Hi Poochella,I'm back!!!

I have cut off in the past with no exiting problems, as long as you treat the cuts properly.I think that it is no different than trimming off a tail. Maybe you should wait for more experience advice but that has been the case with me.

Buon Jorno Willow- world traveller! How was the fair country of Italy? Didn't get locked in your hotel I hope? That happened to a friend of mine....

I trust your advice and will follow it tomorrow. I only have one other tuber of Wine and Roses- much more managable than this monster pictured.

Did you have frost while on the road and did your husband come through as dahlia tender extraordinaire?

TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER!

sorry I couldn't resist! :o)

Thanks Poochella, The trip was wonderful, molto buono.
The frost came and DH hired my girlfriend's son to cut the dahlias back for me, well... he did that alright but he removed all my markers at the same time. DH was sweating and not so sure he wanted me to come home. I remember what most of them were but those I didn't the tubers kept there names underground so all went well only had two I couldn't idenify.
So they are all packed away neatly in their saran wrap waiting for spring. What a job to come home to, actually I enjoy ever minute of it and was bless with 4 good days of weather to do it in. Send me your list and you are first in line for the extras.

LOL Triple B! I was thinking this quote from "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (one of the scariest movies from childhood!) 'Klaatu barada nikto.' Whatever it means, it scares me to this day LOL
The little spaceship tuber is trimmed of its wings,dusted and wrapped for Winter, so I'll see how it turns out.

Willow, that is one fine husband you've got there! Resourceful too- hiring the son to help. How lucky you are. I have only 15 left in the ground, one day's batch drying to wrap tomorrow, a few to wrap tonight. It will be so nice to have a kitchen table back.

Welcome back. Glad you enjoyed the trip! I'll check over your photos and email you, thanks for the offer.

Just curious -
but if that Tuber mass was replanted whole,
would those little Aliens develop necks & evolve into viable Tubers in later years?

Or are all back-side growths just wasted spuds - since they do not have access to the stem-knob where eyes usually appear?

I have several Tubers with well-formed lower-end bulbs with necks. They are not attached to the stem - they just grew from the mother tuber. Should they all be trimmed off, & tossed - or could some still develop eyes at some point? (Thanx for sharing your your experience)

Another set of spuds (yellow FD - from Poochella) are big, and show eyes, but a couple grew right into each other. Should I try to cut them apart, or re-plant as a double-tuber?

Hi Jules,
I think they're wasted spuds, as you say. They will not develop eyes as they have no connection to the collar area low on the stem where eye tissue forms. I tried to Google any article on this, but not much is written.
A couple times I've found a relatively normal tuber that sprouts many 'tuberlets' off of it, skinnier than the space ship above. Those get cut off and tossed, but I will save the normal one from whence they grew if it has an eye.

Don't know what to tell you about the ones that grew off the Mother tuber; but I think they need to have some connection to stem/collar material to develop eyes/sprouts. It wouldn't ever hurt to keep them and see what happens, though. Perhaps a pleasant surprise! If there's anything unusual I label that right on the tuber,like a stem tuber growing higher up above the clump. That way I know next Spring that 'xyz' tubers can work or didn't work, as the case may be.

Re Yellow FD, if you can't separate them easily, just store as a whole and plant that way next year. Sometimes you have one eye shared by two tubers that just can't be divided easily. Hard to wrap those buggers too, depending on the angles of their formation.