Meanwhile, if you have any thoughts on the following questions I’d appreciate hearing your advice. Don’t be shy…;-]

Since all of my plants are still in their 4" pots, I will be interested to see just how the tubers have formed; as in have they broken out of the pots? Questions about lifting the pot tubers out of the ground:

• Q1: If they have grown out of the pot, should I just cut the tuber at the pot boundary?
  
• Q2: Should I dust them with fungicide if I do have to cut tubers, or just toss those individual tubers I have to cut?
  
• Q3: Since they are in pots, do I need to leave them in the ground for a week or so after the stalk is cut, or can I bring them inside (avoiding all chances of frost) and let the eyes form before I put them away?
  
• Q4: How will I store them? I’m hoping I have nothing but the 4" pot to store, as they would nicely stack in the fridge. I believe I can simply let them dry for a couple of days, then wrap each one in saran and put them in the fridge. Anyone see any reason that wouldn’t work?
  
• Q5: Do I have to take the tubers out of the pots, clean off all the soil, and either store the entire clump or separate before storing like you would with field tuber clumps?
  

My goal is to get all of my plants blooming in June next year, so I have kept careful notes about each variety to know roughly how long they might take to bloom. This means that I plan to start some tubers in early December.:

• Q5: Is there a minimum amount of time you have to leave a tuber dormant? If so, anyone know why?
  
• Q6: Should I just not bother to store those varieties that take a long time to bloom and instead, after I’ve lifted the pot, go ahead and let the eye’s continue to grow to a sprout for a new cutting?
  

I will have a new growing spot in the sunroom. This is shelving with adjustable lighting heights that should allow plants to grow up to 3’ under the lights. I plan on keeping them more disbudded and disbranched than I have in the past so they, hopefully, will grow with stronger main stems. When they go in the ground, each one will be put inside a tomato cage. The tops of my plants have never had a problem; it’s always been the very bottom branches that break off due to wind and my dogs.

• Q7: If you want your plants to be less bushy, at least while they’re less than 3’ in height, how would you accomplish this?
  

If I don’t have space in the shelving for all of the plants I grow, I figured I would take those that are furthest along and move them out onto the floor in the sunroom. This probably wouldn’t happen until March or possibly April. This means they wouldn’t be getting the same light intensity, probably after they’d already had 3+ months of grow lights.

• Q8: Anyone foresee this as being a problem? I realize that when I move them out from under the lights they may start putting more effort into tuber growth. My concern is that they think they’re coming into winter and shut down.
  

Are there any other experiments you think might be interesting?

Cheers,
Russ

That's daylight, but not direct sunlight. I was just reading that I should be targeting between 40,000-60,000 lux to simulate direct sunlight. It would cost me roughly $2400 to add enough lighting to get into the direct sunlight realm, not something I’m prepared to do at this point.

However, last year I grew my tuber sprouts and cuttings under ~2800 lux, with nothing on the sides to direct the light, and they did grow.

Cheers,
Russ

pdshop...the longest state is...INSIDE!...because with the right treatment I think I could keep them in bloom year-round.

Cheers,
Russ

I wouldn't ever contradict Plantlady but it seems to me some of the tubers I've ordered over the years state something about the number of blooms one can expect over the season...hmmm, maybe that's assuming per 'summer' growing season.

Q7: If you plant in areas that have less than full sun you will find your dahlias getting quite tall (and less bushy)in an edeavor to find the light. Otherwise, just cut off side sprouts.

Q7: How large a clump could you possibly have in a 4 inch pot? If they are potted in a sterile, soil-less mix and you let it dry out before storing, I don't really see any reason why you couldn't store them in the pots. That logic make sense to you?

Best regards from NY,

Lucinda

misslucinda- No one can tell you how many blooms you are going to get from a plant during a growing season- there's lots of considerations to look at- the amount of fertilizer you use, the length of the growing season, the temperatute & humidity, the amount of disbudding you do.... far too many different conditions to be able to predict how many blooms you will get. That being said, there are some dahlias that do bloom more prolifically than others -- notable the minis & BB & all the open centered stuff will put out more blooms than an AA or A ---& I can see a company claiming prolific bloomer- but as to stating the number of blooms to expect? That's really sticking your neck out & pretty much impossible to predict.
All I know is from our own experience & what we hear from customers-- dahlias don't need a cool rest period like daffs & tulips do -- a bit over two months after we dug them out of our garden where they had bloomed all summer they were in full bloom in South Africa.

pdshop- If you want to live in "Dahlia Heaven" you have to move to the Pacific Northwest-- anywhere from the Oregon border to the SW of BC-- takes in a lot of territory so you should be able to find a nice place with good dahlia growing ground :)

Pdshop, you’re right, I’m not married. My dogs have shown an inclination for playing with tubers that were put into a low propagation tray last year so I am taking precautions not to do that again. They have left the plants themselves alone. I will be taking as many pictures as I can.

Viking, glad I’ll have someone to trade results with throughout the winter, this is going to be fun!

Plantlady, your observations are pretty much what I expected. Your remarks, coupled with my own cutting experience last winter, tells me that a tuber is a sprout factory more or less for life. I had it in my head that a tuber, once it had produced a plant, was pretty much spent. I realize, however, that I took many cuttings from a single tuber last winter…so why couldn’t they do it year after year too?

With no replies to some of the questions so far, here’s my plan: