Taking Dahlia Cuttings

blown_dry · 2023-02-04T23:34:14+00:00

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

Bessie

Teddahlia have you ever tried rooting in water? I know you're at a professional scale of production, but it might be interesting to experiment with if you have time. Especially those fat cuttings, if put in shallow water that is kept warm, you can observe the root formation. As soon as you get signs of any root growth, they can be potted up. On a tiny scale, I had good success with that method last spring and summer.

Teddahlia

Yes, I bought a bubbler rooting machine that roots things in oxygenated water. It is unused on top of the dahlia shelves. Too noisy and too much maintenance too. My fat cuttings have about a 50% chance of rooting. There will be plenty of cutting material so these first ones will not matter much.

MIDahlias

Last summer I had a deer take out one of my plants. I attempted leaf cuttings in 4" pots. They are all still in the pots, but the medium is very dry. What should I do to wake them / see if they are viable?

Teddahlia

My pot tubers dry out in the winter as they are just stacked in the garage in their pots. I put them into pots with some new soil(most of them get new soil). A little water and 70 degrees and they sprout within 2 weeks. If there are no baby tubers in your dry pots your pot tubers did not work, They do need some time to make tubers before the winter.,

Krista

I am getting really excited for my new cutting-life to begin! Crazy 4 Dahlias sent the most exquisite HH tubers with lovely sprouts already. I’ve got my tubers in germination mix under grow lights with a brand new scalpel at the ready!

AndreaB

Krista I sure hope you know what you’re getting into, Krista.
It’s highly addictive! More so than finding one of those unicorns.

Teddahlia

I am a bit behind on taking cuttings and need to take about 100 to catch up today. Some believe it or nots: Can you root a a 10-12 inch long cutting as you did not get to it and it grew very quickly? I doubt people using those tiny Oasis blocks could but I have done it successfully every time I tried. The problem for me is that I place 98% of our cuttings into plastic bags and and at 12 inches, it is too tall to fit with the other cuttings. I use it's own bag. How small can you take cutting? We all accidently break of some small sprouts and I shove them into the pot with the same variety and most of them do root. These are short skinny sprouts not the fat ones that seem to defy rooting. I find that you can root these really small sprouts but they will be much smaller plants and about 2 weeks behind the others. White sprouts from tubers in storage can be rooted but they have a bit more of a failure rate for me. They need to form green leaves and that adds a week or so to the rooting time. They also may be contaminated with mold spores in the storage medium.

calico20hill

Definatively Addictive! I think that is part of my frustration at how cool my greenhouse has been this spring (Not many sunny days to heat it up naturally). I have not taken more than a few cuttings and my addiction if crying for attention! I potted up a number of tubers I wasn't sure if they were viable or not just to check them out. I think they are taking up the space I need to sprout new plants and seeds. We have a gray stormy day so maybe I will spend it checking all those tubers and chucking the ones that show no sign of life. ITs time to get the ones I actually need started. My Lobaughs orders (2) are on their way and the others should be arriving soon.

So far I have about 100 new dahlia seeds sprouted and probably a number more will sprout in those pots.

Teddahlia

My post on Facebook on leaf cuttings:
I was encouraged to think big and took some large leaf cuttings today from a plant hidden in the back where I could not see it. I took 8 leaf cuttings and we will see how they root. BB SC in the brightest "golden rod" color. I love the names of colors that try to describe the color but always fail as color words mean different things to different people. The color really is impressive and 8 plants would destroy your eyeballs.

Krista

[unknown] Ohhh haha, I thought the addiction had already take hold. I didn’t know I’d simply plateaued before the next wild ride! I can say, this new world of taking cuttings has sent a refreshed flush of excitement for dahlias. Thank you for his fair warning, I’ve now strapped on my seatbelt!

calico20hill

You will never be able to walk by a public garden again with out your fingers aching to pinch out leaf cuttings and take them home to root. MInd, I did not say to do this! It's just that feeling in your finger tips....

Emilyp

calico20hill This is so true! I get the same feeling in the fall when I see seed pods in public gardens. The struggle is real 😃

Krista

calico20hill Uh oh, yes I get what you’re saying now, I’m going to have to make sure my fingers behave 😅 Can most anything grow from a cutting as long as it has node material included?

Teddahlia

I placed some of the very best tubers selected for sprouting on top of a box in the shipping area. Then I put something on top of them and I went crazy trying to find them. They are now found and are in pots of soil for sprouting. I found some of one of Margaret's favorites there too.

PegMc

This is probably a subjective question, but I"m asking out of curiosity in case there may be some 'formula' you experienced growers follow as a rule of thumb. With weather conditions being perfect for rooted cuttings to go directly to row planting, perfect sized plant for best strength to take right off to flourish, how many weeks before that point in time do you stop taking cuttings for this theoretical saga?

Teddahlia

I am number driven and if I need 6 plants I take 7 cuttings and save one as another pot tuber. Your question involves the the variable variables of timing. Factor one is the lazy pot tuber or pot tuber going slow. If it goes slow at may be the 1st of May before the last cutting is taken. I have taken cuttings as late as May 15th but that is generally foolishness. If you took six cuttings of the same variety on the same day and grew them to planting size, it takes 2 weeks to root, two weeks to grow tall and about a week thrown in for good measure and that is 5 weeks. That almost never happens as you actually take a cutting and then a week later take two cuttings and few days later take one cutting and finally have the 7 cuttings. So, your plants will vary in age and size. Pinch them back. if they need it. I took about 120 cuttings yesterday. About 20 were white cuttings from enthusiastic tubers growing in the dark. They take a week longer to grow and about 20% do not make it for me, I will take no cuttings today but will take a comparable number the next day. The hot news: I took two more cuttings from our very best 2022 seedling. It has dark stems too.

Krista

Would these cute little specimens be too small to take cuttings from and then successfully plant the tubers as well?

Teddahlia

I have taken a cutting from a tuber about the size of a quail's egg. That is a bit bigger than a jelly bean. One cutting from a small tuber, carefully sliced off with a sharp scalpel and another will sprout there. A second cutting probably would not be big enough to root and one may be all you get. If the cutting is about 3 inches long it will probably root just fine. On
the other side of the issue, fat cuttings from overfed tubers or giant dahlias are the really frustrating. They look like they will grow roots but a month later , nothing. Some do root however. The cuttings from the midget tubers do better.

Krista

Teddahlia Oh thank you, good to know that perhaps one only will be all I should expect. I was worried about using up all their tiny-tuber-juices before planting them out, so to speak, so this is great. I’ll be happy to try for one cutting and consider myself wildly successful if it roots properly based on my experience level. Thank you!

Krista

Teddahlia One more question about the tubers pictured above - the “one” comprised of two miniature tubers, would you dare to split that one and try for two (I can confirm that there are enough eyes to split successfully)? I think they’re each individually larger than a quail’s egg?

Edit/Add: I believe I read somewhere in Cubits.org that pot tubers could be started from small tubers? Are these the size of tubers one might decide to grow as pot tubers, and/or what makes a tuber eligible to be a pot tuber?

« Previous Page Next Page »