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scully931

Storing in paper bags?

scully931
14 years ago

Hi,

I successfully stored my dahlias for the first time last year by just putting them in a plastic bin with peat moss. However, I was wondering if this year I could put them in small paper bags, marked with the color, then into the plastic bins with peat moss.

If that would work, should I also put peat moss inside the bag with each clump?

Thank you so much for any information!

Comments (8)

  • teddahlia
    14 years ago

    Put each variety into it's own PLASTIC bag with some peat moss and then store them away. Place plastic bags into the bin and store in same place as last year. If a tuber rots in a paper bags, the rot spreads to your whole storage area and can ruin many other tubers. Rot would be confined to only those in the plastic bag. Peat moss has reputation of drying tubers. Vermiculite is better.

  • scully931
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Thank you. I will look for some vermiculite this weekend.

  • jeannie7
    14 years ago

    I disagree wholly with the thought of using plastic bags for storing dahlia....or any other plant.
    Plastic doesn't breathe....paper does.
    As long as the paper bag is left open so moisture can leave, the paper bag method is foolproof. The paper bag, in contact with the tuber can draw such moisture away from it and need not stay that way, transferring any moisture back to the tuber. Plastic would.

    The plastic bin, open as it is, is a fine way to store the tuber clumps surrounded by peat moss to keep them from touching one another.

    Vermiculite in the volume that would be required to cover such clump would be cost prohibitive; peat moss is relatively inexpensive and can be later used in the garden or in the compost.

  • jroot
    14 years ago

    To each his/her own. I have found that peat moss dehydrates the tubers. I use recyled grocery bags, loosely closed, and I have minimal loss. Jeannie's theory sounds logical, but I find my way works better ... better than logic. .. and the cost is $nil :)

  • teddahlia
    14 years ago

    Storing dahlias in plastic bags is the most common method. Preserving moisture is the issue. Tubers should be dry when placed into storage and when you take them out in the Spring, they will be very healthy. Paper wicks moisture from the tubers and they will end up too dry. Vermiculite is not expensive here. Another medium that is better than peat moss is cedar shavings. Many people wrap tubers in Saran wrap and use no medium. Swan Island dahlias stores their tubers in wooden boxes lined with numerous sheets of newspaper on bottom and top. The storage area is a giant root cellar with some humidity. In the cold parts of the USA, the humidity can be very low and dahlias can dry out easily. Plastic preserves the level of moisture that they need. Remember that the tubers should be dry when placed into storage, whatever the method. Too much moisture is just as bad as too little.

  • indy76km
    14 years ago

    You guys are going to be horrified with what I did last year then! Someone gave me some dahlia tubers last fall. I knew absolutely zero about Dahlias or tubers. He gave them to me in a plastic grocery bag and I just put them in a spare room, in the bag on top of a box out in the open. They stayed that way for months until I moved to a new house in January. When I came accross them again I decided to look them up to learn more about them. I felt ashamed when I learned what care should go into storing them. After that I put them in a shoe box with some newspaper and crossed my fingers. I planted them in the spring and low and behold they grew! All the tubers I had srouted and produced beautiful blooms that you can see on the thread I started "my first dahlias". This year I took better care of them now that I know more.

  • Poochella
    14 years ago

    Indy, sometimes ignorance really is bliss as in your bags of dahlias callously ignored in a lonely room. Now that you know more, and are trying to keep them they'll probably rot or dehydrate! Isn't that the way it goes??? I hope not, for your sake, but there's always something that can go wrong or go well. I hope the latter for you.

    I remember being aghast to learn about storing in Saran Wrap and further violating the theory that moisture and darkness harbor all sorts of fungi and bacteria by storing those inside a plastic bin or styrofoam cooler. Same for plastic bags. It seemed contrary to all gardening common sense. But it does work, and works well in most cases.

    I use both those methods now with coarse vermiculite or cedar shavings in the plastic bags. The storage media are really not expensive if bought in very large bags. Our feed store carries them both in ~4 cu ft bags that will last for a lot of seasons. The shavings are packed tightly and go a long way. They smell good too.

    Bottom line is to use what works for you and suits your time and space constraints. But it never hurts to try something new. I've saved individual tubers in aluminum foil and even newspaper rolled up and taped, just to see how they'd do. They're growing in the garden right now.

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