I have never heard of using corn starch as a fungicide. Why not try an experiment. Do some with starch and some with bulb dust, and let us know the results. If mine weren't all put away, I would experiment, but alas they've been away for quite a while now.

If you do decide to try it, let us know how it goes. You might want to check on them every month or so.

I've never heard of corn starch in bulb/tuber storage, but have heard of using cinnamon as a natural antifungal. I used cinnamon one year as an experiment on raw tuber cuts instead of sulfur and it worked fine.Why not give it a try like Jroot says?

Jroot, you are wise and fortunate to be done with your storage at this early date. Enjoy the winter rest.

poochella don't tell him that. It is his duty to hop a train and help the rest of us get our dahlias in for the winter. We will call his trip the Jroute.

Oh ho,
I caught that one. Put me down for a stop. Steve in Baltimore County.

Love the idea of Jroute! I am after Steve in Baltimore County. I only have about 20 tubers to put up so I could have you on your way in no time. If you hurry on down you can catch the tail end of the fall foliage. Kathy in Culpeper County.

Thanks for all the advise.

Kathy

jroute. LOL You folks are funny. :-)

I wonder if it could be written off as a business trip. Of course, there would have to be some compensation, especially in these tough days in the market.

I think I'll pass on that route. LOL

Put us on the jroute- Walt only has about 3,000 left to go!

Jroute LOL- good one Viking! I'm closer to both the freeway and the airport than Plantlady , so please put my stop ahead of poor Walt, unless you travel via BC. What else would Walt do, if not dabble in dahlias?

I am down to maybe 200 and with 2" of heavy rain in the past few hours and more coming overnight, it's going to be a good workout getting those heavy clumps out.

Compensation, you say? How about the joy of gardening? Perfect salmon on the grill? Free water?

Oh no you don't poochella- the jroute comes from Ontario Canada so we're in line before you!
How about all this rain? We've had about 9" this week. Good thing Walt doesn't disolve nor shrink in the wet and has a good set of raingear which works just as well for digging dahlias as it does for fishing in the rain.
Add dahlia tubers to the list for compensation-- just what jroot needs is more beautiful new dahlias!

I'll defer to Walt then, since he's got a tad more to dig than me. Rain? Yes: 5" in 16 hours was our total, add another 1.5" or so between the night before and morning after. My arms hurt from hauling big sodden slumps of mud. "Shake the dirt off" after digging, my eye. Well worth the effort though.

You guys are soooo funny, planning my time ... and trips. LOL I think I'll pass.