Mandella storing.

I am going to give you a picture story of how to do it. They claim it works!

Clump as it came out of the ground.

Wash all the dirt off with a gentle spray of water.

Now you have this.

Now trim off all the roots & broken tubers.

Result.

Poochella marked the tubers she sent, so it was easy to find the mother tuber. On this one I was able to remove it. Sometimes not possible.

Now find the eyes & cut the tubers apart. I ended up with these from the clump.
Set them aside to dry.

This message was edited Nov 1, 2008 5:36 PM

Plain sulfur is the thing to use to keep the tubers in good shape.

Put some dry wood shavings in a baggie, add some sulfur.
Put the tubers in the bag, counting them as you put them in.
Hold the bag shut & shake a little. It don't take much to coat them well.

Take a sheet of plastic wrap about 2 ft long. (You will cuss this more than finding eyes!)
Lay it out & put a tuber on it. Start rolling the plastic around it. Lay another next to it & roll again. Keep doing this until you have 4 or 5 rolled together. Make sure no tuber touches the other without plastic between.

Fold the ends in and wrap masking tape around the package to keep it together. Write the variety name on the tape.

Store them in a tote or something fairly air tight. At least so no rodents or bugs can get in.
Keep it in a spot that will stay, ideally 45º.
I have been putting the packages into heavy plastic bags just to keep them more organized. The writing varieties on the bag.

Store them in a tote or something fairly air tight. At least so no rodents or bugs can get in.
Keep it in a spot that will stay, ideally 45º.
I have been putting the packages into heavy plastic bags just to keep them more organized. Then writing varieties on the bag.

Oh, oh double post!
Here are my Dahlias waiting for me. each pail has a variety in it.
Anyone want on the job training, stop by anytime!

I hopes this helps some of the Dahlia lovers.
Bernie

I also have a few Gladiolus corms to clean.

More.

Hi ya Bernie....I do mine exactly the same way..minus the sulfur. I lose a few, but certainly not many!! I had one stinker of a bunch of tubers. Nice, big, fat tubers, but so intertwined that I could only get one off successfully. I'm keeping the bundle of them, hoping that I can get a couple of sprouts off this spring. Love your big snippers too...I need something like that!

What do you do with the mother tuber? I have one absolutely giant one of those. You don't throw it away, I hope.

Susan
=^..^=

Oh man. Look at all that work. How long ya figure before ya see the last tuber in the last bucket. : )

Thanks for posting pics.

Got a question though. What about the ones ya can't wrap individually. Will it hurt if the tubers are touching each other.

This is a great thread Bernie! I also use the 'shake and bake' method.WOWSER that is alot of glads!!!! How do you store yours? I plop them in pantyhose with a crinkle of newspaper between each one. Susan you can try the mother tuber but it doesn't usually produce a nice plant again. Its pooped from being a mama alread. Starlight the reason not to let tubers touch is so that if one gets diseased it doesn't spread if you are using sulpher/fungicide no problemo!

My friend says the mother will grow roots but not a plant.
I had one that was all small tubers with skinny necks. I left it in one piece & put it in a bag after I dusted it.
I hope to be done by Monday night.
Our helper is doing the glads. They are stored in 12" x 24" flats made out of 1 x 4's. ¼" screen bottom and they stack with air space between them. I stack them in my veggie cooler & put a small heater in there to keep it at 40º to 45º. Dahlias will go there too.

Well done, Bernie. You've got plenty to keep you busy. Good thing you've got help.

I'm going to have to consult you on the glad corm storage once I get around to digging those. I've been saving grocerystore net apple/fruit bags hoping that would be somewhere I could put the glad corms by variety. We have plenty of mice out here, so I'd like to put them in a solid container with wood chips or whatever medium you recommend to store them. Would that work?

The mother dahlia tubers will sometimes send out decent shoots for making cuttings to save the variety, if needed. They have a spotty reputation for making a good repeat plant the following year, but it can happen.

Gladiolus can be stored dry without any medium. They need air circulation. If you hang the bags in a cool place you should be fine. If they start getting molding, dust with the sulfur. It won't hurt them unless they start to rot.
Remove the old corm off the bottom. Just break the top off when you dig them. Not very fussy.
Their eyes will be around the top of the new corm under the thin skin. Number of eyes = number of flower stalks next year & each will also produce a new corm. Save the little cormals if you want. They will bloom the second year.