Dig Divide Repeat

bloomhjelm · 2024-11-02T06:08:18+00:00

I'm trying to tackle digging and dividing in manageable chunks of time. However each chunk can't be longer than a couple hours so I have many more of these c...

Teddahlia

"Seems they’ll definitely need some amending of some sort to get better sized clumps next season. 😅"
On Dahlia Talk it was agreed that this was the best season for tuber production since "Hector was a pup." (a really old phrase meaning in a long time).

Fertilizer applied in small amounts until September is what we do. Potato farmers know that in order to get large potato yields it takes lots of fertilizer and believe it or not they mean nitrogen. All three of the majors (NPK) need to be available(not necessarily all added as some phosphorus is in the soil here) along with water and sunlight. People underestimate the role of nitrogen in making plants have enough leaves to flower and produce tubers.

Krista

Teddahlia Fertilizer applied in small amounts until September is what we do. Potato farmers know that in order to get large potato yields it takes lots of fertilizer and believe it or not they mean nitrogen.

I’ve often wanted to continue with nitrogen past the Aug 1 cut-off the seems to consistently be recommended. Finding out you continue in small amounts is cool to hear. I guess it all depends on how much is retained where we’re located — annual rainfall here is about 8” which is a far cry from the 40” we expect in Seattle.

I’ve always assumed it’s practically impossible to ever have any or enough nitrogen to not need to amend at planting time, but perhaps here it could happen?

SteveM I’m hoping to get a soil test this fall to find out some soil basics and begin a plan for amendments. I will also plan for a spring test once our irrigation has been turned on again. I’d like to see the results of saturated paste tests to get an idea of what’s water soluble, and a general idea of what might be coming in with the irrigation water. Thanks very much for noting nitrogen at planting time - we can test for nitrogen again then too!

SteveM

The importance of nitrogen for best dahlia growth/tuber production is the main reason to do soil tests shortly before planting and not in the Fall. Winter rains leach out nitrogen so a soil test in the Fall will not be an accurate indicator of the actual amount needed in the Spring.

Krista

calico20hill I wonder if the Tall Grass Farms could give you any good advice about growing "East of the Mountains" as

That’s a great call, Noni! There are a number of folks growing this side of the mountain and most whom I’m connected with finished digging/dividing weeks ago. I’ll have to ask a round some more and do more experimenting too!

Teddahlia

My assumption is that nitrogen leftover to the next year is negligible and that it is in effect none. It is both water soluble and evaporates into the air(air is mostly nitrogen.) A cover crop can "sequester" some nitrogen that can supplement what you need to add. I use time release nitrogen and it is urea based, meaning that it is not available to plants until bacteria convert it to nitrates and they say that takes almost two weeks. If you want an immediate nitrogen kick start, calcium nitrate turns leaves dark green in a couple of days. I do not use it as it is expensive and does not store well(it solidifies) . In the old days when they said "nitrogen burns plants" they were referring to nitrate fertilizers that do burn plants. Urea does not generally burn unless you go crazy with the amount. Organic growers are using chicken feather meal for nitrogen and it is time release. Alfalfa pellets have some too but nothing like the chicken feathers. All the old fashioned fish fertilizers had nitrogen in them. Fish pellets are great except all the dogs and other carnivores in your neighborhood will dig them up along with your dahlias.

Teddahlia

Bat guano; There was report that some people caught a serious fungal infection from bat guano they collected from a local bat habitat. I have not used it in many years and I believe the commercial versions are safe. My issue with it is that it has too much phosphorus, not that is not a good fertilizer.

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