Both ways result in the same thing... Forcing the plant to sprout branches from each leaf joint.

In my humble opinion, cutting off the top developing blooms won't 'hurry up' other blooms much faster, only serve to deny you the pleasure of their presence. I would do stopping earlier on, which delays the early blooms but gives you more buds all at once a bit later.

Thanks for the response. Nipping the leaves seems less emotionally painful to me than cutting off buds so I'm glad there's not much difference.

A dahlia grower friend just showed me this today, and I thought of you... Normally I stop my plants at 3 or 4 leaf sets from the soil level, regardless of size.

Fantastic, thanks! Sadly I have no idea what I planted. Before you all die of shock and horror when I planted them I was all like, "eeek! purty flowers! my great granny grew these!" *dig* *dig* *dig* But the intervening months have matured me and I now find myself fascinated by the many varieties and wish I'd had the foresight to save the bags or at least write them down, but alas. It will all be a surprise for me later this summer. Next year though!

Danuv, this is my first year growing dahlias as well. I, too, have been going, "eeeek! Purty flowers!" Pot, pot, pot! I am maturing fast. I just topped my one of my pom poms at the 4th set of leaves. It was setting up a bud. It is in a container with two other pom poms (another lessoned learned for next year). This years is about experimenting for me. Better to do it with BBS tubers, saving the pretties, than the more expensive ones.

Topping with a bud is an emotionally exhausting experience.....