Dahlia help!!!

[bobbin]

Can any Dahlia growers out there help me??
I have lifted some one year old tubers. ( very successful) but hey are very big. Can I risk cutting them to a more storable size and how do I do it after washing off and drying them.
I can"™t leave in ground as water logs.

[Plot70]

I saved some tubas from a thicket of mugwort last winter when I took on my plot last December. The dead stems were knee height.
I just moved them to there new location immediately and during the summer they grew to almost 5 foot.
I intend to lift them again in the spring just before they start growing again to give away at least half of the tubers to stop them getting out of hand.
Lifting the tubers?
They are bomb proof.
I chucked a couple of tubas in neat clay under a field maple tree and it grew to about knee height and flowered.

[bobbin]

Ah.. so maybe I need Not be so precious about chopping the great big lump of tubers in half as it would seem if I"™m careful the cuts would heal over quite rapidly
I hope that is the case as they are two massive to store as I have quite a few varieties. Some are only a year old. I was wondering if growers normally ditch the mother plant once they have taken the tubers they are going to use for next year"™s plants. Do you??

[Jonny.D]

was wondering if growers normally ditch the mother plant once they have taken the tubers they are going to use for next year"™s plants. Do you??

I've recently read a post by Tim Kennedy saying that he keeps the mother Tuber, even if it looks manky.

[nickdub]

How well dahlias survive outdoors depends on what sort of ground they are planted in and what the weather is like. If your ground gets waterlogged in winter that will kill the tubers, as will a prolonged period of frost where the ground itself freezes solid. Of recent years we have had mostly mild winters around here, but as always with the weather there are no guarantees of what we will get this winter.

I can't help with the queries on what is the best way of achieving dahlia perfection. Perhaps there is a dahlia lovers forum, where more specialist advice would be more easily obtainable ?

[Jonny.D]

Perhaps there is a dahlia lovers forum, where more specialist advice would be more easily obtainable ?

This is a good group on Facebook

Dahlia Information on Growing and Exhibiting
https://www.facebook.com/groups/363854624030/

[rary]

If you rely need to reduce the size, you can remove some of the lower tubers, if you want to cut make sure that you have a growing tip on all the sections you want to keep, the growing tip are generally clustered round the old stem area, also when you cut them dust them with a fungicide, personally I wouldn't cut a first year tuber as the growing crown will be a bit small