General Dahlia Chat - 2025

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

Justafewdahlias whew! Much better thanks! 😅

Justafewdahlias

ksc what is the reason for planting vertical? I have heard it makes tubers easier to divide? Or maybe it was easier to dig? Last year I planted some vertical and some horizontal butttttttt I didn’t actually label or pay attention to which was planted which method, whoops! I did a similar concept with dried leaves covering some of the distance with some tulips I had planted in pots, it worked well. Less soil, lighter pots.

Justafewdahlias

Teddahlia hmmmm this is another interesting idea, I may try out on a few to see if they can really hold up without stakes! The digging I can imagine to be much more effort! Some of my plants I left in the ground over winter and they are just in the landscape vs a raised bed so it would be nice for those dahlias that I don’t worry about dividing. As the hole was filled in did they cover the leaves up? Or remove the leaves on the lower part of the stem and then cover? Or it wouldn’t make much difference?

Justafewdahlias

SteveM by pre-sprout do you mean just to where you can see the eye starting to grow? Or are you sprouting them to where there will actually be part of the stem and leaves above the soil level?

SteveM

Justafewdahlias Or are you sprouting them to where there will actually be part of the stem and leaves above the soil level?

I sprout them in flats so they are green sprouts. I prefer 2-4" sprouts but any sprout is OK. Some of the sprouts stick out of the ground when planted and some don't.

Justafewdahlias

SteveM Thanks for this info! I am going to experiment with some more shallow planting this year. I am glad to see there is more than one way to plant a dahlia tuber!

SteveM

Justafewdahlias I am going to experiment

That's the best plan. The goal should be to keep the soil (at tuber depth) "not too hot and not too cold" and "not too wet and not too dry".

Here are a couple of experiments I did that might be helpful:

I mounded the soil around the tubers when the soil was very hot and the hot soil baked the stems and rotted everything.
I mounded the soil around the tubers without changing the watering interval and I overwatered the tubers and rotted everything.
A few varieties have great stems but do not provide much of a canopy for shade over the soil around the tubers. When the stems are cut for market the shade is gone. On hot days, I have ignored the sun shining directly on the soil over tubers (planted shallow) and have baked them and rotted everything. (This is probably only a problem for cut flower growers).

I have many more experiments that were less costly...

Teddahlia

Do it like Swan Island's planting for their 45 acres: Buy a nice tractor of at least 60 horsepower and attach a platform to the 3 point hydraulic hitch. It should accommodate two workers and several crates of tubers. Put two holes in the platform allowing the tuber to pass through to the ground below. In the front portion of the platform place a plow blade that opens a furrow. On the rear of the platform place another plow blade that closes the furrow. Drive slowly but very straight as the rows are 600 feet long. You need another person who delivers the boxes of tubers and to keep things organized. So, with only 4 people you plant all the dahlias. How deep? A few inches. Horizontal or vertically in the ground or random? Random. After the plants sprout to a few inches tall, you have a small tractor hill the dirt around the plants. No staking of dahlias here as they are hilled and have to hold themselves up.

janell

Vertical v horizontal planting. I was team horizontal and shallow due to a high spring water table but now plant my field with rooted cuttings for virus concerns. However, Allison from Kale Lane Dahlias mentioned experimenting with vertical planting last season on The Dig on Dahlias podcast. She liked how the eyes were nicely visible at the top of the more star-shaped clump.

Justafewdahlias

SteveM Something I didn’t even consider! The heat attracting and insulating of the soil on the stem. Thanks for sharing these outcomes and observations! I am in the PNW zone 8b which feels kinda like the Goldilocks growing zone for dahlias out of all the zones. Are you in a zone with much more intense summer temps?

MIDahlias

I think my previous post(s) about pots have been archived. Two years of looking at the same stock from multiple sellers. When asking for advice in the past I was told 4" pots are not truly 4" pots and not order under 4" pots. I took this to mean make sure the pot itself is 4".

I finally I ordered 4.5" Square Form pots from Greenhouse Mega Store.
The website states:
4.5" square deep 4.25" L x 4.25" W x 3.75" H". (The opening is actually 4")
4.5" square 3.66" L x 3.66" W x 3.11" H. (The opening is actually 4" maybe a little bigger)

I currently use collapsible crates for almost everything and I can fit 15 - 32oz deli cups in my crates with no extra space for things to fall over. I was hoping to fit more square pots into my crates - because they are square. I didn't calculate the square pot sizes and my crate before ordering. I was hoping to fit more square pots in than I do the deli cups. Unfortunately, this is not the case. I can put 15 square pots in and then there is about 2" of extra space both length and width.

The pots I ordered are bigger than other pots I have seen. The quality is much better than those I've seen at my local nurseries. I definitely would suggest these pots to anyone looking to buy pots. I do wish I would have ordered 3.5" square deep - 3.5" L x 3.5" W x 5 H, so maybe I could fit 24 pots in my crates. (However, I still haven't done the math)

Teddahlia

Planting pot secret: a square flat will hold 16 "4"inch pots . Plant pots are designed to have the same bottom dimensions and larger pots(I call mine 6 inch pots) fit 16 to a flat also. I mix pot sizes in the same flat and that works fine for me. Large clumps used for cuttings need bigger pots. Most fit into the 4 inch pots(that are not quite 4 inches) and I have a mid size too. I seldom buy pots and have two sources. Plants we buy come pots. We have neighbors give us pot. In the past, we did some dumpster diving at a retail nursery on "free potting day if you buy plants from us". Some large pots cost 35 cents each new .

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