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Dahlia planting
maureen60
Posts: 193
good morning all
now that the threat of frost is supposed to be over???
do I insert the Dahlia tubers into the border in their pots, or do I decant and plant them out.?
looking forward to your expert advice, thanks in advance.
0
Posts
Morning Maureen,
My dahlias have been started off in pots in just a plastic covered unheated greenhouse. The largest I put into a container outside last week as a testing plant to see if they were ready, and it is coping fine, the smaller ones I will give a week or so and then put them out. I'm in Suffolk, we havent had a very warm spring but I think its on its way now.
All my books say that dahlias are great for containers or planting directly, just beware of frost, which you know. Actually I found an old dahlia sprouting in the garden that I'd missed digging up so sometimes they are more hardy than we think!
Thankyou, I live in Manchester, and its not too warm ,so will leave them for another week or so.
Hi Maureen60. I live not too far from you and have this week planted out my Dahlias. I planted some straight into the garden and others into large pots (around 45cm size) so that I can move them around the garden as needed. All are staked and now I just let them get on with things by themselves. We still have coldish nights but dahlias can cope with it now.
As an aside, I stopped potting up my dahlias to start them off. Now, I just lay the cleaned tubers in trays in the garage (a shed would do as well) and mist them with water about once a week. They soon start to shoot and then I just plant them out as normal. I suppose it's a little like chitting potatoes. I've been doing it for years now and haven't lost any overwintered tubers this way. Also saves on pots, compost and space.
thankyou Dorcas.
I will plant out tomorrow, some in large pots and others in the border.
Then I will start the slug and snail watch.!
Me again, one moor question- do they need to be hardened off? that is probably a really stupid question.
I forgot I bought some reduced a few weeks ago so have planted them today, 1 tuber in each pot.......I hope I've planted them them the right way up, I've never grown them before
I have a couple I bought at the end of last summer and I've put them in the greenhouse over winter but absolutely no sign of growth, I think they have died?
I have two lots of dahlias. I've taken on my grandfather's garden after he passed away last March. The original Dahlias (for which he was locally famous and won so many prizes) are kept in the ground all year round. However slugs are my recent problem for these when they first start shooting.
I bought other Dahlias (Bishop of Llandaff) but I plant these out in pots and protect with a strip of copper tape. These seem to be doing well at the moment. The ground dahlias tend not to start shooting for another month or so.
Maureen60 - they should be ok now and not need hardening off but if it looks like a very cold night you could always throw a bit of fleece or something similar over them. Just checked my garden planted dahlias and they're just breaking through the ground so it must be warm underneath. I always put a ring of dried crushed egg shells round my plants which stops the slugs and snails - a bit cheaper than copper tape
OL - Orchid Lady - are the tubers potted up in the greenhouse? If not, give the tubers a gentle squeeze. If they are firm they're still ok. If soft and wrinkled they may be dead however, I'd mist them with water and see what happens in a couple of weeks as they really are quite resilient and will often finally throw up a shoot.
Thanks Dorcas. I've tried grit, crushed egg shells, coffee grounds ... anything and everything and nothing works. I've already done my fair share of evening patrols this year
Hopefully I can try and stop them from eating the ground shoots this year. For the few I have in pots a little bit of copper tape has done a fabulous job. A few nibbles but they could've been from anything.