First I dug the tubers, forgot and used a shovel instead of the spade so did cut into a couple. Then for the washing!
Dahlia Tubers
Some of the clumps were huge and had to be separated.
Then one final dry in the sun before boxing for the winter. I put layers of newspaper between the layers and put the box in a cold, dark closet.
Good for you in getting that task done so quickly and efficiently. Looks like you just combine all your tubers together without labelling them? That is quite a stash there.
I am mulling over whether to tackle that now or in the spring. The ground here doesn't freeze, so overwintering is not a problem. I lost about 3 tubers by leaving them in the ground last year. But the danger of leaving it till spring is that I get too lazy and the tubers sprout before I know it. I tried splitting a sprouted tuber this spring, and ending up breaking the sprouts. If I dig them up now and divide, I will put some right back into the ground, and maybe keep some in storage in case any of the inground ones die. I also promised a lot of tubers to people who sees them in the vases I bring to work so I am hoping that I will have some clumps of dahlia that is big enough to divide.
I lose some in the divide as well Dianne. I had a whole box that didn't keep an eye or were dangling or split.
I don't mark them as I like to be surprised when they come up. Oddly enough I have always ended up with the whites, reds and such together and same for the orange and yellow ones. The pink always end up alone. Always surprises me.
Wish I could let them in the ground. I had some huge clumps and lost 3-5 on each clump just separating??? We shall see next season?
Great job!
We shall see in the spring how great a job it was?
I just repotted a few tubers... they were little, but maybe they will restart indoors... that reminds me, got a ton to do yet...need to bring my cannas in to store, pull the rest of the dahlias out oand pot them to their own pots.. transplant some impatiens... eeks.. its too cold to do it....I had skiff of snow today....
You better get cracking! So you repot the dahlias after you dig them instead of storing for the winter? Guess that is a good use of a greenhouse.
Well, normally I do not do dahlias.. its just I got one heck of a deal on them in the spring and now have them in haning baskets to which I need to pull them out...pot them seperate.. I am brigning them inthe house actually, puttingthem under lights.... I want to bring in my impatiens too so to save on spave I need to do some re-potting. Otherwishe I have some 20 baskets to bring in... I decided to pull some of the canas out of their pots to store... its jsut too many to bring down inthe cralw and space wish.. yipes.. so hope that the tubers on them will be ok too. going to put the roots in a box with wood shavings. Now to find a box...
Shucks, still have a few more to do!