stem if we get to it before it gets taller than 3 to 4 inches. We will root the cutting, and grow it on for a bit in our seedling greenhouse. More cuttings equals more plants to be shared with other dahlia lovers. |
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- Posted by keriann_lakegeneva 5B (My Page) on Sun, Jun 13, 10 at 11:01
| Good Point flower farmer. I think I am going to try that on a few next year! Thanks Keriann~ |
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- Posted by redmond_phyllis West WA (My Page) on Mon, Jun 14, 10 at 0:36
| I love my excess shoots! But I'm afraid I don't do anything very special to make them grow. I carefully follow the excess shoot down to the tuber or close to it, then break it off, being particularly careful not to disturb the shoot that I want to stay in place or the tuber that it's attached to. Then I dig a hole next to a stake and plant the extra shoot with the new leaves sticking out. And I water it. If the weather is rainy such as we've had for the last 2 months, these shoots almost always live. If it's hot, I have maybe 25% success. I've been successful with maybe 20 of them this year, and had one that didn't make it. Not bad, since I consider these a bonus. |
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- Posted by simplicitygardens z8 pacific N.W. (My Page) on Wed, Jun 30, 10 at 14:36
| Hello experts, I have four tubers that are not in the ground yet. I was so excited when I picked them out last season, ordered them then picked them up in April from the grower. Then spring weather was so damp and gloomy here that I just got all carried away when I could finally get to our veg garden. I'm afraid they got overlooked. Am I too late? They are still plump and valiantly trying to grow in their bag of peat moss. Do I cut off any of the growth before sticking them in? Thanks for any help. Abhaya |
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| Hi Abhaya, Just get them in the ground and they'll be fine. I wouldn't break off anything at this time. If your shoots are long or spindly just bury them a bit deeper. Miserable spring is behind us and summer is at the doorstep, so your dahlias still have many weeks to grow and bloom. |
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| Some of my plants are so hard to pinch. There is always a mass of more leaves around the area that I need to pinch out. On the subject, I had some tubers with about 4 inches of growth so I cut it back to one inch as I read to do. Tubers haven't grown an ince since than!? |
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| After reading the way redmond_phyllis deals with their extra shoots I tried it about 2 weeks ago with 2 shoots. I was amazed to find that they took in this horrible hot and dry weather! I did not treat them differently than the mother plant and they got watered only when all the other plants got watered. I have been watering more often than usual so possibly that helped. Thanks so much for posting this! |
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