Taking Dahlia Cuttings

blown_dry · 2023-02-04T23:34:14+00:00

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

Teddahlia

I received my box of rooted cuttings from Steve Meggos along with 8 rooted petunia plants(his origination) today. This was the best box of rooted cuttings I have ever received and they were packed with a small amount of soil and the root balls were wrapped in aluminum foil. A couple of them were very large: 8-10 inches tall. The leaf portion was cushioned with shredded newspaper. Margaret loves that petunia and it is a seedling of one of the best called Bubblegum.

Krista

Teddahlia packed with a small amount of soil and the root balls were wrapped in aluminum foil.

Are you willing to divulge how they were secured in the box? I’m reluctant to try sending rooted cuttings with lots of confidence. That being said, I’ve been rooting most cuttings in 4” pots which would be quite a large root ball!

[Edit: I guess my reluctance is actually to root in root riot cubes or something significantly easier to ship]

Teddahlia

The box was literally crammed with plant material and strips of shredded newspaper. It must have weighed 5 pounds . There is a method to this madness as the biggest cause of loss is the shaking and tumbling of the boxes as they go through the post office torture chambers. Tightly packed items do not move and they certainly were tightly packed. Perhaps $20.00 of stuff in a $10.00 box. It was packed in the afternoon of the 14th and arrived at about 2:00PM on the 17th. I called Steve and thanked him. He got my box of tubers many weeks ago and he has numerous cuttings and plants from them. One 2022 seedling that shares his genetics (seedling in my garden from his origination) will be in both of our gardens and he may have a couple more plants than me.

Teddahlia

Today I will open the last bag of cuttings to see if they have roots. It has been a very good cutting year but the last expensive tubers of the season missed out on cuttings this year and we will have to grow them the old fashioned way by planting a the tuber in the ground or I may leave them in the pots to make
pot tubers for next year.

Bessie

Teddahlia why not grow the tuber in a pot, take cuttings destined for pot tubers, then when the remaining shoots on the tuber are big enough, plant the entire pot with the tuber in the ground?

Teddahlia

Time to plant dahlias and tending cuttings is not in the cards. Yes, if I had time but then again if the new one is a crappy flower, I did not waste time growing two crappy flowers instead of one.

SteveM

@Teddahlia I sure like the color of that WL. Form looks good too. Is it a seedling?

Teddahlia

Yes, it is seedling 20-150, a seedling of 17-102. The breeding all bee pollinated:
20-150
17-102'
Red HH WL
Red HH flower
Dark Red HH flower
Bloomfield Smoothy(Bob and Myrtle Bloomfield and she did Myrtle's Folly) I did a typo and said Bloomquist by mistake.

Teddahlia

Much disappointment! I was going to open my last flat of dahlia cuttings to check for roots and when I opened it, I discovered it was actually an entire flat of Margaret's petunia cuttings. I have no more cuttings to check. Her cuttings were about 33% rooted and who cares!!!

Krista

Teddahlia Her cuttings were about 33% rooted and who cares!!!

To be clear, I was reacting to this quote, not the disappointment. Is it too late to take one more round of cuttings for yourself?!

Teddahlia

For me it is too late. For a certified dahlia enthusiast who loves to multiply plants it could be done now but the expectation that the plants will bloom is marginal. To keep as a pot tuber is a good goal. 12 days to root, 14 more days to get plant big enough to plant without issues and that is essentially a month. Today is May 21 and the plant if all goes well would be ready to plant on June 21 or so. That is a very late planting date and in a typical climate the summer heat will cause plants from cuttings to grow slower and struggle all summer. In other words, a dahlia enthusiast knowing all of negative factors will be taking several cuttings in the next few days. Not me, however.

Krista

Teddahlia This is great information for an amateur like me; hearing the general breakdown of timeline from cutting to planting and the results caused by late planting. And I see how this is just a bit too late for growing for successful bloom quality. Those petunias better be darn spectacular!

Teddahlia

The dahlia cuttings mailed to us by our friend are doing well in 4 inch pots. The petunias are taking more time to recover as he sent very long plants and some leaves fell off. I am sure they will be fine in another week or so and in the past they have been very nice hanging basket plants.

MissyWeitzel

This is either genius or stupid. I'll update in a few days.
I'm sending out an unrooted cutting to trade and I was concerned about it being too hot so I wanted to keep the cutting hydrated. I'm using a floral pick filled with water. The only problem is the cutting doesn't fit snugly so the water will pour out the top. I know florists are crafty so I looked online and in order to use floral vials and hang flowers upside down in installations, they use petroleum jelly. It's not water soluble or water permeable.
I taped the vial to the inside of a clamshell herb container and packed crumpled paper around it in the box. fingers crossed

Teddahlia

In the 1930s 1940s and 1950s you could order bare root tomato plants sent to you in the mail. I do not think they were in the same box as the baby chicks.

calico20hill

No baby tomato plants came with our ducklings, either. Of course we did not order tomatoes from the hatchery.

Teddahlia

Planted a nice batch of waterlily cuttings today. Sorting the plants prior to planting is a pain in the you know what. Somehow the cuttings are not in alphabetical order. When we were done with the row it was in "Margaret order".

Bessie

Teddahlia I'd love to hear what Margaret order looks like.

AKWindWatcher

Question for the experts: my John Hill cutting (that a friend generously sent me) had a horrible trip North. It's companion, Lexa, did fine but John was somehow jostled so much he ended up on his side. Long story short, the stem rotted. But, it was well rooted. Do you think if I leave the roots alone something will grow back? I am trying to see if the one tiny bit of unrotted stem will root but it's iffy. I've never had this exact scenario happen before so thought I'd see what you all think.

SteveM

AKWindWatcher If there is a node, either buried in the rooting medium or above it, there is a chance it will grow from that point,. It is worth a try.🙂

Teddahlia

98% certain that it will not re-sprout and most dahlia people consider that pretty good odds and will try. 👨🌾

AKWindWatcher

Teddahlia Well, 2% chance is not zero percent chance. I’d say that’s good odds. 😁 I’ll leave it under lights & see what happens.

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