Digging and dividing 2023

Juliarugula · 2023-10-08T17:22:54+00:00

We haven’t had a frost yet, but could be any day in the next few weeks. We have some nights with lows predicted as 39 coming up in a few days. Additionally...

Juliarugula

calico20hill then son informs me that we MUST go grocery shopping! The digging and putting away is all consuming.

I’ve had some complaints regarding the usual food supply during digging/dividing season also. Seems like the laundry has fallen behind too - don’t know how that happened…

Teddahlia

We are pretty much on schedule as far as digging . We are right at the 50% mark.

MissyWeitzel

I just finished digging Monday. 🥳 I have a lot of outdoor work to do yet and it has been in the 30s and 40s and snowed yesterday so I'm putting it off a bit. I'm hoping for a stretch of sunny days while I complete those tasks so I can soak up some sunshine before the inevitable gloomy and cloudy Michigan winter sets in.

MIDahlias

MissyWeitzel Me too. I don't mind digging in December, but I prefer dividing outside. I hope we get a couple more nice days so o can divide what I have dug outside.

calico20hill

Last dahlias dug this morning! LOTS Of tuber clumps still for me to divide!. But I can do that under shelter. We are at the beginning of a BIG atmospheric River that is streaming toward us off the Pacific Ocean. So glad the digging is done!

Krista

I’m the opposite of you, Noni, I haven’t even begun to dig yet! We’ve yet to have a killing frost in Seattle so all my plants are happily chugging right along. I have a few friends coming over this weekend for a tuber dividing party which will help me get the ball rolling. I can’t wait to find out what’s been happening underground - crossing my fingers for lots of happy tubers!

calico20hill

Question...
Some of my seedlings that bloomed beautiful made NO Tubers. They are just a mess of hairy roots. Does this mean that they were too crowded or that these would never grow tubers even if saved over in pots during the winter. Is it worth trying to save any of them? I could probably plant some of them back out in the raised beds buried fairly deep and they would survive.

Teddahlia

On the Dahlia Talk(two experienced growers) they claimed that "hair root" clumps can be left in the ground, preferably in a raised bed and they will actually make some tubers during the winter and grow well. I believe in the tooth fairy too. But If I am wrong and it does work and you have raised beds, you have nothing to lose.

MIDahlias

Teddahlia
I'm in Michigan, I wouldn't try it in a raised bed. I'm thinking about trying in for my inground cuttings. My thought is a tarp, a garden fence and 2ft of mulched leaves.

calico20hill

I might experiment with this...nothing ventured, nothing gained....

MissyWeitzel

calico20hill I saved the crown on a plant with no tubers and roots only and wrapped it in saran wrap and it overwintered fine with my tubers and I was able to take cuttings from it in spring. This was only one time, mind you, but if I run across that again I'll do it that way again.

calico20hill

MissyWeitzel Great to hear! These were small plants planted close together as seedlings. So not a very big hunk of roots but I am going to try it when I get back to it in the trays of what I have processed. I did save and mark it.

Teddahlia

Digging going well and on schedule. If I were 30 years younger I would have been done weeks ago. We have only so many hours of digging energy each digging day and it just takes more days to finish. Margaret does not like cold weather digging and so far so good. Rain the next few days and we do not dig in the rain. The next dry spell may well last long enough to finish digging. Then there is dividing......
Asian pears keep our energy level up. Good harvest this year.

cmcramer

As I'm cleaning up and trimming my tuber clumps, I see excessive growth of bunches of young shoots on three clumps. Very distinctive. Didn't take long to figure out I should not ignore it. Then I watched YouTube video from Moorfield Farm Flowers in which the grower explains the disease: excellent.

Discarded three clumps. Have backup for two of them, but Thomas Edison (new tuber this year.... Hmmmm....did it arrive with Leqafy Gall ?) is lost for now.

Teddahlia

Leafy Gall: once you have it, it can pop up in your garden for many years. That is the pessimist in me saying it. I have noticed, that people who had it in their garden and destroyed the plants, almost never talk about it again. My theory is that they still get infections in their garden but prefer not say anything about it. More of my pessimism. The optimist would say that they have solved the problem. There needs to be more scientific study on the two gall diseases, leafy gall and crown gall, that are both caused by bacteria and my theory is that they are spread by the water that washes off an infected plant onto a new victim.

cmcramer

Yes LEAFY GALL......I can't type....

Emilyp

I am in need some advice. One variety has some tubers that are over eager and have some sprouts growing... Do I cut the sprouts back and let the wound dry before storage, or shall I leave the baby sprouts? Will leaving them just cause the sprouts to rot in storage and cause a problem? Will cutting off the sprouts activate the growth of numerous nearby eyes? What would you do?

AndreaB

Emilyp I’d wiggle them off (simulating a break) and get them into cold storage. It’ll be good to grow come Spring!

calico20hill

Just Saying...THe last dahlia was dug at our house today, I still have about 13 flats to divide but they are all out of the ground now. Husband is so proud of himself! Not only for the digging but for washing them all as well! Of course right now it is very warm for Nov and things would be growing great....but we are ready for what ever comes when the warm air move out.

Emilyp

AndreaB Thanks Andrea.

Teddahlia

EmilyP: I am a believer in leaving the sprout on the tuber and it will not grow much if your storage is cold and dry. In the spring it would make nice cutting. Removing the sprout invites infection and cinnamon would be recommended. I do believe that there are hundreds of sprouts like this on plants that are overwintered in the ground and they seem to do fine.

Emilyp

Teddahlia Thank you Ted.

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