Dahlia Talk
08-26-25
This an abbreviated write-up as it will be combined with the next months summary. There were 22 participants who were very upbeat and friendly. The meeting really starts about 20 minutes before the start time and extends at least 15 minutes after. This extra time is banter between people who know each other from real life(rare) or people who have connected a bit on the Zoom experience.
There were some really interesting factoids revealed at this meeting.
(1)During the show and tell session, people shared pictures. In my pea sized brain, I thought the pictures would be of their favorite flowers and individual dahlias in all their splendor would be displayed for others to see how good they are. I was wrong. People showed pictures of their gardens. My nine pictures had no gardens displayed and one shot of a human being. I thought we were flower people. Next meeting is another show and tell session and I will join the majority and show some pictures of our gardens this year. But there will be lots of flower pictures too.
(2) There were some oft ask questions covered as usual. When do you stop fertilizing? The majority answer was last week(mid August). In all the books on dahlias for time immemorial they say to stop fertilizing in about mid August. If there is a reason stated, it is that the tubers do better without fertilizer as they mature and store lots better. There is some logic to that statement as excess fertilizer late in the season causes some new growth and the new growth is often new stalks that grow tubers. Tubers that are too young are thin skinned and skinny and often shrivel as they have not yet accumulated starches that make tuber big. This subject could be discussed in greater depth. By the way, the person who was sick and unable to plant until late July was worried the she could not fertilize this late in the year. When you are stuck between a rock and a hard place, you fertilize. The plants have to be big enough to make some tubers.
(3) Shade cloth was discussed. What height is best/necessary? One person is at 9 feet but the posts rotted and he was at 10 feet prior. Ginger Clack is at 11 feet. Steve from Australia chimed in that dahlia legend Ron Wilkes was at 14 feet. Why the hell is the shade cloth so high above the dahlias? Because dahlias grow about 30% taller under shade cloth and some grow even more. People were showing off their white or tan shade cloth that is 50% rated, claiming that the flowers have better color than black cloth. We have case here of “Ha ha ha, my cloth is better than yours!!!”
(4) But true dahlia show winners use umbrellas instead of shade cloth. Golf umbrellas are the easiest to find that work well. They are tied to a metal stake near the single plant that is being shaded. Question: when the big wind blows and the umbrellas turn inside out, are the plants damaged? No, but the umbrella is ruined. Sometimes they do fly away in the wind but that is rare. My favorite question: what color of golf umbrella is best? Mark Oldenkamp if he were there would have said the colors of the U of Oregon, green and yellow. I will make a terrible pun here: ” The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind...” All colors except black can be used says the expert. I have three black umbrellas for sale....
(5)We had the Spider mites discussion number 10 as it has been covered at least 10 times before and the score is spider mites 10, dahlia growers 0. Actually, if you follow the one most important thing of all, you can eliminate them. I will reveal the method in the 11th spider mite session. Actually, you have to thoroughly(thoroughly was discussed in great detail) spray everywhere including the ground below the plants. And most importantly, you absolutely must spray every other day for an entire week. What you spray was also discussed but too much detail for this summary.
Next meeting on September 23 is show and tell again.
