Dahlias: Digging and Dividing in Autumn, 1 by Poochella

Poochella wrote:
I hope you've let your dog free by now Dayna. She is going to think those clumps of tubers going on the grill must mean they're tasty treasures indeed LOL! Our neighbor dogs routinely patrol and steal the grill drip pan for treats.

From the fuzzy photo and my very fuzzy eyes at this point, I can't really commit to identifying any eyes but I've circled possible eyes ( lighter colored, yellowish raised areas) in red from your stolen photo LOL. Double misdemeanor for me! It's hard enough in real life, but really hard to see what's what with a photo. Can you get a macro shot of just the neck/stem part of the clump- a bit of the tubers, maybe from a couple different angles? Don't forget the underside if anything looks like lighter colored eyes down there.

The mother tuber looks to be the larger slightly darker one at about 11o'clock. I can't tell if the bubble neck/collar area with a red circle could belong to the tuber to the left of it, or if it only goes with the mother.

Are the oranged slashed upright white things shoots, do you think? IF they are shoots, vs, tubers forming, tell me and I'll redraw the photo because you could treat them as possible eyes for next year. You can slice them off to get them out of the way. Also, how big- length and width -are those 3-4 possible tuber candidates to the left?

I think your best bet is the one labelled tuber 1- the biggest ( though size doesn't always matter in tubers) Next best is the one above it next to the mother IF that little red circle goes with it. Then the odds for survival go to the ones labelled '2nd tuber' and 'possible 3rd tuber.' But a clearer photo would be better still.