New to Dahlias - Drooping leaves...holes?!

Greetings!

I am new to the forum and new to dahlia growing. I had 2 plants in pots last year and totally got hooked. I have about 15 plants in my garden this year that were planted as tubes bought from Swan Dahlias. I read the booklet and have been reading online for advice on how to best care for them, but I got a little nervous when my leaves started drooping on 1-2 plants (the smallest ones). I was going to snap a picture of the drooping plant yesterday but it has seemed to have bounced back today.We had a mostly sunny day today though. Could this have been the reason for the 'bouncing' back of the leaves? It has been raining a TON the past few weeks and sunshine has been pretty limited.

I know dahlias don't like it too wet, but rain has been so frequent I have began thinking about forming some kind of shelter as it seems almost nonstop recently (mid Wisconsin). Does this sound viable or should they be ok? Overall they seem to be growing alright.

I have also noticed holes in some of the leaves on most of the plants. Is this due to anything specific you think; too much rain, sudden bursts of 'high sun' between rainfalls/cloudy days, bugs...? I have been checking them when the rain stops, but haven't seen any pests on/under the leaves.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

The holes in the leaves are probably the result of the insect called Earwigs, these are small brown insects about half inch in length with 2 pincers at their rear end. They are nocturnal, meaning they feed and are active at night so it's difficult to spot them in action. they return to their nesting place as dawn approaches as predators like birds etc also want to feed on the Earwigs.

The Earwigs also like to nibble holes in the nice juicy flowering buds as they develop and then, hide in among the close petals when the flowers open.

The best way I know to trap these devastating pests is to use a garden cane placed close beside each plant, put an upturned small flower pot filled with straw, shredded newspaper etc into the pot, and place this atop the garden cane, you need to go out each morning to either put the stuff from the pot into a metal bucket and set fire to it, OR fill a bucket with HOT water and shake the insects into the hot water to drown them, OR stamp on the insects BUT they are very fast when trying to escape.

Slugs / snails etc LOVE all dahlias, and you need to take precautions for this NOW, you either go out at dusk when darkness falls with a flashlight and pick all the slugs and snails you find, (They also feed at night) drown, stamp or burn them, you will find more every night, OR go to garden store and look for slug killers that are OK for animals or at least they wont kill animals like pet cats etc, dogs all like the look of those coloured pellets.
Or crushed eggshells scattered around the pot or soil, helps a little, copper tape around pot helps as these slugs / snails dont like crossing it.

Hope this helps you a little and you get to enjoy your dahlias before they are devoured by the preditors that love them as much as we do LOL.
Kindest regards. WeeNel.

Oh yikes! I have seen earwigs on my potted dahlias from last year, so I will make sure to keep an eye on them torwards the evening. The holes have not gotten any worse, but I won't be taking any chances.

As for the slugs, they were a huge problem this year for my marigolds. I would have to go out every morning and pick them off. Would Diatomaceous Earth help for these slugs so I can set it down in the evening and know it'll stall them somewhat until morning or will it hurt the Dahlia?

Won't hurt the Dahlia, and might slow down quite a few possible pests. Good idea!

Awesome, thanks both : )

Hi again. Using the same thread as it's still relevant to my issue...

I am back and glad to say my dahlias made it past the pests thanks to the advice and began blooming a couple weeks ago. I had tons of beautiful blooms.

My issue:

We had 3 days of VERY bad rain/flooding. Our yard is under the water table and we had sitting water for about 3 days. The dahlias are raised a bit so they were not submerged, but the area where the dahlias were in the yard is around where the water retreated to last, so it was near the sitting water the longest. The first day of sitting water I only had one plant drooping. On the third day they all have begun to droop but one. They are not looking too good, and we just had rain again this morning.

My question:

Anyone have this issue with too much water/rain? Do I wait it out? Do they bounce back? Do they rot easily? If so should I dig them up early to dry before they rot?

Prestorm blooms

When they droop with too much water this is also because oxygen has been excluded from the soil. Several root rot diseases can take over rather quickly.

If the water has retreated, and your soil is fast draining, then they might dry out OK in the soil. Otherwise I think I would lift them, treat them with fungicide and pot them up into a really well aerated potting soil, perhaps something almost like a cactus mix. See if they recover enough to go dormant.

I'm not really sure. There was a ton of water, and they're slightly elevated, but never submerged. Although some of the leaves are starting to lift, the poms' leaves towards the bottom of their stalks have turned yellow.

Perhaps dig a hole near the dahlias and see if water comes up? I really wouldn't know how to tell as this is my first year planting anything in the back. We are not supposed to get any rain for the next week or so.

Yes, dig a hole near the Dahlias.
See how wet the soil is. See if you can get some idea of how much air might be able to enter the soil. This is kind of hard to do- the shovel changes how the soil looks, so any air spaces might be destroyed by the digging.

Oozing wet, running with water = dig out the Dahlias.
Maybe not actually running wet, but you can still tell there is a lot of water = dig out the Dahlias.

If you can see air pockets, or if the soil is more sandy = might be OK to leave the Dahlias.


At the end of the season Dahlia leaves will turn yellow. They are saving whatever nutrients they can out of the leaves, storing it in the root for next year. Since they have this ability they might also use it when something goes wrong (like a flood).
I do not know if your Dahlias are saving nutrients, and doing OK in spite of the flood, or if they have some kind of rot started by being too wet.

I did dig down near them, about 8 inches or so, where water was closest to them. The soil did seem to have a 'sand' texture. It was not dry, but there was no sitting water. Like sand that gets wet, and if you squeeze it really tightly, it has this coarse feeling and it holds its shape. Hope that makes sense. I think I may see what they look like in the next coming days. Fingers crossed that the projected storm this Thursday passes.

I dug in another area where my mint was, and 5-6 inches down there was water. The water rose more and more the deeper I dug down and filled the hole I was digging, yikes!

Mint is OK in that kind of setting (but can get invasive). Dahlias- good that you found somewhat sandier, and less wet conditions.