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

"120+ days for viable tuber development is a myth." It is not myth but a guideline. If you are able to water and fertilize a plant well you can accelerate tuber development. But as always tuber making ability is genetic and if a variety is a poor tuber making variety, that 120 days is needed.

SteveM

Teddahlia It is not myth but a guideline.

It might be a good guideline for dahlias planted in May-June but not a good guideline for dahlias planted in August.

Teddahlia

Farmers know these things.

Teddahlia

Shipping orders. Found 4 white sprouts that could be rooted. They root at about 75% as compared to regular cuttings at about 95%.

SteveM

Teddahlia It sure is nice to get those Hollyhill tubers that are already eyed-out. There is a real art to timing the sprouting to the shipping, I think that would be the hardest part of selling tubers. (other than planting, weeding, digging, dividing, and shipping) My Hollyhill tubers are 5" tall and almost ready to plant out.

edewitt

Somehow my first cutting from my rotting tuber of Hillcrest Kismet managed to survive in less than ideal soil and take root. The plant's about 6" tall, spreading the leaves wide, and looking pretty healthy. I took one other cutting from the tuber and I think the sprout attached to the tuber is taking root around the eye so I'm hoping for quite a few plants come May. My Pam Howden I bought from Tall-Grass I'd written off as dead has sprouted as well so I'm off to a decent start (if you don't count losing pretty much all my tubers from last year). HH Wicked Witch has sprouted too so I plan on getting as many cuttings from that as possible. I'm glad I left the Tall-Grass tubers in the wood shavings they sent the tubers in. I think that's what saved them from suffering the same fate as the others.

calico20hill

Also, Tall GrAss grows their tubers under difficult conditions so they are probably very hardy little tubers used to surviving against the odds.

Teddahlia

I took the first three cuttings from our best 2022 seedling. They are exceedingly fat and there is a chance they will not root. Subsequent cuttings will be skinnier and more easily rooted. I bet I get at least 12 cuttings from the giant pot uber. I took my first batch of cuttings on March 7th and I checked them for roots today. About 75% of them had rooted and only one seems to be likely to not survive. No clue what is wrong with the 6 inch long sprout. I have lots of rooted ones from that seedling so it will not matter much if it does not make it. I upgraded some of the lights to LED and will do some more tomorrow. Yesterday I took about 110 cuttings and placed them under the lights. I need to get lots of cuttings before the seed germinating starts.

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?

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