Taking Dahlia Cuttings

blown_dry · 2023-02-04T23:34:14+00:00

Continuing from https://cubits.org/Dahlias/thread/view/92091/#end_of_thread

PNWGal

ksc I water the plants with spinosad when the gnats appear. That should take care of any larva.

I like that thought. I have tried the yellow sticky traps but without a lot of success. Mostly I have gotten them stuck to me when I am working with the plants.🙃

Emilyp

PNWGal I have tried the yellow sticky traps but without a lot of success. Mostly I have gotten them stuck to me when I am working with the plants

Me too! I get the small kind that you can stick right in the pots, and they are fantastic, but at least a couple of times a week I walk out of my grow room with one stuck to my pant leg 😆

Bessie

ksc last year, once the fungus gnats took over, I found the only solution was a complete soil drench ( submerge/dunk the tuber holding container) in a Spinosad solution. "Monterey Garden Insect Spray" brand sells on Amazon, and has .5% Spinosad ( gets diluted 4 Tablespoons/ gal). Also, it's worth noting that the Monterey Sluggo Plus has .07% Spinosad. Please double check the usage and application rates, I'm not a licensed pest control advisor.

HiDahlia

Krista They were very well behaved and did not expand the pots at all. I used 4 inch pots on a table. A small amount of fertilizer at the beginning of the season. I’m going to try slightly larger pots this year- even in partial shade, I was often worried about them drying out. Otherwise low maintenance. They grew 2-3’ tall and were easy to cut back and move under cover at the end of the season.

Krista

HiDahlia Thank you, this is fantastic to find out. I have lots of partial sun so it's great to hear that pot tubers could be happy and above ground in such conditions without becoming unruly.

Juliarugula

One of my kids just walked out of my room and asked “What’s that bag in your room with all the pictures of cannabis?” 🤣

(Root riot cubes)

MissyWeitzel

Juliarugula I buy a lot of supplies from my local grow shop and most of the staff there are extremely knowledgeable and also act like extras from Dazed and Confused. After an employee was particularly helpful one day, I brought back a few AA dahlias in jars as a thank you and his eyes got really big and all he said was, "duuuuuuuude". 🤣

SteveM

I hope this excellent article on leaf cuttings has been archived here (or somewhere):
https://cubits.org/Dahlias/articles/view/1661/

AKWindWatcher

SteveM Dahlias of Today 2023 actually has a really great (and updated) article on this too. Good stuff! It was actually very helpful for me because what I've been calling leaf cuttings are not actually leaf cuttings. They're stem cuttings . I just take them off the plant vs what others think of cuttings (taken directly off a tuber as it sprouts).

SteveM

AKWindWatcher I don't have the Dahlias of Today for 2023, I need to order it! Was the article written by Ted? I am calling "leaf cuttings" and "leaf-node cuttings" synonymous. I also am
using "stem cuttings" and "lateral cuttings" synonymously (if that's a word). I don't know (I should) what the proper ADS terminology is but I would like to know.

Teddahlia

Cutting terms: Taken off of the tuber, let's call them tuber cuttings. Leaf node cuttings: Taken off of parts of a plant that has been grown to a height where it can provide cutting material and the leaf nodes can provide material that makes both roots and leaves. One can use two leaf nodes for cutting material and the upper one makes leaves and the buried one makes roots. One can use an individual leaf node and grow it into plant. You can slice a single leaf node into two pieces and I would call this a split leaf node cutting. "White" cuttings are the long sprouts taken from tubers that sprouted in the dark and they are long, skinny and white. Generally two nodes are used and the bottom one grows roots and the top one the leaves. Dutch growers use white cuttings to produce plants for their field grown "pot" tubers that they export. Meristem cuttings are taken at a microscopic level from the growth tip of a dahlia sprout. They are separated into extremely small pieces and grown on agar in a petri dish in a special light box. They are rooted using a hormone and it takes several months to get them to size that can be placed into a pot. The process is also called micropropagation.

SteveM

Teddahlia Sounds good except I still feel "leaf node cutting" implies that part of the node is included in the cutting when it is not. Maybe is being trivial, but it would be nice to jave a term for a cutting using a lateral that does not include the words "node" or "leaf". Doen't ADS have a standardized definition for the various types of cuttings?

Bessie

How does a Horticulture textbook generally define the different types of vegetative plant cuttings?

Plant Propagation Principles and Practice (I have the 3rd edition,1975), however the excerpt above is found in an online pdf, see page 3, of a college course at University of Florida.

https://irrecenvhort.ifas.ufl.edu/propagation/modules/module3/chapters9_10/chapter9_10_2_color.pdf

Teddahlia

Each attempt at words needs an illustrated picture. I was surprised that I could not find vocabulary that easily applies to this subject. Probably 90% of us just take tuber cuttings and the rest of it is just "nice to know" for most people.

Krista

When ordering new, hard to source varieties that will arrive later than is recommended to take cuttings, would one ever be encouraged to go ahead and sprout indoors and take a cutting or two for pot tubers and delay planting? I’ll be planting all new varieties in grow bags and it will be feasible to bring into protected space in the fall so that the plant can stay “in-ground” for 120+ days. I know this may delay/prevent flowering the first year since the tuber will go in a bit later, but might this be a considerable option?

Teddahlia

Nothing cast in stone here: "...that will arrive later than is recommended to take cuttings." Your unicorn arrives at planting time. Yes, place it into a 4 inch pot and take at least 5 cuttings. One for a pot tuber to be sure you will keep your stock and 4 to plant very late into the garden. Plant them in your very best location and give them liquid fertilizer in addition to your normal fertilizer. They will bloom a couple of weeks later than your other flowers but with the extra nutrients will have tubers as good as the other plants you grew from cuttings. Opinion: I am not very excited about the large bags of dirt when a 4 , or 6 inch pot buried to the rim will produce just as good a plant as the bag. Pots are easy to harvest and the tubers can be stored in the pot for the winter.

Krista

Teddahlia Ohhh thank you, thank you!! This has me very excited and feeling relieved since the idea of cuttings taken later in the season is less recommended. I was dreading the idea of getting to the end of the season with just a whole lot of hope, and still the very real possibility of not ending up with viable tubers in the fall. I am copying these directions verbatim, thank you so much!!!

Krista

Teddahlia And to be honest, I’m pretty unexcited about lugging grow bags around too. Your advice here has my brain-cranks turning double-time with possibilities now though! Quick follow-up questions:

What is your recommended spacing when burying pot tubers?
Do you grow pot tubers above ground ever and what might spacing/set up look like for this method?

Teddahlia

Krista What is your recommended spacing when burying pot tubers? Cuttings grown on in 4 inch pots are not traditional pot tubers. We space them the same as planting tubers. Not quite rim to rim and buried almost to the top. The intention is have them grow just like tuber grown plants and they do.

Do you grow pot tubers above ground ever and what might spacing/set up look like for this method? Pot tubers grown to be pot tubers are grown above the ground on a chain link fence panel made into a table. Pots are in nursery flats that hold 16 pots. Some osmocote type fertilizer is given to them but not much. These pot tuber plants typically grow less that 3 feet tall. Cuttings grown in the ground in the same 4 inch pot grow to full height perhap 6 feet tall.

NCDahlia

Depends on the variety but I space my pot tubers in the ground at 18 inches on center. Can do 1 foot spacing but you still would want good air flow to cut down on powder mildew and other issues. I have grown pot tubers in ground as well as above ground just in the 3.5 inch pots on a table under a live oak tree does require more watering

Krista

NCDahlia Thank you, this is very helpful! I believe @HiDahlia also grows pot tubers above ground, do you space them the same above ground? I’m curious how folks prevent those tiny pots from falling over or off tables if they’re also spaced that far apart.

HiDahlia

Krista Same as Ted, 16 to a flat. Once in a while the ones on the edge would fall over if they were dry and it was windy but not really a problem.

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