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| I've been looking at my records trying to understand the numbers.
For example. I got my China Doll tubers this year as new tubers from Swan's. I don't know when they woke them up. They took 14 days to put up shoots I could cut, and then 89 days more to flower. 103 days to bloom. Sounds right. Compare this to Prince Charming. I woke it on January 15, and it took 44 days till I got a cutting. That cutting bloomed 100 days later. 144 days to bloom. Seems like longer than it should be. If I assume a first bloom date of August 1st (for those that haven't bloomed yet) some would end up being 199 days from the tuber being woke through cutting to bloom. That seems like a really long time. Of course some won't be blooming even by then. If I assume that a cutting takes 21 days (max) longer than a tuber, and I planted them on May 24th, that would mean some would have their first blooms on November 18! That's way too long, but I can't figure out where my math is mixed up. Anyone else given this much thought? In case you're wondering, I'm trying to work out a schedule for next year where I stagger bringing tubers out of storage to try and get first blooms for all of my varieties blooming around the same date. Cheers,
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Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by plantlady2008 (My Page) on Thu, Jul 3, 08 at 23:06
| Wow, Russ- you have far too much time on your hands! A lot of dahlias are really slow to wake up- we have a couple of them that just popped eyes-- thay're still in the bins in vermiculite because we though they weren't going to grow at all. The same thing happened last year - some Wyn's Farmer John that didn't wake up until almost July. Walt planted them when he found they were awake & we won Best triple AA in 4 shows with them in Sept! It seems like even the slow to wake up ones will catch up by mid-season & even out-do the eager-beavers that are up & running in Feb. While it might be nice to have all the first blooms at the same time there's too many variables to think you could ever get them all to start at the same time-- it'd drive you nuts!! If you have many different sized blooms there's the fact that the larger the bloom, the longer it takes to open-- so the AA & A's will take way longer to open than the minis & BB's. The singles will open sooner than the double flowering ones & so on-- sure to send you to the nut hatch if you're trying to get the first blooms all on at the same time! |
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| Russ, I have to agree with Plantlady: too many variables even from year to year, and variety to variety. One can't assume anything with living entities. I think you should just experiment with which varieties perform earliest and most consistently for you and go from there. Then brace for them to change the next year. All the statistics can become irrelevant given the variation from year to year. Weather, disease, pests, fertilization and changing soil conditions, dahlia genetics- they are all things you will be largely unable to quantify or control, yet will all affect your eventual bloom time. Are you sure you're not an engineer? Anyone who can understand computer programming and its flaws at your level has such capabilities, but with gardening and living things, there are just too many qualifiers. Plan what you think you can, but keeping track of all those statistics would take the joy of growing flowers right out of it for me. My two cents. |
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- Posted by dahlia_newbie 9 (My Page) on Sat, Jul 5, 08 at 21:55
| Sturgeonguy...I have absolutely no advice, since I'm a newbie, but since you posted that first round of pics out the window, I've been waiting to see another few with flowers...anything yet? I bet your garden is looking really nice from that big picture window, even if everything isn't "on schedule" :) |
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- Posted by sturgeonguy 5a Ont Canada (My Page) on Sun, Jul 6, 08 at 8:52
| I posted updated pictures on June 29 in the thread titled New Pictures, New Beds I'm taking pictures every two weeks. Since the 29th, there haven't been any new blooms. I have a Sayonara that's just starting to open, but that's about it for now. |
Here is a link that might be useful: New Pictures, New Beds
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- Posted by dahlia_newbie 9 (My Page) on Sun, Jul 6, 08 at 15:22
| Lookin GOOD. I love China Doll. I'll have to see if I can find that one for next year. |
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