Digging Up Dahlia's

We've had enough cold nights now, with frost, that I cut the tops of my Dahlia's off and put them on my compost pile.

Am I suppose to uproot the tubers now? or do I wait for another week or so? I'm still a couple months before the ground freezes.

Thanks

Darrell

Darrell R, I envy you getting an early start. There is a ton of good info and photos here. http://www.dahlias.net/dahwebpg/TuberStor/TuberStor1.htm

I find you have a window of 1-2 weeks max to dig, ideal being 4-8 days (some websites say) for easiest eye detection.

One idea to note, is to protect those open stems/stalks from taking in any significant amount of rain, as it will travel right down to the clump, sit there and potentially rot it if they're in the ground long. You can cover them with foil caps, or make a milk jug "roof" just to keep rain out til you dig. ( cut off the bottom of plastic gallon milk jug with or without cap left on, it makes a little green house I use both at end of season if my digging gets rained on and in the beginning to protect little sprouts from slugs and cold.)

Are you intending to store whole clumps or divide tubers now? Don't forget to label so you know what's what! My favorite pencil for writing on damp tubers is the No Blot Ink in a Pencil.
I found them here and they were mailed immediately, in my hand in a couple days. Some art stores might carry them as well.
http://www.aloghomestore.com/tools2.shtml#scriber-pens-and-pencils
Also some people have luck with Sharpies, I find them not so good on wet tubers, perfect on very dry ones.

I guess what I need to know is:

1. Do I wait to dig them up?
2. If I'm suppose to wait, how long do I wait?
3. Is there any set time on digging them up?
4. Can I dig them up the same day I cut the tops off?

I don't know how to divide them, so I'm going to put them in a shoe box or hat box. When I see sprouts next year, I'll stick the whole thing in the ground. At least that's my plan today.

I had 4 different kinds of Dahlia's. 2 of them bloomed and the other 2 only grew short foilage.

I don't know the names of them, so I'm going to put a description on the box of what they looked like. It will be easy to do since one was all purple and the other one was purple and white.

I expiremented with one of them by cutting it back after it reached about a foot tall. It made a lot of new branch's and had lots of flowers all at the same time. Next year, I'm going to cut it back twice and see what happens. Maybe it will grow twice as many branches and have twice as many blooms all at the same time. It would be kind of nice if it did that.

For me, the down side of growing Dahlia's is that they don't have a smell to them. You would think that a flower that looks as good as a Dahlia would have a nice smell to it too. Oh well.

That was a great site. I can do this. :)

Thanks.

It's a wonderful website, one of the best I might say, for general dahlia information. Glad you found it useful. I really would wait the 4-8 days to dig, just to let them mellow from the shock.
Do you have a plan for washing and disinfecting the clump? 10% bleach water works once most of the dirt is carefully showered off. A dusting of sulphur powder or a spray of lysol air freshener are also used to protect against fungi.

Don't forget to protect your tubers from freezing up there in your 5b zone. Above 35 and below 50 is a good range.

So many people waltz up to a bouquet of dahlias and the first instinct is to lean in and sniff. I would wager 100% do this-it's just instinct. You'll be happy to hear they are working on scented dahlias.

Good luck with your dahlias and experimenting on how to grow them.
http://www.dahlias.net/dahwebpg/Gallery/GalleryHtms/HyScent.htm

Hi Darrell,

Do you have a local dahlia society?? I am finding mine wonderful. I joined last October and have learned a lot about various types of dahlia culture. Also, people share more than information...they share...plants, tubers and blooms...yippeee. You might want to check that out...

Have fun~*~