Hi Jim,
I think cuttings go directly into a soil or soilless medium instead of water. Dip in rooting hormone first to encourage root growth. Don't listen to me though, I have a 100% kill rate on cuttings! My tubers are so afraid of my technique that they aren't even sending up sprouts to TRY cuttings on this year.

Yes, the eye which produced the growth you cut should send out another shoot- it wants to live and needs leaves to do so. Up comes another sprout. I believe there are limits to the number you can expect to get though.

On this statement...."Several of the tubers were cut with the stem growth attached for easier handling, with some stems as long as 4". I stored them that way and when I took them out of storage there was growth on some of the stems halfway or even to the tip of the stem." Do you mean there is growth coming OUT of the stems or out from lower on the clump near the stem base(which would be more normal) now growing halfway or all the way up to the 4 inch height of the stem?
You could carefully trim the stem off, if it has no green growth on it. Then try to divide the clump so each shoot has at least one good tuber attached to it, to get more plants. Bob in MI taught me the value of a good wood chisel driven dead center down the middle of a clump to make first cuts in dividing: Thanks Bob, works great! Again, if you break off any sprout, it should grow back.

I used to store tubers in whole clumps too. Works fine until you get a large number of plants, then the space they take up is just too prohibitive.

90% survival is great! You should be happy with that.
Poochella

Hi Poochella!

You asked?

Do you mean there is growth coming OUT of the stems or out from lower on the clump near the stem base(which would be more normal) now growing halfway or all the way up to the 4 inch height of the stem?

Yes! If you can picture a stem 4" long and growth coming beyond 3" almost to tips. I did cut the stems close to base where possible and placed in soil. I'll see what happens?

You also wrote:

I think cuttings go directly into a soil or soilless medium instead of water.

This is my 4th year at growing Dahlias and 3rd year at saving the tubers. Believe it or not I tried putting cuttings directly to soil mix my first year and my success rate was zero. Since then I've gone to putting them in water with much better success. I should say moisture because I use rain or melted snow for the water mix.

I think I'll post something seperately to the Dahlias Forum so as to share that experience with others and possibly others will share with us their secrets.

Thank you for your reply.

Jim

Hi Poochella!
You wrote:

>well maybe I ought to try putting cuttings in rainwater, we are
>finally getting some here in the drought ridden Northwest!

Yes! I'm aware of your situation and ours is just reversed. We've lost close to 100" of snow (melt) in the past 1 1/2 weeks. Our ground is saturated and hoped we could get another stretch of dry weather for a few more days to dry things out. Unfortunately we can expect 2 1/2" of rain over the weekend here in Central New York (Syracuse area).

>About how long does it take them to form roots in water?

This does seem like a long process. I place my cuttings in a soda type or water bottle container so as the leaf growth is outside of the mouth and the rooting stem is supended in water. My first cuttings are about two weeks old and I am just beginning to see my first part of rooting take place. It appears as tiny blister type formations (white) and then eventually a spike of root. After the root growth appears strong enough (say five or six sprigs of root 1" to 2" long I pot in soil.) I don't have a 100% rate of growth during the bottle process but I'm pleased with what I can achieve.

Our last frost is May 9th and I take cuttings well up to that time and then place the bottles out of doors behind the shed so they are not fully in the sun, probably 80% shade. I have a raised bed area of 6' X 6' and of the richest soil I can make, compost, decomposed horse manure etc. and call it my birthing area or nursery. That's where I place these tender shoots and either leave them there for tubers or transplant.

> I tried taking cuttings on a couple tubers that were about 80%
>rotten but that had growth in order to save the plant. That didn't
>work, but I did save a couple other tubers that had rotted in the
>ground- cut of the bulk of the tuber, sprayed with lysol and
>replanted them after they dried. Two of those went on to bloom and
>even developed a couple new tubers.

I'm really new at this so I have to ask what does the Lysol do?

>On your stem growth, I have read on Yahoo dahlia group, another good
>place for questions about dahlias, that you can plant those stem
>growths and they will even go on to produce tubers. I had one of
>those myself last year: pulled it out of the ground and about
>halfway up the 6 inch stem was a thin but viable tuber with an eye!

I'm looking forward to see what happens to the 6 stems that I cut away from the tubers.

>Good luck with your dahlias. They are just amazing to grow.

I'm not a perrenial Gardner as I feel as long as I can bend and get on my knees to play in the dirt (daily) I'll do the tubers annually. Almost everyone in our area (we've only lived here since Dec 2nd 2003) have perrenials, with mucho green and evergreen. I must have pulled out 10,000 Hosta plants and planted our dahlias and four o'clocks and some gerniums for the first time "here" last spring. (Sorry perrenial lovers. I Know I'll be there someday.)

Our reward came when a woman who walked for health purposes one afternoon said to my wife "I've always walked (straight down the other street) but now I detour down your culdesac to see your flowers. They're beautiful."

Isn't Gardening just like Golf? It only takes one good golf shot (person) to keep you coming back for more.

Have a great spring season and hope your drought condition corrects.

Jim

Lysol is a disinfectant. Kills bacteria. Bleach might also work. I've used comet cleanser (the gritty powder) with some success on Iris to combat rot.