Winter tuber storage

calico20hill · 2023-12-31T00:08:04+00:00

I just did a quick check on my tubers and I am encouraged. No whiff of mold, no wrinkles, and these were small tubers that would not necessarily store well...

Juliarugula

Krista oh no! That’s so frustrating! ☹️

AndreaB

Krista That’s a bummer. Sorry, Krista.

Krista

Thank you, I knew the folks here would understand how disappointing this is. Luckily, it seems the rats desired varieties that should be replaceable. Mostly, I’m glad to find out what my storage options are in this house, or aren’t 😆, at a relatively light cost!

calico20hill I hope you had a wonderful birthday yesterday! And I’m so happy you gifted yourself a brand new HH Black Beauty for the season. I can’t wait to see photos this summer! I did get my hands on 4 lightly-used IFCO stacking/collapsible lift-lock crates this winter for a reasonable price. If we’re in this house next winter still, I’ll use those for my clumps — thank you for the tip, and excellent idea!

Teddahlia a rodent paradise Seattle certainly is, thanks to the Great Seattle Fire in the 1800’s. There’s an entire underground city that is rodent heaven and impossible to exterminate — is what I understand anyway.

NCDahlia

So sorry to hear about your mice / rat problem Krista, they are horribly destructive critters.

Yesterday it was 65 in central north carolina so i went to check and dug up some dahlias I left in the ground. As you can see voles / moles ate about half the tuber clump. Can still get cuttings as there were some good eyes on the crown. But dealt with this 💩 all year a nightmare. Next year all tubers are being grown in sunk 1 and 2 gallon pots. I do not sell and don't mind smaller clumps frankly will make my life easier to not divide as much lol.

AndreaB

NCDahlia Do your moles/voles tunnel under your grass, too?
We always have a mole presence, but they must be finding more food in the lawn b/c I don’t recall ever noticing chewed tubers after I dug them in the Fall. (I really hope I’m not jinxing myself).
They obliterated a section of our lawn last fall, so I’m really hoping they’ve moved on over the Winter.

Krista

NCDahlia They truly are — and OK, Bellatrix, it’s time to get on those nice now too!

Krista

NCDahlia I do not have a source for this recommendation but I have a note in my gardening spreadsheet saying that spraying your lawn with beneficial nematodes helps remove moles? I’m hoping there’s someone here who can fact-check me on this one …

My note says that the moles feast on grubs in the soil, and if you eliminate the grubs with the nematodes, the moles will move on? I mean, it sounds pretty amazing!

KitCMC

Krista oh no!! I’m sorry.

KitCMC

calico20hill Happy Birthday! 🥳 tubers are a wonderful present!

SteveM

AndreaB Voles (also called field mice)and eat the tubers and sometimes just chew the plants off right at ground level. Moles tunnel close to the surface and leave a big long tunnel but they only eat grubs, earthworms, and other insects. Moles have the pointy snout and the web feet for digging and they don't eat tubers . Their tunnels can disturb the roots a little butI I leave the moles alone because they take care of the cutworms that eat my tomato plants. Moles make a mess of a lawn but, since I don't have a lawnI let them be.

NCDahlia

AndreaB Yes moles make tunnels in the grass and dahlias to eat the grubs. Voles is what eats the tubers. But Moles are also a problem because they leave air pockets in the ground and its a mess for dahlias.

At least my cat is now catching them slowly and why i refuse to ever use rat poison. I have owls that live behind my house too

Krista

*mice

AndreaB

SteveM Ah, thanks for the clarification, Steve.
I guess I’ll learn to like my hilly lawn and be grateful I don’t have voles!

NCDahlia

SteveM Yes this is correct thanks for explaining.

Moles eat grubs, voles both leave the tunnels and they still bother me because I have dahlias right up to the lawn. Voles are what eats the tubers, destroyed 400 tubers which was over half of what i had.

I dug some tubers the and 1 foot down the voles have pathways under so going to do 2 gallon pots i am only doing 300-500 plants this year.

Juliarugula

I’ll just throw this in here too, because my internetting convinced me that I wasn’t the only person confused….

Shrews are pretty common and also often confused with moles and voles. I was worried I had moles in the yard for a while and it turned out they are shrews. They tunnel under the grass, but don’t really do much damage otherwise. My last dog used to catch them every once in a while…

SteveM

Juliarugula Shrews are like small moles. They also only eat insects/grubs/earthworms and not dahlia tubers.

SteveM

Voles and gophers have convinced me to plant using various barrier methods. This year I'm planting in containers or planting inside of hardware cloth. Neither solution is perfect but better than what I have now. The problem has gotten worse under shade cloth because now the owls can't get to the voles.

MissyWeitzel

We have tons of moles all over my area. When I drive around I see mole hills all over everyone's yards. They mess up the lawn and the roots of my vegetable plants and disturb my dahlias. We've had a lawn care service treat for grubs in spring and fall for 2 years now and it has knocked back my Japanese beetle pressure by 95% or more (which is amazing!), but there must be something else other than the beetle grubs we have a lot of that the moles like because we are constantly dealing with them. I'm not above trapping them and we got about 4 this fall, but it's an absolute last resort. Messing up the lawn is one thing. Harming my crop is another. I just want to repel them so I am testing out those solar powered mole repellent stakes that vibrate. I just put them in at the end of December so it's too early to know if they're working. Another dahlia grower friend said they worked for her but I swear our moles are crazier over here. 😅

AndreaB

MissyWeitzel We’ve used those sonic mole chasers in the past. Ours were battery powered; definitely think solar would be a better option. They work, but all they really do is push the moles further away (they don’t leave).

NCDahlia

This is what I use, but I only put it out in the lawn and have not done another application in several years -- stupidly i did not put it down inside electric deer fence , and that's where dahlias are. I built a PVC applicator works well use M3 mask for the dust. I applied this fall and I will reapply in spring takes a full season to see any difference. I have none in my lawn, but they are invaded where the old cherry trees were.

Milky Spore Powder (cost $100 for 40oz but will cover 10k SQ ft.)

https://www.domyown.com/milky-spore-powder-p-2948.html?co_var=3

I copied this guy. Easy and cheap to make.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoH_Gp_3IH0&t=1s

Sorry if its off topic - checked my tubers all are storing well 🙂

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