Drying whole plants

10 years ago

Might there be any benefit in digging up whole plants and hanging them upside down to dry before cutting the stems back ? Perhaps the tubers could feed off the energy in the leaves and stems and enlarge even further ? I do this with my amaryllis and many other plants . The bulbs always grow noticeably larger during this drying period.

I dug up the dahlias this evening after the light frost that occurred last night. The frost did not kill the plants back. It only damaged the flowers and the newer leaves. The tubers are nice and big with lots of eyes. My hands were nearly frozen trying to carefully dig out all those tubers, but I got the job done anyhow!

I didn't want to wait until later to dig the tubers up because the ground was so soggy that I was afraid that the tubers might rot. This was my first year planting these beauties. Any input would be much appreciated!

Featured Answer

cicivacation

10 years ago

Jostus, if your tubers have lots of eyes and are thicker then your thumb, they have an excellent chance of making it though the storage months, and that is the most important thing with growing dahlias. As long as they are large enough to survive the winter, size is unimportant.

Unlike amaryllis and other BULB flowers, you can grow many dahlia plants from one tuber through cuttings, and the size of the bloom is not in proportion to the tuber size.

In fact, many very experienced growers (and vendors) save the smaller tubers for their own beds, claiming that the resulting plants are much more vigorous then plants from large tubers.

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Comments (6)

Florida_Joe's_Z10a
Original Author
10 years ago
Cici, That's very surprising and interesting about the smaller tubers producing better plants. Can't quite understand why that would be, but fair enough. Even the smallest of my plants tubers are larger then my thumb so I guess these have a good chance of overwintering, if I can store them well.
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cicivacation
10 years ago
Most important with winter storage is constant temps (41-55 degrees the best) with some humidity to keep them from drying out. Lots of different ways to store them, but if you have the constant cool temperature and a bit of air moisture, you are on your way.

"can't quite understand why that would be..."

The dahlia tubers are sacks of starch with meristem material on the part of the tuber closest to the stem... How much starch (food) that is in a tuber doesn't matter as much as if the meristem material can generate a sprout. That sprout can be cut and made into a separate plant with its own root system, totally separate from the original tuber. One tuber of any size can normally generate many cuttings, all of which will be fully developed plants with blooms. That is why "size doesn't matter."

Bulbs tend to only have the potential of one plant WITHIN the bulb, sometimes with the flower already pre-formed deep within. The larger the bulb, the larger the bloom.
Patricia Sawyer
10 years ago
How about washing them off or just brush the dirt off before storing?
cicivacation
10 years ago
Pat, I put my answer in a new thread called 'storage.'
Florida_Joe's_Z10a
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and for a very well written response cici. It was very helpful.