Thank you for the helpful info cicivacation !

A few other questions:

1. I'm which month should I take cuttings after I plant the tubers again?

2. If it's possible to take cuttings from higher up, is it even possible to use the growing piece that one would get from topping the plant?

Depends on what growing region you're in. Most experienced growers in the 3-6 zones that I have talked to or read about take their tubers out of storage end of Feb to start taking cuttings mid-March to mid April. That allows plants to be set out mid-may to early June. Commercial growers start warming their tubers in January to get the high quantity needed and to ship out plants in March/April.

Personally, I've started in the early part of that spectrum, and had to deal with way too many plants over a too-long period of time, so I'm trying to not rush things and start warming end of March. It's tough, though, because February is when you need green sprouts the most psychologically.

Yes, you can successfully root the topped part of the plant, BUT it can't be the part with just buds. Needs to have an active growing lateral to give you a growing tip for a future plant.

This spring I was sent a dozen premium new release 'toppings' from a trading buddy in a much warmer zone, and tried my darnedness to get them to root. Tried every trick in the book. Only two are marginally successful, as most had only two leaf sets with buds on the tips of the offshoots. The ones that are still 'kicking' had three sets of leaves. The lowest set is what ended up working for me.

Although you can use pinchings and leaf cuttings to grow new plants, they take MUCH longer to root then cuttings directly off the tuber in spring.

If someone reading this disagrees with me, please speak up... I'd love to hear what you have to say. Always learning.

Thanks again for your helpful answer.

From what I read, topping the dahlia plants shouldn't include topping any laterals or the original plant would stop growing. It should only include the centre growing tip. Isn't that enough for a cutting to let it root and grow or does it really need to have a lateral growing tip as well?

Also, is it correct that when taking a cutting from the neck of a tuber, that a new plant would grow again from the cut edge on the tuber's neck?

I live in the Netherlands btw.

Dahlia varieties have a genetically pre-programmed number of leaf sets before bloom tips occur. Some, like Alpen Fury and Blackberry Ripple, will bloom after only six or so leaf sets. Others have up to 23 leaf sets before bloom. I know a few master growers that track this information (which is not shared, as it is considered a show secret) to assist them in timing plants for specific shows. I don't track them anymore, but am very aware of the truth of this.

If that growing tip is the 'end of the line' for that variety and will contain flower buds, I doubt you could coax roots from it. But by all means TRY, and share your experiments! :-)

" is it correct that when taking a cutting from the neck of a tuber, that a new plant would grow again from the cut edge on the tuber's neck?"

Yes. It is one of the coolest things about dahlias. Within four to five days of taking a cutting, you'll see two to four little bumps from the stump of the last cutting. If you cut flush with the tuber (or cut the cutting out of the tuber) leaving no stump, there is a possibility that you can take all the meristem tissue with it and not have any new sprouts. You only need less then an eighth of an inch left on the tuber.

Thanks so much for the info, I'll leave the cutting for next year when I'll plant the tuber a bit earlier.

For now, I think it's time to top my plant and I want to show you where I'm planning to do that to make sure I'm doing it right. I'm doing it according to the picture in the thread you linked me to.

Here is my plant:

I think a Golden Scepter Dahlia is an AA or A type so I assume I should cut it when 2 or 3 pairs of leaves appear. I numbered the pairs of leaves and have drawn a red line where I plan to cut it. Is this correct? Note that the 2 branches at number 1 only have 1 leaf each, probably called cotyledons. Not sure if I should count this pair as well when taking a cutting.

UPDATE: I'm lost. I just read that a Golden Scepter is a Pompon Dahlia which means I should top it after 5 or 6 pairs of leaves develop. What should I follow, the AA way or the Pompon way?

Here's the thing with stopping... The plant does it naturally. If you want to force it by pinching, it helps make a bushier plant earlier with simultaneous buds called a 'flush.'

Your variety is considered a miniature formal decorative in the US, with two inch blooms and 32" plant height. It most likely has a tiny bud in the top growth right now, looking at your image.

In practice, I normally leave on four to six leaf sets, rarely pinching more then a quarter inch tip off. I'd rather not set back the plant after all that effort expended to grow those leaf sets.

I grow for quantity more then size, though. Unless I'm trying to increase the size or petal count of a bloom, I don't worry about leaf counts that much. Going though the beds a couple weeks after planting to ensure the roots have adjusted to transplanting into the garden, I'll make a millisecond assessment of each plant and pinch'n'go.

If this is your first time growing, I truly wouldn't worry so much about stopping. Next year, it would be a good exercise to grow four of THE SAME giant variety, and top/debud two using those diagrams, and leave the other two alone. THAT would show you what stopping and disbudding is all about, in a way that will make you really understand how dahlias grow and use energy.

For now, enjoy your upcoming blooms and throw that diagram back in the vault of the forum. :-)

Ah, so by forcing stopping you're actually inducing more blooms to develop at once instead of over time?

For some reason I was thinking the AA, A, B, etc. categorization is referring to the plant's length instead of bloom size :P.

I'll see if I'll wait until 5 pairs of leaves develop and then top it or leave the topping for next year. Since my dahlia type has a very small bloom size, I reckon it would look much nicer when there are as many blooms as possible. Is that why it is recommended to top small bloom sized dahlias when there are relatively more pairs of leaves (i.e. more laterals thus more blooms) compared to bigger bloom sized dahlias?

Also, my dahlias are in a pot so I don't want it to be too tall. Topping it, as I understand, would make the plant relatively shorter which would be better for me.

Also, one last question. I noticed there's a small sprout just coming out from a tuber and I'm worried its growth will be sabotaged by the already 2 big shoots that I have at the moment. How can I solve this problem?

"Ah, so by forcing stopping you're actually inducing more blooms to develop at once instead of over time?" BINGO! At least, that is my understanding of it. And those pesky things called 'frost' and 'winter' might stop the plant prematurely from fully blooming out in all its glory.

In fact, it's a common occurrence for still-dormant tubers of giant varieties to be planted by novices in June, and have the very first beautifully large bud the size of your fist at the terminal tip FREEZE at first frost. :-( Talk about disappointing! Those giants take a while to get going, and if they aren't stopped at the 2-5 leafsets, may not start branching out until that first huge flower is dead/cut. That's why most dahlia growers prestart their tubers, and encourage branching out early. Also, there are many growers that shy away from the giants and large varieties because of the smaller quantity of blooms and the fact that those larger blooms are tough to sell in bouquets (and tend not to have cut longevity).

The smaller varieties tend to bloom earlier, with more quantity.

Great questions!

Not sure what you mean about the new sprout...

Yet again thanks a lot for the useful info!

Regarding the sprout, I'm worried it wouldn't have enough room to grow since there are already 2 big shoots coming from tubers in the same pot. Will this be a problem and if so, how to solve it?

Just rub off the sprout.

By the way, looking at your 'stopping' image, the plant is already sending out laterals (side branches), which is the whole reason for stopping in the first place! Any pinching out would only serve to slow down your plant. It wants to bloom quickly and often, from the look of it!

I was about to say the same thing! There's a big lateral on one side of 1 of the 2 shoots. The other laterals are pretty small though. Here's the biggest lateral so far:

Since there's only 1 big lateral, I'm still not sure if I should top it or not when the time comes. The longest shoot has 4 pairs of leaves so far.

The plant is growing pretty fast as well and the leaves are VERY greenish. Haven't seen such a deep color tone on a plant before. Here's one of the growing tips of the 2 shoots:

By rubbing the sprout off, do you mean I should just cut it off??

Knife or fingers, no matter. Just with a knife you might unintentionally nick other things you didn't intent on touching. Rubbing off is safer.

I don't worry about little tuber sprouts when there is a main stalk growing already, but some like to micromanage, and that's fine. I did that more in the beginning, and it's fun.

Hey I started noticing this damage on 3 of the biggest leaves and was wondering what it could be. I have always watered the plant at ground level to prevent waterburn. It does seem like it's dried out since the damages are on the edges?:

Also, I noticed quite a lot of very tiny black insects right between the smallest leaves at the growing tip. Don't know if they are parasitic or symbiotic:

Notice that the damaged leaf is resting on the edge of the pot. No worries about that... You can pinch that individual leaf off or the whole leaf branch as you wish. Many growers take off the bottom leaves to take away an easy ladder from slugs, earwigs and other crawlies. It's not unusual for the bottom leaves to become yellowed and ratty, as it is covered by other leaves and gets the most splash-up from dirt, along with most abuse from crawlies.

Those black bugs are bad. I can't tell for sure, but they look like aphids, which are easy to get rid of when you only have a few plants. If they are aphids, there's three four elimination methods:

1. Hose them off, using your fingers to get every last one (aphids cannot re-climb onto a plant)

2. Use soapy water or horticultural oil in a sprayer or squirt bottle

3. Release beneficial bugs (not worth it cost-wise for a few plants)

4. Use a systematic poison (kind of like using a grenade to scratch an itch, in your case)

Thank you so much for the help.

All 3 of the damaged leaves are indeed resting on the pot. Is it because of the pot itself or because insects can crawl up easily to them?

As for those damn black bugs, I managed to remove all of them manually after a thorough search except for one that lies really deep between the small leaves at the growing tip. They tend to jump quite far as well. I think I shouldn't have removed that spider that built a web around the growing tip to let it protect the plant from those things.

Regarding option 2, do you mean I can use detergent in water and spray it over the plant without damaging it?

Non-antibacterial dish soap is what many growers use. Rose growers swear by it! The plant could care less, but I'd avoid dumping too many suds into the soil where the roots are. Overspray is fine.

Thanks I will try and use that.

In the mean time, several buds are starting to grow now (I'm counting 7 at the moment). Is it normal for these buds to be hanging with their faces towards the ground before blooming?

Also, I know it's still a bit early, but when exactly in the winter do you recommend taking the tubers out of the pot? Where do I cut the stem for that and how do I store the tubers?

John, if you're getting the rain I've been getting, that would explain the downwards droop of your buds. Many of mine in the lower beds are looking similar to that. I know you're growing in pots... Is it possible the water isn't draining well enough? Stick two fingers deep down together and separate them to create a valley. Does water rush into the space? Tip the container... Does water drain out?

It is also possible that it is a variety trait, but I've never grown that type before to compare. I have stopped growing certain varieties that tend to have flimsy stems and downward-facing blooms.

Somehow I doubt that genetics is your issue right now, though. Probably either too much or too little water.

"I know it's still a bit early, but when exactly in the winter do you recommend taking the tubers out of the pot?"

If you can just leave it in the pot in your cellar, I would do that. Cut the stalk a few inches up. Much better chance of survival if you just let it go dormant in existing soil that hasn't been fertilized since August. Water in spring to wake it up, and you could choose to unpot/divide, or just let it grow for another year.

Storage has many options and opinions, and it all depends on trial & error, and what solution works best for you in the long run.

I do think the pot is draining quite well. It has around 7 holes at the bottom and when I give the plant water, I can see water filling the ground beneath the pot.

Regarding rain, I tend not to leave the pot outside when it's raining but I water it twice a week myself (every 3rd day). Is that too little water?

It hasn't been a very sunny week either, quite a lot of cloudy days, maybe that's the reason? It's starting to get sunny since yesterday though.

I must say, I woke up today and noticed the biggest bud has lifted up a little from facing the ground. I gave the plant water yesterday and it stood quite a lot in the sun.

Wanted to let you know that I woke up to this today:

Its bloom size is quite small but its appearance makes up for it :)

The buds facing down is apparently a variety trait indeed.