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Wilting dahlias

soulboysoulboy Posts: 429
in Plants

Hi, I wonder if anyone knows what may be happening to some of my dahlias. Some of my larger cactus dahlias have very strong growth at the moment, although they're not in flower yet.

A few small side stems are seriously wilting, very droopy, as if they need watering. However the rest of the plant is absolutely fine. It's only one or two stems on each plant the rest of the many stems are very vigorous.

I seem to remember this happening last year and I think they responded to a good soaking but I can't be sure that's what I did. Whatever I did they recovered.

I noticed it this time shortly after I'd given them a good feed. I don't overfeed my plants so I know it's not that. So 2 days ago I then gave the whole bed a good soaking as I'd done the dahlias selectively.

They haven't responded as yet.There is quite a lot of blackfly on the plants that I've been removing, but not on the affected stems.

Posts

  • ki_buxtki_buxt Posts: 63
    Bumping this as I have the same problem. Luckily only on 2 of the 70+ I have. These two seem to hate the sun. When I move them to a shady spot, the perk up again. But as far as I am aware, dahlias like full sun, so this is a mystery to me.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Many of them are perfectly happy with some shade. The fact that yours has perked up when moved tells you that it prefers that  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    They do like plenty of sun but the leaves transpire lots of water when the sun is out and sometimes the leaves lose more water than the roots/tubers can provide - hence the droopy leaves.
    Some of mine do it in the garden,but as you say they perk up when then sun goes down and are fine first thing in the morning. I find that after a few weeks it happens much less frequently.

    If the leaves are mostly droopy, and droopy first thing in the morning, then it could be vine weevils munching on the roots, but that's less likely

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
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