Tuber Check 06- Have you checked your tubers lately?

Well, following Candy's debacle I again checked tubers today and found 2 real skinny Spartacus, (or would that be Spartaci?) tubers rotting. They are now garbage. They were so thin I only saved them to use to make possible cutting donations, but the skinny ones are prone to rot. And rot they did.

All others are in excellent shape. So don't forget to check your tubers for moisture/shrivel/rot varmint damage etc. I remember last year the neighbor's black lab who is constantly over here playing and running off with my gloves or cookies or anything left within reach, ran off with a package of wrapped tubers! He is such a devil- I had to run in the house for a bone treat to get him to drop them~ One crafty dog and one desperate gardener with a bone.

Annie,
I actually did today, I meant to about a week ago because I had noticed some condensation then.
There were quite a few of my saran wrapped and plastic grocery bagged ones that were moldy. I had put most of my doubles in those as an experiment. I am not sure why there was so much condensation, my only guess was the temperature variation early on? There didn't seem to be any noticable pattern to it.They were all dried to almost cracking before wrapping.

Everything else left I bleached again and put into peat which I haven't had problems - probably because it buffers the moisture variation better.
Al

Well, I will have you all know that I have been checking my tubers regularly because I am still dividing them. Today, I finally finished them tho. Several clumps of tubers were very fuzzy/moldy tho and will have to decide on what to do about them.
They are the ones I didn't want/care about anyways, but it is so so hard for me just compost/toss them!
But all in all, they are fine.
Now as for eyes, that will be a test for me tho. Shall see how good I cut them apart.

Annie, it is "Spartacus". Interesting on how the huge dinnerplates can be skinny tubers.

Carol

Daisy,

I would be happy to take those poor unwanted dahlia off your hands and give them a home if you are interested in sending them my way for postage!

I grew my first dahlia last year and was very pleased with how great they looked in the last days of summer when everything kinda poops.

jburesh

Fine, Jburesh, I will send some your way after I get everyone elses trades/postages done. I would rather people grow the tubers than trash them for sure.
I have the moldy/fuzzy ones separte from the regular batch so shall see how they do.
I will have plenty of good tubers to send you tho. So I will let you know when I am ready to do it all.
Thanks for letting me know. Just keep reminding me like by D-mail.
Carol

Edited to say, we all love another "Dahlia addict" here, LOL

This message was edited Jan 5, 2006 5:57 PM

Jburesh I will likely have some too.
And Black eyed Susans if you're still after those.

Big Al, I was thinking about your condensation and recalled that when I'm wrapping I have to remember it is cold outside and warm in the house. I know that I've made the mistake of wrapping a bunch, putting them in a box outside and then bringing them in again to finish the batch the next morning. That's when the condensation has happened for me. Chilly wrapped tubers, or perhaps tubers in a bag coming into a hot house might be something to avoid. Don't know if that happened to you, but I know it has to me. I usually let mine sit overnight inside to acclimate before wrapping, then out they go for good.

Pooch,
I had wrapped mine up and left them in the garage(beautiful day) and planned on leaving them in the garage until it was 40 d. in there. As it turned out that was 4 days and it got to freezing in there(ouch). They were in the attic before that of course. My attic temp ranges some - not sure if that was it. I tried to let them dry out well before I wrapped them, a few started to get cracks. Not sure what to try different, I might just stick to peat with some experimenting.

oh wow...I only have a few but I do need to check on them I guess.

charlotte

Hi Pooch,

I think I have enough black eyed susans now. But would adore any dahlia you can spare. I'll pay postage, of course. Then next year, I'll pass my extras on to someone who doesn't have any.

thank you!

Postage: poo poo! We will again rendezvous at DQ JBuresh!

I am happy to report I just again spot checked tubers and they are firm, fat, and happy: some with eyes very obviously thriving in this horsepuckey weather. No sprouts, but no mold, no mush. They look just like when I wrapped them in November.

I just read that bit about condensation and I am wondering if that was what went wrong with my tubers. I stored them in the refrigerator until Thanksgiving because we were having an unusually warm fall. The day before Thanksgiving I moved them down to the garage. By this time we had snow outside so the garage was cool but not nearly as cold as the refrigerator. So maybe they developed condensation?

Yep, that may surely well be the problem. The coming and going of the temp. change must have hit them hard.
Next time, I wouldn't worry too much on a warm fall. Just find a good cool spot like in the garage and keep the tubers there. They would be fine. I would never recommend the refrig. for any tubers but that is just my opinion.
Can't wait to send you some!!! So you can get back up and running with some dahlias for you and your mom.
Carol

Thanks, Carol. You're a doll.

In the past I had always stored my tubers in the garage in peat or perlite as soon as I dug them up but I was concerned about the plastic wrapped ones trying to sprout in the unusual warmth. Oh well, another lesson learned. LOL

I did another spot check today and found a couple skinny tubers had begun to rot, otherwise looking good. I found one "Summer Night" with a big bulging eye ready to sprout, kind of sprouting already~ 1/3 inch white tissue coming out of the eye. This is in a dark room without windows, inside a lidded cooler! For sure, Spring is on the way now.

Wow, the tubers seem to be in a hurry this year!
We have a few months to go still!
But am glad they are doing good. I need to know that my tubers are safe and sound, hehehe!
Well, if we get some colder weather soon, maybe that will slow them down???

Great news, Annie! It sounds like the nitrogen bath wasn't a problem after all.

Maybe that 'Summer Night' tuber is trying to grow an oar so it can row to dryer ground. LOL

Yup Candy, the nitrogen bath doesn't scare me anymore, too much, well hardly at all; just a teeny thought in the back of my mind..... LOL! I must be a tiny bit paranoid because I checked tubers again yesterday, (kind of like a mother hen,) but did find about 4 rotting a smidge at either the business end or the root end.

I dread unwrapping them to get the rot away from the healthy ones in those packages, but I will. After dealing with wrapping those suckers the first time for a month, I'm not real keen on dilly dallying with it all again. I just want to PLANT THEM!

'Summer Night' will need more than an oar: a boat to float in would be helpful! Topped 31 inches of rain for January alone. Ick. I try to think of August: hot, dry august.

Well I ventured into the celler today to check the tubers...they are all perfect so far...amen...many have little bulging eyes...yippeee!!! I packed them in peat and vermiculite and placed them in perforated zip lock bags ( the ones used for vegetables )...Hope they contunue to Winter well!!

Yeah, you guys in CA always are ahead of us. Dang it! I would love some eyes on mine but it will be a very long time for planting them tho.
As Annie says, we had the 2nd wettest January on record and the ground is totally satuated! Even my mint compost looks bad and will not be good for keeping the moisture in place for the summer. It is leaching way too fast this year.
My tubers are doing great!!! I just peeked at them and they are just fine in their flats covered sawdust and a burlap bag over them to keep them from freezing more. They are actually darker than before so it may be a long while until they start to show their eyes.
Carol

It is good to know you are all having success with your stored tubers, especially you, Poochella, with your concerns about the nitrogen.

31+ inches in one month. Oh, my. I can't even imagine. I thought 50+ inches in one year (for 2 years in a row) was bad but you definitely take the cake. The irony is that in August - hot, dry August - you will probably have to water. LOL

I am desperately trying to figure out what dahlias to order before everything is sold out. Is everyone still willing to complete the trades I arranged last fall for postage instead of tubers since I am currently tuber-less? Could you each Dmail me and let me know if you want to go ahead with the trade and, if so, what it is I asked for? My record keeping appears to be as rotten as my tubers. Ha!

I definitely want to order 'Alfred Grille', 'Appleblossom', 'Chilson's Pride', 'Citron du Cap', 'Color Magic', 'El Triunfo', 'Fire Magic', 'Goshen Wine', 'Hillcrest Kismet', 'Kasuga', 'Kingston', and 'Sugartown Sunrise'.

Some others I am considering include 'CG Coral', 'Edna C', 'L.A.T.E.', 'Parakeet', 'Mingus Selena', 'Robin Hood', 'St Croix', 'Taratahi Sunrise', 'Touche', and 'Woodlands Down'.

Any comments or requests? Remember this spring's order becomes this fall's tubers for trade.

I can send you Chilson's Pride, Candy, and I'll Dmail you tomorrow. And in that mail, I'll tell you about the swirling black waters of the nitrogen bath perhaps coming up to haunt me, after all..... 10 more rotters found today. But that is still a tiny percentage overall, and likely my fault for choosing poorly what to save or try to save.

31 inches of rain????????????????? oh my

31" in January, at least 19" plus snow in December and I think about 3" so far in February- more on the way. Good thing the ground hog lives in Pennsylvania for the poor thing would drown in its hole out here.

So I had a long work day and no time to check more tubers, but those I found beginning to rot yesterday were
1) the same variety- perhaps to be known as "A Bad Keeper"
2) very skinny- probably shouldn't have been saved in the first place; those rotted on the neck end
3) some big lunkers I had cut in half which rotted on the cut ends. I dried those inside til the cuts healed and then wrapped as usual. I even labelled those "Dried inside for 2 days" So either the cuts got infected, or they were infected already and my sulphur coating didn't penetrate enough to prevent mayhem. Or something else got them.

This is still a small percentage and not too surprising, but I hate to lose even one.

Mine are doing okay!! I feel fortunate ~ this is the first year I have even dug them up, as our climate is pretty temperate. But I was having gopher problems anyway, so thought I'd try the saran wrap method. I think I might have used too much sulfer?? as they are still very green from the dust. Although maybe that is helping them!! I don't have many tubers, but the saran wrap method seems to have done very very well.

I bought two new varieties Saturday at our local nursery: Pink Floyd and Seduction. The tubers are small, but what they call "2" tubers is really, to me, what's left of two plants with many tubers attached to the old stalk. I hope they do well. I really wanted to order from Swan Island this year, but since all the gopher problems, I decided I'd better play it safe.....

Yup, we've had lots of rain this year too ~ don't know the total but I think it's a record. But!! Spring, at least in my neck of the woods, is coming.... I have peonies this year that I already see buds on - not just leaves, but flower buds! And my container roses are doing very well after a good pruning.... and my container hydrangea is going crazy!! Many of my container plants this year (oh yeah, the echinacea in a container with a rose) are doing so well after the alfalfa tea from the summer & fall. Definitely a difference in the early spring activity!!

But back to dahlias..... I hope to have some really nice ones this year, rodents notwithstanding....

Sanna

Wow, Sanna....peony buds already!! My peonies won't even start to think about emerging from the ground for a long time. It's great that your dahlia tubers are doing well in storage. It sounds like you will be able to pot them up soon.

Did you use alfalfa tea on your dahlias last year? I am curious because I think alfalfa tea is high in nitrogen and dahlia tubers are not supposed to store well if they have had much nitrogen. But it sounds like yours are doing just fine.

It is a good thing we don't have gopher problems around here 'cause I just bought a LOT of dahlias today. I am still in shock. LOL
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/574491/

My 3 are doing okay..they had shriveled some so I soaked them a bit. Those beautiful packages at Walmart are killing me. I looked longingly at the Thomas Edison package at Lowes but I asked my MOM..."what do you think my chances are of this package actually being properly labeled ? " :)

charlotte

Sannajane, are you certain the green is sulphur dust and not mold? I think sulphur is generally yellow, but perhaps your product is green tinged. You might want to unwrap them and do a sniff test. You can't hurt them with too much sulphur, I don't think. But mold is a different story.

I don't have gophers but I swear there is a herd of moles in our lower yard that must be 100 strong. It's horrible- they've made mountains out of mole hills LOL everywhere. It's treacherous to walk there and I can't even think of the poor mower blades whapping all the dug up rocks that are now excavated. They have torn through my perennial bed as well, the little creeps. It is now illegal to trap anything with fur in WA in leg traps. So I guess I'll just have to trap slugs instead.
Anyone know any good mole remedies?

Candy, Think of your tuber expense in terms of a couple coffees, a couple good meals out and ba-da-bing you will have it all in perspective! That's how I look at it.

Sannajane, I second the sniff test suggestion. Did you write on the tubers with a black marker? That could be another explanation, but only if the green is in the area of the writing. (blue and yellow make green). I had a few that looked greenish, but rinsed them off and re-sulphered them and then wrapped 'em back up. Last time I checked they were okay.

Poochella: Get your babydog a terrier. That'll fix those moles.

Hi Pooch,

I am told that if you rid your area of mole food ( grubs mostly ), the moles will move on...I am told they actually help aerate the soil, so they can be beneficial in their mess making...www.gardencompass.com has some clues as to how to rid the grubs etc. in a ecofriendly way...

Annie, we have moles in Ohio but they are about the size of small mice, they are nothing compared to the size of moles in Washington. I couldn't not believe the damage done and the size of the mole hills the first time I saw a Washington mole at work in my yard. Fortunately for me (not the mole) my neighbor put a stop to its activity while I was at work (I won't go into the gruesome details). I would have thought all your moles would have drowned by now.

I like your way of looking at tuber expenses! I think a therapist would call that rationalization but then I always like to think of myself as a rational person.

Thanks Poochella and Grannymarsh, but no, they're okay! They're nice and firm, no mold. The sulfer I used was a "wettable sulfer" if I remember correctly... and I really think I just used too much. Or maybe the right amount! As everything looks really good. No soft spots, no mush.... I didn't notice any eyes yet, but they are totally dark, cold, and wrapped. I'm thinking all is well!

Sanna

Good job SannaJane. They sound good to me, I just wondered about the 'green' comment. The sulphur I use is 'wettable' too, kind of a dull yellow that blends marvelously with my kitchen floor in November and December!

Candy I like your way of looking at tuber expenses! I think a therapist would call that rationalization but then I always like to think of myself as a rational person.

A really rational person would dump the therapist and start thinking in terms of cost per hour for him/her vs. cost per tuber. LOL Think of the fresh air, exercise, slug killing, yelling at plants to get going, joy and celebration at each bloom.... there is no better therapy. How's that for rationalization?

Sudhira- I checked out the nematode advice at your link, or at a site linked to your link. I have just too much space to 'treat the entire lawn.' If there was something specific other than nematodes, that you were pointint me to, I'd love to hear it.

I asked on a NW garden forum and was directed to a product that kills our western moles with a little poison worm-shaped bait you drop in their tunnels. Over $2.00 per worm/poison/bait deal! I'd need to spend about $400 for that bait for the areas affected. And then what if you tuck the worm in a bad spot- an unused mole tunnel? For $400 I can buy a lot of bb's and build a really great mole blind! Too bad I can't aim well, let alone the fact that I hate guns... and it's darn cold out. Are moles nocturnal or what?

I think I better hire my mid 70's neighbor lady who has proven herself to be an excellent mole trapper- perhaps her success has driven the herd into our yard. Have to check this out further, because they are really out of hand.

Back to tubers: it hit 24 degrees overnight and will again tonight. When I checked the tuber room this a.m. the ole space heater was blaring away and it was 40 degrees in there- a welcome relief from the nippy outdoors.

Poochella,

I don't know if I had moles, but last year I found many 2" tunnels in my new hosta bed. I read that voles leave if you put used cat litter, feces, into the holes. I have two cats so this was a very easy solution for me to try. I tried it and filled in all the holes I could find. No more tunnels for the rest of the season.

:) If you don't have cats, I can supply all the used cat litter you need. :)

I just read the bit about our meet at DQ. Now I can put a name with a face! Your plants are doing fantastically! I've made autumn joy babies and given them out to others. You are so very generous. I can't wait until my garden grows up and I can share with others.

For the moles, I wonder if a person could just run a hose from the automobile exhaust and into the hole for about 30 minutes and do the job?

It might be worth a try. A car sitting still doesn't use much gas, does it?

Louise

You don't want CSI Moles on you !

CSI Moles LOL. It is a crime to trap fur bearing animals in this state ( does that mean you can only trap bald ones?) But my neighbor in her mid 70's is a regular whiz with a mole trap and I may have to hire her on the sly. She had a shrivelled pathetic mole hanging right outside their front door for a few weeks one year- a trophy I guess.

Texas Lou, that's an interesting idea of gassing the little devils. There are just so many holes and volcanic mounds down there. And who knows if they're still active, or have moved on? I could try I guess, hoping I don't gas myself in the process!

JB, I could start my own landfill with used scoopable litter, having 5 cats here myself. I'm not keen on the notion of putting it in my garden because I would likely dig up the little treasures at some point weeding or mulching or such. Or the neighbor dogs would go after the 'treats' deposited there.
Do you think a 2 inch hole could be rats? I'll find those holes around once in a while as we definitely have rats and mice. I NEED THE ORKIN MAN- this is an invasion! (The cats are largely all indoors, in case you're wondering what kind of slacker hunters I have here.)

I know Veeja has sworn by male urine down the mole hole to send them packing. I just haven't summoned the courage to ask hubby for donations yet.

I'll let you know what I do, unless it's illegal :)

Annie, go ahead and ask your sweetie. It is my personal experience that men love to pee in the great outdoors. I don't know why; I guess it's because they can. Sort of like marking their territory....... LOL

Ah gee, Candy, you are so so silly and funny. Tho think you are right, they do want to mark their territory!
Carol

Ladies, I don't think it's just men.Maybe a DNA thing. I was sitting here at the computer just gazing out the window and lo and behold my 7 year old neighbor boy was writing his name in the snow!!!!! Should I suggest he go to Portland and help Annie out? LOL

My, Willow, they start early in life, don't they, LOL LOL