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Dahlia veterans - help for my sad Dahlias please!
johnnypenstemon
Posts: 120
Afternoon all
Please can you advise on my sad dahlias. Healthy overwintered tubers, tidied and potted in MPC on 17 March. Kept indoors under a table by radiators since (about 3 1/2 weeks) and watered lightly, having read that dahlias require heat to prompt growth and not light.
I did the same last year with success, but hardened off with more watering far earlier when they were much smaller. This year have remained by radiators until now and show signs of stress: lower leaves missing, some deformed leaves, wilting, probably etiolated.
The first two pics are of Black Jack, the third Mystic Enchantment. They are now 55cm and 45cm tall respectively. Should I pinch out at this height, regardless of not having been hardened off? Too stressful? Plus I can’t work out if I’ve reached the recommended four sets of leaves for pinching out, given the stunted/deformed lower sets!
They got a good bottom-up water and an initial hour outside today before returning indoors but a cooler place. I’ll harden off cautiously from now. Anything else I can do to do help?
Perhaps give the most droopy, whose stems threaten to snap, a little framework until they (hopefully) stiffen up?
Many thanks from this relative dahlia novice. Cheers, Johnny
Please can you advise on my sad dahlias. Healthy overwintered tubers, tidied and potted in MPC on 17 March. Kept indoors under a table by radiators since (about 3 1/2 weeks) and watered lightly, having read that dahlias require heat to prompt growth and not light.
I did the same last year with success, but hardened off with more watering far earlier when they were much smaller. This year have remained by radiators until now and show signs of stress: lower leaves missing, some deformed leaves, wilting, probably etiolated.
The first two pics are of Black Jack, the third Mystic Enchantment. They are now 55cm and 45cm tall respectively. Should I pinch out at this height, regardless of not having been hardened off? Too stressful? Plus I can’t work out if I’ve reached the recommended four sets of leaves for pinching out, given the stunted/deformed lower sets!
They got a good bottom-up water and an initial hour outside today before returning indoors but a cooler place. I’ll harden off cautiously from now. Anything else I can do to do help?
Perhaps give the most droopy, whose stems threaten to snap, a little framework until they (hopefully) stiffen up?
Many thanks from this relative dahlia novice. Cheers, Johnny
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I think moving them straight outside, even for only an hour, is too much of a shock at the moment.
Whoever wrote that info has got it the wrong way round.
They've now grown out of proportion to how they should be, struggled for light and weak from too much heat.
I would put them somewhere cooler and light, I would also cut the middles right out as I’ve drawn in the photo. They need a bigger pot, drop them in a bit deeper.