Here's the Sandia Joy I showed pictures of a couple of weeks ago after we had lifted it, intact, from the ground. I tried to keep it growing inside but it was failing miserably, I assume because I had cut so many of its roots. Eventually, I simple cut the entire plant down and then left the tuber clump in a pot of soil under the lights. Within a week, this is what was going on in the soil. Note the strong eyes that have sprouted.

Here's a progression of pictures dividing a clump. First, the clump after its been washed:

After I have removed all of the roots and tubers too small to be viable:

Finally, the 16 viable tubers that were in the clump:

After dividing, each tuber gets a label (simply tape on a toothpick) and put into my 16" x 24" trays I got from Lee Valley. This tray has 49 tubers in it where they'll stay while they sprout up:

The trays are then put under the lights in the grow cabinet:

Oh, and because I think any discussion of Dahlias should include some color, here's a picture of my Purple Taiheijo today. I had planned to try and grow this plant all summer inside in my sunroom back in the spring. When I had the spider mite problem inside, I moved it outside beside my back door. I didn't bother with it as I figured it would die, but I did experiment with some anti-spider mite chemicals. Amazingly, it did manage to bloom, but the stalk was quite deformed (I didn't stake it well.)

On the 15th I brought it inside again, cutting off all blooms and just leaving buds. As you can see, the lighting is obviously good enough to make Dahlias bloom...so I'm going to try and keep this one growing until next year.

Cheers,
Russ

The first few are good for most gardeners who want to put their tubers to sleep. ... getting rid of the rat tails and small useless tubers, and still showing the stem section where we find the eyes. Well done.

Your experiment is going to be interesting. I am wondering if the plant will be missing its rest period. Hence I am wondering how it will perform next year, when they go out to the garden.

Keep us informed. This is how we all learn from each others' successes and failures. Believe me, I have had my fair share of failures ... and then some. LOL

I have planted 2 more tubers than I need plants in my garden for next year. As I mentioned before, I'm still leary about my ability to cut tubers from clumps and know I've got a tuber that will produce. This year I will learn whether I know how to cut, or, my storage methods sucked last year...;-]

Jroot,

I was thinking of you as I did this work. I had entire clumps with your name on...but I found that in trying to get enough viable tubers I had to go through more clumps than I thought I would. My goal for next year is 4 plants of each variety...but I'd really like them to all sprout around the same time, as opposed to 4 cuttings from one tuber. It meant I ended up cutting up all my Bride to Be, Citron De Cap, etc... to get enough viable tubers...sorry.

To all,

FWIW, I hope that as soon as a tuber sprouts I will transfer it from the propagating tray to a 4" pot. I hope I will be able to do this without cutting too many roots...my belief is that they will sprout from the tuber and not from roots spawned by the tuber.

My 2009 garden design has, for the most part, 4 of every variety I want (including Wyn's, which I won't receive until late March.)

Lake Side, 4 beds around a pond

There's 57 spots on the Lake side and my spreadsheet lets me replace any flower with any other. I try to use the spreadsheet to figure out what colors will be beside another.

Roadside

The roadside is "all that's left"...so my "design" is simply A-Z...;-]

Cheers,
Russ

I only kept a few clumps of each variety, enough to get me 6 or so viable tubers (I basically gave myself 2 tubers more than I need for each variety.) By far the majority of clumps were given to a friend who helps me in the garden...he does landscaping so the extra plants will go into gardens he does next year (plus his own.)

All excess tubers I had were thrown away...I simply have no more garden space I want to have occupied by Dahlias.

I dropped 9 varieties that either didn't give me sprouts in the spring (so never got planted) or didn't bloom this year. I dropped another 4 varieties that did bloom, but I've decided I don't like. To this I'm adding 7 varieties from Wyn's collection, giving me a total of 183 plants of 42 varieties for next year.

That's enough for me, but I think its great that you're going to expand your gardens.

Cheers,
Russ

Too bad the trade won't work out, but I understand. Some of mine did not do as well as expected. I will put "yours" back into the box of "mine".

Also, may I assume you are planting your tubers vertically so you can get more tubers sprouting per flat? Do you plant them in the ground the same way because I would think the sprouts would also be vertical by then.

BTW--love the purple Taiheijo.

Lucinda

It will be fun to watch your efforts progress. It's always a long several months from storage to rebirth out here, so I'll be glad to see any and all success you find.

I'm about ready to hire either or both of you to remodel our bathrooms LOL!

I went with 4 x 4' T5 bulbs in each box. I lined the inside of each box with 2mm mylar reflective film. I also made reflectors directly around each light using the film to simulate a "W" to drive light down to the tubers.

Tubers are planted pointy end down to, as you say, maximize the planting area. From them I'd take cuttings or simply transfer the tuber into a 4" pot once sprouted. If you lay a tuber with a vertically growing sprout on its side, the sprout will turn.

gladzoe,

Very few have sprouted as of today, maybe 2%. I am very disappointed with myself as I left them for a week once I'd planted them, without additional water. Right now a lot of the tubers have a very shrivled look to them, particularly those with very thin necks. I'm worried I may have killed them by not providing sufficient water (including spritzing them to keep the outter surface moist.) Time will tell.

poochella,

My plan was to move larger plants into my sunroom in early spring. They wouldn't get enough light there to bloom, but I would keep them trimmed back if they started to get too spindly.

At this point I'm really uncertain I will get many of them to actually sprout...;-[

Cheers,
Russ

Today I have sprouts on 41 of my 215 tubers, plus a few that have more than one sprout. I've decided to wait a full 6 weeks before I try anything other than what I'm already doing.

I am spritzing them every day, with the lights on now for 15 hours (I just upped that today from 14 hours.)

Meanwhile, the Purple Taiheijo and Tahiti Sunrise that I brought in growing...have both died. They both showed a fine white powdery substance on the leaves. I've removed them from the house, so hopefully its nothing that will spread to the tuber sprouts (none are showing any sign of it.)

Shame...

Finally, the Sandia Joy which I brought in after lifting it from the ground; which I subsequently cut back to 3" long stems...its sprouting all over the place. There must be 15 stalks on it, many that are 8"+. I will prune it back soon, taking the cuttings as new plants given my Sandia Joy tubers haven't shown any life yet.

Sandia Joy - BBWL: 4" diameter flower on a 24" bush.

So, you win some, you lose some...;-]

Cheers,
Russ

While this tray happens to be running over with sprouting tubers, its not representative of the other 3 trays. They, unfortunately, are pretty stubborn despite being under the same type of lights. There's nothing to explain the difference other than the varieties I suppose. Same light, same water, same soil...???

Tray full of tubers

Here's 15 cuttings, plus 3 Park Princess tubers up front. The early sprouts come from Chrichton Honey, Gitts Perfection, I'm a Hottie, Lavender Ruffles, and Sherwood's Peach. That's just under a month for these sprouts to get large enough to be cut, pretty impressive.

My first cuttings for 2009

I'm still really concerned that more than a few varieties aren't going to give me any sprouts.

Cheers,
Russ

My two faves that I stuck in a pot have a few sprouts but they are really slow. Not that my light set up is ideal either and I don't feel like spending more at this point.

Some I've been keeping alive in jars of water but they seem to get callused and then those turn brown without sending out roots. I might put them in promix and a little root stimulator. Two that I had in pots, that I thought might have froze, have sent up new sprouts which get no light and are a foot tall. I might cut them off and try and slip them. Powdery mildew is a problem with a few of mine, I bleached the leaves thinking it might stop it and they seem ok.

If none of this works my method might become to send my good ones to my friend in Oregon who never has to dig them up. She can then send me shoots when they become bush sized.

Mick