Article I wrote for the Portland Newsletter
Dahlia Talk 11-28-23
by Ted J. Kennedy
What a meeting!!! The subject was “dahlia tools”. I thought I knew about most all of the tools people use on dahlias but I have been missing the boat for several years. Dividing tools was the most popular subject but the discussion covered other things like digging tools. Each grower(27 participants) was called upon to name their favorite tools. I will cover a few of them but there were many more.
(1) Rubber Mallet: One the most essential tools for digging dahlia clumps is a rubber mallet. I bet you think I am joking but numerous participants spoke highly of this important tool. No, you do not beat dahlia clumps into submission. How it works is you dig up a large clump and it is heavy with a thick layer of our ubiquitous clay soil. You cut off the stalk at 6 inches or so and then you hold the clump with your left hand and hit the top of the stalk with the mallet with your right hand. It is like magic as the muddy dirt falls off the clump onto the ground. When we were discussing this, some sheepish growers went a step further and admitted that when the clump is too big for the mallet, they(several people) confessed to hurling the clump onto the ground with enough force to break up the clay soil. One person confessed to throwing down the clump several times. He said he was satisfied with getting only 10 tubers from this 15 tuber clump and another claimed it does not hurt the tubers much. That is a lead in to the next “tool”
(2) Stretchy Medical Tape: When you partially break the neck of tuber this person uses this product to tape the neck back together. I had heard of the use of “super glue” but this tape is much quicker and works just as well. Go ahead and hurl those clumps onto the ground and have your stretchy medical tape at the ready. The cheapest versions work just as well and 12 rolls of one inch wide tape are only $5.88 on Amazon.
(3) Bonsai Scissors: We all have been using Zenport zs-104 scissors for many years now. They are still one of the best but there is apparently a “new kid on the block” and it is the Silky Teflon Floral scissors JF=125 that cost around $23.00. I was perhaps confused a bit as there was some discussion about a “jumbo” sized version of these scissors and I see that the smaller ones are 6 inches and perhaps the jumbo version is 8 inches, the same length as a Zenport zs-104. The Silky scissors appear to have meatier look and they are made in Japan.
(4) What do you use to sharpen your tools? This question had numerous interesting answers and Steve Cox of Australia showed us his diamond grit pocket tool that he has been using for years. It even has a container for oil to go on after sharpening. In the USA bigger is better and Bob Merrill touted his small electric belt sander he bought at Bi-Mart for what he said was $39.95 some years ago. While I doubt that price is still valid, a small belt sander is probably the ultimate in sharpening knives and scissors quickly. Bob held his machine on his lap for all of us to see. Thank goodness he did not turn it on and knowing Bob he would have done a blow by blow demonstration.
(5) Dan Baulig touted several of his tools but the one he liked the most was a bit obscure for many of us. He loads dahlia waste into his pick up to haul to the recycle station. He says the waste solidifies a bit and is very difficult to remove from the truck bed and he had been using a garden rake to pull the waste off the truck. He found a monster rake that has only 4 heavy duty tines and says it works wonders. He also loves his circular weeding hoe that has sharpened edges and is used to eradicate tiny weeds that he claims “grow overnight”. One person asked for advice on how to straighten the tines on her pitch fork. Bob Merrill again came to the rescue and said a metal pipe buried into the ground can be used.
(6) Dahlia dividing tools went into great depth and linoleum knives spawned a minor amount of positives and several negatives. Historically, they have been used by commercial operations. More than one person offered to give away an old linoleum knife that was languishing in a drawer. I asked if the are sharpened and the person who still uses it to divide said, yes. We discussed knives and possible injuries and the stainless steel gloves you can buy at sporting goods stores(for fileting fish) got rave reviews. If you use any kind of knives, wear one one of those gloves to prevent injury. I told a brief story of my infected hand and the admonishment I received from my doctor when I told her how I had divided my hand instead of the dahlia tuber. She said something about how infections can lead to the loss of a hand. I stopped using knives to divide and went to bonsai scissors. The late Phil Mingus for over 40 years used utility knives with the changeable blades and had a crew of three people dividing tubers with them. Lots more discussion on knives.
(7)Secateurs: Steve Cox of Australia said he uses secateurs to divide his tubers. The audience responded with puzzled looks on their faces as “What the heck are secateurs?” Steve graciously pulled out his secateurs(try spelling this word tomorrow) and they were a well crafted set of what we call “hand pruners”. Steve was surprised that we were not familiar with this easy to spell word(for him) and he can pronounce it easily too. Felco number 2 pruners were given only a 30 second review but we knowledgeable gardeners consider it the Rolls Royce of hand pruners that are made in Switzerland and all parts are replaceable. Left handed versions are available too. They are a bit expensive.
(8)Loppers were discussed in generic terms and they are used by many to shorten the thick stalks of clumps so the clump can be divided. They are also used to divide big clumps into small sections. If you can afford them Corona makes good loppers. However, most of the discussion was how the person was not strong enough or dextrous enough to effectively use the loppers. That leads us to the next big solution.
(9) The multi tool. If there was one tool that seems to have caught the fancy of the tuber dividers, it is the multi tool in either the corded version or a battery version. I swear when people were extolling the positives of the tool, I could hear sound effects of the buzzing noise made by the oscillating blades. “(Buzz noises) It cuts those tuber clumps like a knife though butter!” No particular brand was mentioned so they all must work well. People who find loppers too hard to operate can use the multi tool easily. One person pointed out the tool used to be called a “plunge tool” and was used by drywall applicators to carve out things like openings for outlets.
(10) “Stanford No Blot Ink in a Pencil” pencils were discussed and they are aniline ink pencils that permanently marks tubers with the name or a cryptic number(only known to you). They have been available for nearly a 100 years but about 5 years go they stopped making them. This created a black market for new old stock of the pencils and $10.00 each was the going price. I do not know the details but someone on Dahlia Talk said there is a British version of it now available.
(11) 12 inch Meat Fork The most arcane and clever tool mentioned was described by the person who said she uses a long slender meat fork with the sharp tines in her dividing process. Zoom is a visual tool and she held up the well made, forged in one piece, meat fork with those black handles and she demonstrated how she uses it on those big clumps. Perhaps I should not explain how it is used as you should have attended the Zoom meeting and seen it for yourself. My meager write ups after the meetings are only a small fraction of the interaction between very experienced dahlia growers with many beginners and growers of all levels. We literally talked about over 50 other topics(and tools) at this meeting. But I will explain how a meat fork is used in dividing dahlia clumps. She uses her lopper or multi tool to cut the large stalk to an inch or so. She then jabs those slender tines into the core of the clump and uses it to hold the clump still as she extracts the tubers.
