Hi Chey John,
Please pass on my Thanks to your son serving in Iraq next time you communicate. I hope he comes home safely and in time to enjoy some blooms from your garden.

Foil is presumably used to prevent excess water from soaking into and rotting the tuber mass down the hollow stalk of a cut off dahlia. You might as well leave it there until April showers have quit and you are reasonably sure the tubers have not rotted.

The other thing would be to cut off the stem entirely and put soil over that spot so water wouldn't be so much of a worry anyway.

You should see shoots coming up whenever mid to late-Spring hits in your area. I left some clumps in last winter and dug one up- half of it is mush, so I have some excavating and cleaning up to do to get rid of that rot. There were already new sprouts shooting forth however. Yay!
Poochella

Thanks Poochella for the info. I am so glad I didn't remove them yet. So if I cut the stalks and cover with soil, this wouldn't still allow water to enter and cause rot. I had though that it might be ok this time of year since they would be getting watered by the rain anyway.
I also want to thank you for making me update my member page. My son did return safely from Iraq last September and was quickly deployed again right before he was to come home for Thanksgiving. But it wasn't back to Iraq and for that I am more than thankful. He gets out near the end of this year and I will be overjoyed. Thanks so much for the kind words! I will relay your message to him.

Chey