General Dahlia Chat - 2025

Juliarugula · 2025-01-01T13:30:33+00:00

Justafewdahlias whew! Much better thanks! 😅

Teddahlia

As one gets older, you need to pace yourself in the garden. I am limiting how much time I do per day on different tasks(the more strenuous ones). We pound in over 200 six foot t-posts each year. I am limiting myself to 8 per day. They will all get done. There is some weeding that can only be done on you hands and knees. I limit myself to 50 feet of row per day. It will all get done. Moving container plants to where they go is another one. For this one, I am going to recruit a younger person and otherwise I only do one or two per day.

Juliarugula

Teddahlia are you not able to leave your t-posts in permanently? I often will have to move a couple around, but mostly mine stay in place year to year.

Teddahlia

Juliarugula I use a tractor(my new tractor!!!) to till. I could leave in half of them and till close to the remaining row. I read this recently and may try it. 50% fewer. Good ideas cause me to think, "Why did I not think of that? My old tractor that I bought new in 1976 (in partnership with my father ) still is functional. However after 49 years there is a long list of things that need to be done to it. And more importantly, the new tractor is a 100 times easier to operate.. Power steering, auto transmission are two of the improvements that really make a difference. The tires on the old tractor are 49 years old too.

Juliarugula

Teddahlia I forgot about your tractor! That makes sense!

calico20hill

My dahlia garden is popping into bloom...happy time! Some of the seedlings will never make it but are good for a few laughs.Here is the back of an open centered Salish Twilight Girl seedling. The front is totally plain pale pink...

calico20hill

The seedlings are starting to pop now...they have pretty well had to take care of themselves while I dealt with other garden situations. They seem to be growing quite happily and the first ones are starting to open. There has been some culling...

Its ripe berry season here...harvesting Columbia berries ( A hybrid blackberry that includes marrionberry in its parentage), raspberries, and the first blueberries this week. These are all for home consumption and I have a minimum number of plants of each. I discovered that the old drip tape was clogged up with hard water deposits so Howard replaced it to the raspberries today and will get the other berries as soon as he can get more driptape. Our water is hard here and has a high iron content that likes to plug up the watering system so it needs constant monitoring...that is his job.

My focus this week besides picking berries is my Hydrangea Woods...It is so lovely right now!![](https://)

MissyWeitzel

I'm having a rough season. It has been really hot and dry and full sun almost every day. Every time there's rain in the forecast in the last several weeks it magically skips over us. I've had to pull quite a few obviously virused plants I was excited about growing this year. Also, I've lost a ton of plants to heat and I'm still losing more almost every day. I can't bring myself to count the losses. Hundreds. There are poor seedlings and cuttings that struggled but have hung on this long and just can't take it any more. Tubers rotting. Anyway, my new plan is I'm not coralling my plants this year. I will let them flop all over and bury stalks and hope to get more tubers. 😅 I'm gonna have to figure out some sort of shade cloth situation. I haven't wanted to spend much on stuff that's customized specifically for growing here on this property because we'll likely move in the next 2 years. But I'm growing in full sun out in the open and my plants get no relief. The 300 I have along the retaining wall get some shade and are coping way better. I haven't had a really good season since 2022. I'm scrappy and I'm taking lots of cuttings and trying to make myself some more pot tubers.
What's the worst season you ever had and what did you do to try to salvage it?

SteveM

MissyWeitzel What's the worst season you ever had and what did you do to try to salvage it?

About 5 years ago we had a prolonged heat wave and the soil got so hot that it baked the tubers (almost literally).By the time I noticed the plants in decline it was too late to save the tubers/roots from turning to mush. The heat killed over 90% of the plants and the gophers ate the remaining 10% so I lost all of my 2000+ plants that year. Digging tubers was an easy/fast job that year. Luckily, I had mother plants under shade in my greenhouse so I was able to replace my stock for the next year.

My father irrigated dahlias with overhead sprinklers and when he had extremely hot days he would turn the sprinklers on a few times during the afternoon. I didn't take mental notes but I think he watered for a short time each time and I don't think the ground got really soaked. Just enough to cool things down. If you have sprinklers you might try it on part of your field.

Flowernut

MissyWeitzel I'm so sorry, Missy. The same year that Steve was talking about also was my worst season. It was so hot that the tubers just baked in the ground and the plants literally fried. I never had a whole season of beautiful dahlias. When the heat hit my area (southern CA) and it remained hot overnight, most of the dahlias quit growing. They never totally recovered. Then 4 1/2 years ago when I moved (Northern CO), I have had so much better success. It cools off overnight, giving the dahlias time to recover. I don't have the long season, but at least it is pretty good the whole time.

Teddahlia

When the "heat dome" settled over us in 2021 and it reached 117 degrees that day, we had lot's of problems that set back the plants that lived through it. Swan Island, that is 11 miles from us, took a huge hit too. Blooms were very late that year.

MissyWeitzel

Thank you, Ted and Steve. I'm looking forward to getting to the part of the season where all the beautiful flowers make it worth it!
Lo-Star

MissyWeitzel

Flowernut yes, the cool nights are the best! It got down to 57 last night for the first time in a long time and then rained (0.05" lol) and was overcast for several hours and my remaining plants were happy about it. 😊

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