a new dahlia situation for me

last year

last modified: last year

I've only been growing dahlias for about five years now, but I had finally gotten into a rhythm with my fall digging, storing method, etc.

But this year is different. We had a *smidge* of frost a few weeks back, and one or two of my dahlia plants got hit, but no plant completely died from it; just some zapped leaves. They recovered and continued to bloom.

Since then, the weather has been very unseasonably beautiful. It has been in the 70's, even hitting 80 the last two days, but NO rain for WEEKS.

I went out two days ago and saw that most of my dahlias were shriveled up. Many plants in my yard are, due to the prolonged lack of rain. I have been trying to water but due to those darn life things that always take priority over the garden, apparently I have not been watering enough. Like many other things in the garden, the dahlias are shriveled.

I'm not sure what this means for the tubers. Or for digging them. I will probably wait a bit longer to dig (mostly because I don't have much choice lol) but I'm just not sure about all of this. Conventional wisdom is to dig two weeks after a hard frost. Now what?

Have the tubers died from the lack of water? Are they still alive because of the warm temps? Should I stop watering to let them do their thing? Or are they not ready to do their thing because it's still so warm? If so, should I still water so they don't die from dryness? Do I wait for a *real* frost? Do I dig now?

I'm mostly just musing out loud here, and these are mainly rather theoretical questions I'm asking myself, but if anyone does have any insight with this situation (perhaps our gardening friends in warmer or dryer climates??) please feel free to share. This is just a situation I never gave thought to, since 80-degree November days are not quite the usual scenario!

Dee

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Comments (2)

HU-618169007
last year
last modified: last year
Will you eventually be lifting the tubers, Dee? I honestly don't think there is an immediate connection between what is going on above and below the soil level. As it happens, my potted dahlias are looking a bit shrivelled (not sure whether frost or lack of water...but would bet on the latter since the rest of the garden is still looking fresh and green). Apart from chopping off the tatty foliage, I am pretty much ignoring them for now. At some point, I may have to decide whether to haul them out of the pots (as I want them in the ground for next year). In general though, I find the tubers to be really quite tough - I wouldn't expect mine (or yours) to show much evidence of weather changes.However, having cut mine back, I do have to be vigilant for too much rain though, as I have created a hollow which can lead to rotting...so I will be forced to take some decisive action soon.

So, in short, in your position, I would sit tight until the frosts and offer the minimum amount of water...I honestly don't think the tubers are going to be shrivelling/dying or anything else...at least for a few more weeks of dithering.
diggerdee zone 6 CT
Original Author
last year
Yes, rosa, I am lifting them. While I have had a dahlia or two survive a winter, those were ones I forgot to lift and they surprised me in spring lol. I usually lift them all because I don't want to leave it to chance.

My questions regarding timing come in because everything I've read says to wait two weeks after frost to dig. Since the frost didn't kill them, I'm not sure if I should wait two weeks after the drought killed them lol.

And silly me, I did NOT cut back the dead foliage because I wasn't sure if I could lift them in a timely manner, and worried about rain and rot, etc. And this when we haven't had rain in months lol. Doh.

I'm not overly concerned, just curious. And I'm actually a bit more confident this year thanks to a thread last year posted by rouge. Because of that discussion I did an experiment where I dug a few of my dahlias before frost, and stored them as I usually do. In the spring I had a fairly good success rate, comparable to the success rate of the tubers that waited for frost. I've actually already pulled about 3 or 4 smaller plants that were in the way when I was planting some new stuff in the garden.

Ironically, when I got up this morning I saw frost on my neighbor's roof, so this whole post may be moot lol if the garden got hit. I shall see shortly. Of course, being the questioner that I am, the thoughts rolling in my brain now are, hmm, do I NOW wait two weeks because the frost hit, or have I passed the two-week window because they were already dead....? I am indeed the Queen of Overthinkers lol. Which is at least one reason I have another crown - the Queen of Procrastinators...

:)

Dee
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