Yes, take them off keeping the strongest as soon as they show up. You can do this any time now. If you notice more than one shoot at planting you can nip off the extras before you plant them.

Or, you can divide the tubers with one eye per division. If you search this forum for "dividing" you will come up with plenty of information. Then you will have dahlias galore!

However-- you said the lots of shoots are from one tuber therefore you can't divide it!!

Not true. You can cut a single tuber into several pieces, as long as each one has a shoot. I've even grown ones that had only a few milimeters of tuber left on them and they took fine.

wow prestonwright i was wondering if i could do that but i decided to be safe and put the tubers in the ground as they were...i'll know that for next year!

Glad you played it safe- this is not potatoes you are planting here-it's dahlias :)

I bought some tubers from Walmart, they were clumps and I just planted them in pots without dividing them. They are about 10-12" tall now. I didn't realize they should be divided before planting. I haven't pinched them either, but they seem very bushy. How do I go about pinching them now? Do I pinch out the tips, like annuals or do I remove all the stalks at the base except the biggest one? Also, I ordered some tubers, these were single tubers with one "eye. These I planted in pots too, they have one stalk. Do I pinch the tips out on these? Or are they best left as is?

LAA, How tall are the Walmart ones supposed to get? If they are short, (Like 18 inches) I'd leave them alone. If they're supposed to be taller, like 4 ft, then I'd pinch off the stalks to leave only one or two, then "top" that/those by pinching out the uppermost growth tip. That will cause side growth to take off, and give you more flowers.

On the single-eyed tubers, yes pinch the uppermost growth tip as well. I am usually too busy to do this until the plants are 15-18 inches tall, sometimes sooner. I don't count leaves I go by height. This year, I'm so far behind I'll probably be digging UP clumps by the time I get all tubers in the ground to grow!

Good luck in your pinching efforts.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mid Island Dahlia Society Help Link

Pochella- THANK YOU! for the link. That is exactly what I was looking for as a newbie! I have always loved dahlias and now getting stock in trades, ect. I cant wait til they grow!

Kathy

Actually, plantlady, Dahlias are a lot like potatoes. The Aztecs used to grow them for the tubers, which they harvested like potatoes and cooked with like potatoes.

I have taken cuttings even with no roots and they root within 3 weeks if kept moist. Last year I made a whole collection of 80 plants of about 50 varieties for my mother starting with little or no roots. The plants still grew to full size and, remarkably, had full tubers at the end of the season. There was no way to tell the difference between these and the ones planted with full tubers.

Dahlias are extremely forgiving and resilient. You should feel free to experiment if you want to make more plants.

By the way, I didn't even chill my tubers this year. I left them in grow bags full of soil and stacked them up in the back of my heated greenhouse and didn't water them. Out of 213, only 2 have yet to come back--they began sprouting in March when the temperatures in the greenhouse turned tropical. They are all about 2 - 3 feet tall now and it's getting crowded in there.

I think there are a lot of myths surrounding the the care and handling of the tubers. Stories get handed down and everyone forgets to experiment.

Prestonwright, what is a "grow bag?" Sounds like you had great success storing this year.

I think the confusion over cutting up a tuber, at least in my mind, was how one could divide a single tuber with several eyes on the skinny neck end. Would you make a couple really skinny slices (Like french fries )from stem to root end getting an eye on each? To me that would make the tuber very susceptible to rot, fungus, breakage. Or would you just cut out the eye with a few millimeters of tuber remaining and plant that?

The best I've ever done with little tuber left to plant was a couple rotters last season I had to dig up. They ended up with about an inch stub of viable tuber and they went on to grow well enough. I can't say they flourished, but they did grow and give me a couple tubers back.

"The best I've ever done with little tuber left to plant was a couple rotters last season I had to dig up. They ended up with about an inch stub of viable tuber and they went on to grow well enough. I can't say they flourished, but they did grow and give me a couple tubers back."

Poochella, I hope this will work for me. The 'Monet' you gave me rotted half way, so I cut off the rotten part, dusted the remaining part with sulfur and replanted it in a pot. I am keeping my fingers crossed. I go up to the attaic almost everyday to check my babies. Next weekend I hope to be able to plant the ones that have a tall sprout in the garden.

I am also greedy. When I disbud the extra shoots, I potted them up. I'll see how I do with rooting Dahlias. Thanks, everyone for suggestions.

Hi Pitimpani, again!
I just had to cut off and dig out rot from two more tubers, but they have eyes so I am not giving up! Once the rot was cut off, I soaked them in 10% bleach, dried them and dusted well in sulfur. I did everything but a full service carwash on those tubers. They are potted up too, and hopefully will go on to grow.

Just finished planting Wednesday- the latest ever! And already some shoots from 10 days ago are popping up. Looks like a cool, wet week ahead. Ick. May always seems to disappoint this NW gardener after some really nice April days. But June is just around the corner and things should look up from there on out.

Good luck with your tubers. Let me know if Monet doesn't work for you.