Taking Dahlia Cuttings

blown_dry · 2023-02-04T23:34:14+00:00

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

Cosey

I am going to take my tubers out of cold storage this week. It takes mine 4-6 weeks to wake up and make a sprout big enough to root. If it takes 6 weeks to even start the rooting process this gives me a 5 week old cutting the end of April. I usually don't plant cuttings until the end of May. The hardening off process can start beginning of May.

I pot my cuttings into 3" pots (bigger than my 50ct trays for seedlings) giving me flexibility to have older cuttings without them getting too root bound. It's not the end of the world if I have to pot up 20 cuttings. I can't pot up 500 seedlings. Lol.

This is probably a little early for me but I'm taking cuttings on plants I've never propagated before (seedlings). I don't know how they are going to respond to be forced awake early.

janell

Cosey I also tried out an early rousing this winter. Mine had been slow to wake, but with a little more moisture that I normally dare, and then heat, they have come around. I dampened the peat moss in the tubs I store them in and placed the tubs on the top shelves above my grow lights.

Krista

AKWindWatcher I am considering cuttings for growing indoors over the winter this next fall too. Will you be taking yours as leaf node cuttings or from fall-sprouting tubers?

AKWindWatcher

Krista - I do leaf nodes. I let the plants grow outside all summer but take the cuttings before I put everything to bed for the Winter.

janell

Not exactly cuttings, but I could use some advice on growing dahlias indoors. I am (somewhat regrettably) testing out virus-free dahlia growing, and I need a way to keep my mother stock clean.

I would like to grow my mother stock in my basement this summer -- to keep it out of reach of insects -- under lights on pulleys and with fans (and a dehumidifier??). Will the same 3000K shop lights that I am using for cuttings work? Should I be looking at full spectrum grow lights instead? Any tips will be helpful. Thanks!

JessE

janell I don't think this guy did well... and he didn't do a follow up video. He also had total devestation growing all dahlias in a hoop house in pots. The spider mites wiped him out. But take a look at his set up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IZdPQAA63Y&t=229s

Teddahlia

Most people who try to grow dahlia to full sized plants indoors fail because of disease. Insects will find dahlias inside and fungus also. I remember reading many years ago about how a university grew virus free stock of potatoes that had been cleaned up of all virus by meristem cuttings. The details of how they do that are not in my feeble brain anymore. It was very labor intensive is all I remember.

janell

Teddahlia Most people who try to grow dahlia to full sized plants indoors fail because of disease. Insects will find dahlias inside and fungus also

I suspect that you are quite right, Ted, especially if/when the plants are stressed, but I still might try. 🙃

SteveM

Gerald Weland described a method for meristem culture of dahlia, I believe at the time he was teaching at UC Riverside. He grew at his home not far from here and was also an expert on dahlia history.
[https://dahlia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Meristem-Tip-Culture.pdf)

Teddahlia

SteveM I challenge you to do meristem cuttings as no one I have known has ever succeeded. You need a genuine laboratory with lots of expensive equipment and chemicals. I believe Gerald Weland died soon after this was written. He was very scientifically smart when it came to dahlias.

janell

SteveM Except for the magnifying scope, the equipment was not very expensive but some of the chemicals were hard to find.

SteveM Gerald Weland described a method for meristem culture of dahlia, I believe at the time he was teaching at UC Riverside.

The culturing supplies might not be so hard to find these days. A company sells culturing supplies, and has a blog post referencing Gerald Weland’s tip culture process:
https://www.plantcelltechnology.com/blog/how-to-tissue-culture-dahlia-flowers/

They have a more general overview of tip culture here: https://www.plantcelltechnology.com/blog/meristem-and-shoot-tip-culture/ with links to more studies below

I am a bit in awe about your TC successes, Steve. Taking a 1mm slice of a shoot and the constant threat of contamination, micrografting, etc… it sounds so easy to fail.

SteveM

Teddahlia Except for the magnifying scope, the equipment was not very expensive but some of the chemicals were hard to find. I had a few successes in the late 1980s (very low success rate) but decided not to persue it further because back then it was expensive to get virus testing. Without the ability to test the results there was no reason to continue. I think there are probably more refined methods of meristem procedures available today. If I cared about virus-free stock and had steady hands and good eyes, I would be tempted to try it again.

Krista

AKWindWatcher I see, that makes sense. I’ve been reading about this and I’m not sure I’ll have the confidence to try for fall season leaf node cuttings but I’m glad to know that this is a process that works well for you.

Emilyp

AKWindWatcher I did this one year. I was trying to preserve a sport. It worked, but the powdery mildew was hard to contend with. Do you experience any issues with powdery mildew?

SteveM

janell Thanks Janell, it looks like the method is about the same, you should give it a try! My success was only 3 plants out of about 25 tries.and I never got the plants tested to see if they were virus free. When I did it there was no internet but I was taking a 101 microbiology lab class at college and Gerald Weland lived 10 miles from me so I had sources for any questions I had. I imagine , now, there are YouTube videos and forums you could use to answer your questions and it looks like you have found a source for the chemicals. Good luck!

Teddahlia

Any success at meristem cuttings is an accomplishment. I am sure technology and methods have improved but the inherent precision and attention to detail still would cause most people not to try it. Why would you want to do it anyway? Virus is one reason but if a variety is prone to virus infections, it will get re-infected very quickly. Breed a better more resistant variety. Perhaps doing GMO dahlia breeding would be a better subject because you could design your own dahlia by slicing and injecting snippets of dna.

SteveM

Teddahlia I agree, getting virus free stock is not a goal for me but it is for some growers. I am more a believer in resistance and cross-protection. Howevr, the meristem process was very interesting and learning something new is reason enough to try it. GMO science is another matter and is hotly debated. Do we really want a blue dahlia that smells like a ross, grows like a weed, etc. but has been created in a test tube? Maybe.

HiDahlia

Besides clean stock (while not important to everyone, there is no denying there is a market for), another advantage of tissue culture is the ability to create a large number of plants quickly. Plantlets produced from explants can multiply indefinitely, and create an infinite number of plants (logistics aside). This could be a way to meet demand, especially for new cultivars. The book Plants From Test Tubes is an excellent resource on the subject.

NCDahlia

Perhaps it goes back to the overall health of the dahlia that is the best prevention. Kinda like "health is wealth" same goes for dahlias. You want plants with vigor since they were 1st year seedlings then 10+ years take that as a starting point for hybridizing a line. You would get the genetics of a healthy dahlia passed on from many years.

AKWindWatcher

Emilyp Nope. No issues. But I also don’t have too much issue with powdery mildew outside. I think I’ve had it on one rose years ago. My biggest issue is keeping the humidity up inside during the Winter. Both for the plants and the residents with heartbeats.

Teddahlia

Dahlia 53 asks: Will some of these cuttings make tubers if they are planted in the ground?

My mentor, Phil Mingus, who grew dahlias for 70 years , said plants grown from cutting make 50% fewer tubers. Good tuber makers make an almost normal amount. Poor tuber makers sometimes make almost none. Note: People generally do not grow cuttings from varieties that are good tuber makers as they have plenty of tubers. They take cuttings from the ones that are poor tuber makers or are new introductions. I grow cuttings to increase stock of seedlings that show promise. Most are culled. Lots of work to find out the seedling was not a winner of the seedling lottery. This thread should have been on the new site at dahlia addict. I will no longer post here should not have posted this. I am going to copy and past answer to the thread there