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Rain has snapped my Dahlia!
Laura Turner 2
Posts: 99
in Plants
Planted my Dahlia tuber on the 8th April and have been patiently watching it grow. It was looking fabulous and we've just had a massive downpour and it's snapped the 2 stems off clean. I'm gutted.
What will happen to it now?... ):
1
Posts
wouldn't the 2 dahlia stems take root if you treated them like you were taking a cutting?
A few shoots could emerge from the base still?
Hi Laura. That is so sad. You may be lucky and the dahlia might grow some more shoots. Wait and see.
Is the stems hollow? Dahlia take well from cutting, hollow stems will not take but any other bits will. The tuber may still grow but take cutting from the broken bit
It'll probably throw up new growth. In the meantime you could cut off the snapped base and trim just above the first leaves pop them in a gritty compost and pop a plastic bag over the top and mist daily. They look to have some tuber on them. You may get some free new plants.
Oooo interesting. Ok, I've brought the pot back into my warm porch. Will this help it shoot quicker? ( if it's going to)
Here are pictures of the 2 snapped stems.
Stem 1
Stem 2
Where should I cut on these? Sorry for the simple questions. I've never taken cuttings before.
You may want to wait for someone with more experience than me but I'd just take off the leaves from the bottom half of the stem and stick it in compost
Hi Laura. Carefully remove the small leaves at the base of the stem. Basically so the cuttings are bare at the bottom. Then go up each stem for 2 nodes - these are the swollen areas where the leaves grow from. Using a sharp knife, cut through the stem just above the second node from the base. Now gently remove the set of leaves at the first node from the base. You will now have your cutting - a length of bare stem with a tuft of leaves at the top. Insert the cutting into a small pot of compost, water well and put the pot in warm shade. Do similar with the other stem. The cutting should be planted so that the first bare node is just below the compost level. Good luck!
I should have said that this seems a bit brutal but it should work.