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Starting dahlia tubers- watering

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  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Mine are all in the ground except for the two bargains which leapt into my trolley on Thursday when doing the weekly shop.   I left them in the ground last year too and had didn't survive but others did very well.   This winter has been much wetter and not as cold so weeds have proliferated, including rampant bindweed and apple mint along with mallow and the usual suspects.

    I decided the easiest thing to do was clear a whole new space for them and dump on some lovely black manure then lift the dahlia tubers out of their weed fest, clean and re-plant.  They all looked fine with no rotten tubers and teeny buds of shoots just starting so I hope they like their new home.

    The new tubers are in pots of compost in the polytunnel as they has shoots already and we're set to get down to freezing for the next couple of nights and non too jolly by day.  They have been dampened just enough I hope. 

    Interesting what that chap said about cuttings and colours on GW.  Maybe I'll give that ago and I have Bishop's Children to sow this year too.
     
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    It was interesting to see on GW last week - the chap saying that growing from cuttings each year gives far better plants that replanting tubers.
  • Dirty HarryDirty Harry Posts: 1,048
    Signs of life on a handful now with shoots poking through, that's 3 weeks from potting them up. Will just need to be careful with any watering and use my gauge before deciding to water.

    The way the top inch or so of MPC gets dry quickly doesn't half disguise a decent amount of moisture still around the tuber.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Mine were left to their own devices. They survived so I've potted them back with fresh compost. The ones in the ground survived too. Proof was on the end of my fork😕 scrunch😖
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Dirty HarryDirty Harry Posts: 1,048
    Flower buds are already forming on a couple of my plants, they've got their march on in the last 2 weeks.

    I've been snipping off any buds I can see, I assume that's the best thing to do given how early it is?
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Three inches up, so I've started a light watering. The more growth, the more water. The tubers don't actually need much water until the leaves show

    In London. Keen but lazy.
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