Cuttings and leaf cuttings

My goal for this year’s dahlia garden is to produce enough blossoms that I can sell some of them as cut flowers. I will have at least 600 plants (up from 100 plants last year), and possibly as many as 800+ plants. It is too expensive to purchase multiple tubers of the same variety of dahlia. So what is a person to do?

Last year I discovered the world of cuttings and leaf cuttings. The photos at the beginning of this post are of tubers prepared for taking cuttings.

Here is a brief description of how it is done:

1. Place a tuber in potting soil with the “eye” out of the dirt.
2. Label each tuber with the name of the dahlia variety (such as “Sparticus”).
3. Place the tubers on a heating pad in a warm room.
4. Keep the soil moist enough to keep the tubers from drying out.
5. Some people put plastic covers over the tubers.
6. Wait. And wait. And wait.
7. The eyes will begin to grow a dahlia plant.

I will continue to write on this topic when my tubers are at the point of taking the cuttings. I will include of taking both types of cuttings.

Photos 1-3: Photos of dahlia tubers planted with eyes out of the soil.

Photos 4-7: Photos of “eyes” developing into plants.

Click on each photo to see the full sized picture.

Plastic Wrap Storage

Dahlia growers are passionate about how dahlia tubers should be stored. In past years I would leave the tubers in their original clumps (marked with their name) and stored in either peat moss or cedar sawdust. In the spring I would divide the clumps. I had to be very careful to keep the tubers from drying out.

I have become much wiser in how to deal with dahlia tubers. First, after the first frost I cut down each dahlia plant, leaving an eighteen inch stalk sticking up out of the ground. Survey tape is tied to each stalk with the name of the dahlia written on it in permanent marker. Leave the tubers in the ground for at least ten days before digging up the tubers—this allows the eyes to enlarge, making the dividing of the tubers much easier.

After the tubers were divided they were wrapped in plastic wrap. Place a tuber on the plastic wrap and then have one wrap of the plastic around the tuber. Then, place another tuber with the first tuber and have one wrap of the plastic around the two tubers. Continue until there are eight to ten tubers in the bundle. Only one type of dahlia tuber is in a bundle. Mark the bundles with the type of dahlia and the number of tubers in it. The plastic keeps the tubers apart so that if one tuber rots the other tubers are protected.

I have packaged 91 tubers for our church’s garage sale and found only two tubers that were rotten. I have checked most all of the bundles and there appears to be little if any loss. I am very please with how this storage system works.

I placed cedar sawdust in the bottom of a box, put in a layer of tuber bundles, added a layer of cedar sawdust, etc. until the box was full.

The journey for my 2008 dahlia garden

Welcome to The Dahlia Guy. This blog is about my love for growing dahlias. Photos of my 2007 dahlias can be found here.

In 2008 my garden will be at least six times the size as last year--in number of plants. I plan on have at least 118 different varieties of dahlias. On top of that, I am growing some dahlias for the seeds I harvested from some of last year's plants.

Join me on this journey.