Ted! Oh man, that is a bummer! Sure glad you were not home alone when this happened! You are entitled to take it easy for the rest of the day...(but probably not tomorrow (just kidding).
General Dahlia Chat 2023
I second that… glad Margaret was nearby. Hope your recovery is speedy…
you have some planting to do!
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Too wet to till. 
I was going to plant the tubers of this one today. Note it is a miniature and I like that.
I think that when you get 11 stitches, the next day you may not feel real well. Today I feel much better and completed a long list of Margaret's "I want you to do this and then I want you to do that!" 
Another one I was going to plant today but too wet. .
I'm glad you feel able to be up and working today! We are certainly getting a downpour now so its probably still going to be too wet tomorrow....I like this red one.
Glad you’re feeling better! Also glad it was only stitches - head trauma is scary stuff! I hope you mend up quickly.
Teddahlia your miniature cactus reminded me of a moment this past fall when I was clerking at the midwest conference dahlia show. We came upon my Nicole C entry (M C OR) and it was the only 4303 and I think also the only mini cactus in general entered and the judges thought it had such terrible form they gave it a 2nd so it wouldn't move on even though it was the only one. Thankfully I'm a good natured exhibitor and I thought it was hilarious listening to them rip on my entry without knowing it was mine. 
Nicole C.: I believe the C stands for Canning and it was introduced in 1989. Dick Canning was a long time breeder and according to one source, Nicole C was a seedling of Alpen Snowflake by Bill McLaren(Steve's father). His most famous one was Kathy's Choice a small yellow cactus. Mike Canning was his son and he died of the flu(go see the doctor when you feel really bad) a few years go. That line of miniatures was "taken over" by Mike Riordan of our club and Scott's Snowcap that has been winning big time is most likely related to Nicole C. We used Kathy's Choice as a seed parent and got one really nice seedling called Hollyhill Geisha and it won best miniature at a National show. However, it is a poor tuber maker and we lost it long ago. Kristine Albrecht showed it and I believe used it for breeding. All of this falderall is because breeding miniature cactus dahlias has proven to be difficult for most breeders. We have found that the late Peter Greenway 's miniatures(Josudi) have quite a bit of vigor and good form. HH Maisie and HH Ambiance were seedlings of yet another British miniature cactus. I like miniature cactus flowers but Margaret generally says "Bleh.
This is a typical min cactus seedling.
4 days later
Not much being posted lately. Our dahlia club meeting was Tuesday night and our member Noni did not attend. However, her Salish Twilight Girl variety sold twice at the auction(tubers then pot tubers) for a good price. I bid on about 6 things and it always got too expensive so I got one tuber of a giant I have never heard of. One of the club members felt sorry for me (probably not true but I can say it) and gave me a rooted cutting. My credit card would not work to pay for parking and a club member I do not know insisted on using her card for the $3.00. I had an extra cutting Of HH Serenity and found her at the meeting and gave it to her. We are all busy planting and I may continue this thread later.
I figured everyone was busy planting too! I've only planted my micro collarette and pompon tubers so far because those are being planted apart from everthing else this year. No cuttings are in yet, we have a possibility for frost mid to late next week. 
Today I finished amending my dahlia beds and laid out my drip irrigation and hooked it up to test it. Only 2 holes I need to fix - not bad for reusing the tape from last season and essentially throwing it in my vegetable garden uncovered over winter because I was lazy.
If I get to spend Mother's Day doing whatever I want, it will be planting more tubers!
The Portland Dahlia Society has become an extremely large and active club. I joined in about 1990 and they had about 50 members(just a guess) and during most of the 1990s there were less than 100 members. It went up to about 130 during the 2020s and about 3 years ago has been on a growth spurt. The club sold tubers on line a few years ago and gave a discount to members. Lots of people not living in the Portland area joined to get the discounts. I believe it was announced at our meeting that we had over 400 members now. Part of this is possible due to the Zoom broadcast of the meetings. Another benefit is the Dahlia Talk Zoom meetings once per month and people love to yak about dahlias and it includes absolute beginners that can ask those basic questions that turn out to be excellent questions for the older people to answer. There have been about 40 people in the Dahlia Talk meetings. You can participate without anybody seeing or hearing you if you want and I go incognito while I am slamming down junk food. Our live meeting Tuesday had well 50 -70 attendees and it was one of the sales meetings with lots of $5.00 tubers, silent auction tubers(they usually go for less than $10.00) and live auction of tubers and pot tubers that garnered higher prices. A presentation on our favorite bad disease, Leafy Gall , was done by Linda Taylor who had lots of power point pages on the screen and got her information from our Oregon State University. It is the disease that keeps on giving and the best cure is to never allow it into your garden.
AndreaB Plastic wrap is the only method that works for me. It’s terribly time consuming, both wrapping AND unwrapping. I find the tighter they’re wrapped, the better.
Same. Us upper midwestern folks deal with air that is dryer than any PNW resident could imagine. I have tried vermiculite as well and it failed badly. Shirveled up corpses of tubers. I would try again if I could get them in a space with high humidity. It would be FAR less time consuming. I loose only a few to rot every year, but loose far more to having them dry out. I wrap 5 at a time rolling them up with plastic separating. After the 5th I wrap around the whole thing 3 more times. I always find that the tuber that is on the outside of the pack (last wrapped) is the most prone to some wrinkles even with this approach. This year, I wrapped and placed them in large trays that stack. THen I covered the stacks of trays with plastic with enough space for a bucket of water in the middle of my stacks of trays. That added just a bit of extra humidity. Success! Those stored much better than the few that I had wrapped only.
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My father ran a humidifier in his "Montana dry air" storage room. Like you, shriveling was a much worse problem than when tubers were stored too moist and rotted. Different climates require different storage methods and there is more than "one correct" method for storing tubers.
I missed PDS club meeting on Tuesday as well. I saw that there was going to be a tuber sale and assumed it would be in-person only. I haven’t had experiences with gall in my garden either, and admittedly feel a bit inundated with reported info about it via FB groups. If I were going to erroneously miss a club meeting, this may have been the right one for me. I’m planning on attending Dahlia Talk though, as (what’s beginning to be) usual!
I know that in Maine low humidity over winter is the hardest to deal with. I think my daugher found the fruit celler (a few steps down from the house and dug into the ground) was the best location at her place. Now she shares storage area with another grower who has been successful with winter storage...It may be a purpose built room...
Bessie I do the same, Bessie. Once split, they spend a night or two inside the house before wrapping begins. For each batch, I use several storage tub lids (used as trays) and lay the tubers in a single layer. I trim at least 75% of the ends (to keep the tuber size more manageable) and just let them callous over (without any cinnamon), although I do love the scent 