Well as a small update I re-potted a lot of them as there would be a bit of an extreme jump from the plastic containers to the pots as they were.
How long does it tend to take for them to start really putting some strong growth on? All of these bar one should ultimately be good for 70cm-100cm tall.
Flower buds have been starting to appear already even though they haven't filled their new pots yet.
@Dirty Harry , if you haven’t already done so, I would advise putting those dahlias into their permanent pots. Not least, for ease of man-handling lots of foliage, roots and soil. It doesn’t matter that the fibrous roots haven’t yet filled the pots. The tubers will be doing the main work of supporting growth.
Dahlias will have been hampered this week by the weather since they need approximately 6 hours of sunshine/day for good growth. They are also heavy feeders so a fortnightly feed with something low in nitrogen will help. If you want some good tubers to over-winter (better than the ones you were sold!), give a couple of feeds high in phosphorus when the day length gets to 12 hours or less. Tuber formation is photo-sensitive.
Dependent on what type of dahlias you are growing, those 100cm tall ones may need staking.
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I've had to nick flowers buds off a couple of them.
In normal circumstances that's ridiculous overpotting but I assume this is somewhat different providing you don't saturate them?
I ended up buying 3 large pots just now.
I do like these and choice is relatively limited without spending an absolute fortune.
How long does it tend to take for them to start really putting some strong growth on? All of these bar one should ultimately be good for 70cm-100cm tall.
Flower buds have been starting to appear already even though they haven't filled their new pots yet.
Dahlias will have been hampered this week by the weather since they need approximately 6 hours of sunshine/day for good growth. They are also heavy feeders so a fortnightly feed with something low in nitrogen will help. If you want some good tubers to over-winter (better than the ones you were sold!), give a couple of feeds high in phosphorus when the day length gets to 12 hours or less. Tuber formation is photo-sensitive.
Dependent on what type of dahlias you are growing, those 100cm tall ones may need staking.
Regarding watering, given they're going into much bigger pots, is it usually no issue providing you don't soak the soil to a ridiculous amount?
I have already potted 2 up with stakes, it's a no brainer- if they're not going to be needed then I can just slide them out.
Got caught out this week with high winds as a campanula had snapped at the base, not going to be chancing it with anything again!