We’ve grow a lot of dahlias, and we have learned a lot during the 25 year trek.
We have made it easier on ourselves, and by “ourselves”, I mostly mean Mike. Our 40 tubers will still make enough sprouts to create 200 plants to grow ourselves and to share.
Nothing says you have to start your dahlia tubers inside, or make multiple plants from each. Feel free to wait till after frost to put them directly in the ground. Be sure to plan ahead and put in a support like rebar right away. Now that’s really easy.
For us though, we want an early start and lots of plants. We get a great return on our easier process for starting them inside, so I’ll share. Its kinda the “necessity is the mother of invention” rule. Separating the tubers and finding a gazillion pots to start them in was just to much work. Here’s the secret in a nutshell: don’t separate the tubers, just plop the whole tuber in dollar store turkey roasters with some potting medium. Sometimes the tubers are so big that its one tuber per turkey roaster, often its two per roaster.
Yes, conventional knowledge has you separating the tubers, looking for eyes on them, and planting each portion in a separate pot. We have learned that the tubers will do what God intended them to do. They don’t need as much help from us at that early stage. Not sure? Take a look, here is our basement now:
When a sprout is about 3″ tall, Mike will cut it off.
For us, the cutting goes in oasis in a tray of many. They will go into pots once they have roots. Just a few? A plastic or Styrofoam cup with potting soil will do. Add a plastic cup top like Frank did years ago and you have a mini greenhouse.
Lots of light, some water, some patience, and you are off to a great start.
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