if there are fingers hanging half broken

take those off

your best chances are with compact fingers/tubers that have a bit of the old stalk (the crown) on them,

chances are that an eye will develop there

warm is good

covering the top of the tuber with soil /potting medium is good

go easy on the water, they rot very easily in this stage

otherwise

just be patient

sometimes it takes 2- 3weeks till an eye shows

and make sure to harden them off, what zone are you in, when can you plant outdoors?

and if you got the Dahlia bug badly, you can read a lot here

Dahlia cubit

have fun with your Dahlias,

bye, Lin

I placed 6-7 inches of soil in a tub

==>>> soil.. mother earth.. or media???

does the tub have drainage ...

im not sure you need the heat... why get them going early ...

and where are you .. big city name ...

with last frost in 3 weeks .. and i presume that also means no freeze issues ... i may have just left them in the bag in the garage for said few weeks ... or even the tub in the garage ...

but then on the other hand.. i wouldnt have bought them this early .. lol .. learned all about splurge buying alleged bargains too early.. long ago ... wasted a lot of $5 bills.. lol ..

whatever.. its an experiment.. it made you happy i presume ... and you will learn something ... whatever that may be ...

ken

thank you both lol! I live in Wichita Kansas and I used potting mix with a bit of perlite (even though it probably doesn't even matter). I'm in zone 6 and the last first is around the first week of April so probably can be planted a bit after that. and I agree I was not sure about starting so early but I read they can take 2 weeks to come up or 8 weeks to come up. and also like you said it is basically an experiment at this point if I loose them I will probably buy them from a garden center or order better bulbs but if they do come up then score. I realized the mistake of adding water so I added the heat to try to help warm them up swell as get rid of sitting moisture a bit. The tub has draining but probably not enough as it should.

Coincidentally, my grocery store also had their display up today, and today was my monthly shopping trip (COVID has changed the way I do things a lot).

I walked out with five new dahlia. I'll find homes. The freesia and ranunculus I picked up...there's always a home for everything. Somewhere.

I start my old dahlia and new in pots every year, about four weeks before the "absolute guarantee end of frost" to give them a head start. It works great.

With so little time in pots, I just give them whatever's on-hand and whatever soil I have left-over by that time.

Average last frost for me is April 20th, but I won't plant the dahlia until May 1st at the earliest in the most protected parts of the beds, and May 10th in most of the rest for warmer soil.

As noted, just lop off anything broken or nasty looking. Damp the soil, you don't need to soak it. And be patient. Some are morning-birds and shoot out in days. Some will take a while.

Taller dahlia do benefit from being staked or, if you're lazy like I am, being planted in tomato cages. Shorter ones don't care.

Not recommended but if you have to...:

Don't push it too far and keep an eye on the soil and air temperatures.

https://www.greencastonline.com/tools/soil-temperature

You can cheat a little bit by using a sunny southern bed with a dahlia--the "formal" soil temp may not be quite sixty, but the temperature there will be, and an already-sprouted dahlia won't stop growing just because it's a little chilly (these are my "May 1" planted dahlia). Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. They'll slow, stall, and wait, but they won't die unless temperatures fall to frost. Consequently, my mailbox dahlia tends to be a bit late and slow, but since it was already 2' tall when I planted it, OK (my May 10 dahlia--soil's still a little cool, but not too far off by then).

thank you guys all of you have a lot of great info. I have no idea if this is doing "too much" but I set a thermometer in the box to keep an eye on temperature and humidity and now I guess all I can do is wait. I kind of would prefer if they took a bit longer to come up just cause the paranoid side of me is worried what ill do if they come up way before I can get them in the ground. The impatient side of me is like wanting them to pop up now just cause it seems like its been such a long winter here. so far we haven't dropped below freezing in a month. we had a week of temps going down to even -30 (coldest we have had in 10 years) usually we get a pretty mild winter with barely any snow. I plan on leaving them inside if they do sprout until a few inches tall and I plan on pinching them at around 6-9 inches tall. I don't know if thats a good height but I heard as long as you leave 4 sets of leaves they should do fine. again thank you guys for the great info!

...there's always a home for everything. Somewhere...

Morphe, have you seen this? As soon as I read your comment above I thought of this first cartoon.

:)
Dee

Thermometers are not a mistake, they're additional information. If, as I understand it, they're indoors, they're going to be perfectly good. I raise mine on the southern windowsill because that's where I have room. It's not a warm location in the house, but it does the job, and it's well over sixty.

If they do come up, don't worry about them, they'll be fine. Even leggy dahlia do well, and if they get leggy, put them in anyway. Worst case, and it's happened to me, is that the leggy part breaks and they grow new sprouts. It's not optimal but again, it works--and the broken part may be broken, but it's still green.

With pinching (I never do, but if you want to, again, that's great), legginess shouldn't be a problem for you. There are so many ways to "properly" raise dahlia it's overwhelming. I go for large bushes with many (if smaller) blossoms.