How To Save Early Sprouted Dahlia Tubers

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Dahlias in a hurry

Many gardeners store the tubers of their favorite dahlias in city apartments because there is nowhere else to store them. And it often happens that it is still far from spring, but they, dahlias, are already awake.

Early varieties wake up especially quickly. First, buds appeared on the root collar, then they turned into plump seedlings. And if urgent measures are not taken, these seedlings will soon become long, skinny stalks, from which there will be little use.

Therefore, you need to immediately put the tubers in the brightest and preferably cool place. The shoots will begin to change color, "tan" in the light. In white and yellow-flowered varieties, they will turn light green, in red, purple - dark red.

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The growth rate of shoots will stop, but slowly they will still grow even in the light, depleting the tubers. If there is still a lot of time before the dahlias are planted in the ground, we can start a "rescue operation" using the cuttings procedure.

Cutting is not only saving tubers from depletion, and stems from overgrowing. It is also a way of breeding valuable varieties. To do this, they even force the tubers to specially wake up ahead of time: they moisten the mother bushes, put them in a warm place so that they give shoots. But the most valuable quality of cuttings is that it saves varieties from degeneration. After all, if from year to year the bush is propagated only by dividing the nest of tubers into delenki, then the root tuber gradually grows old, the flowers become smaller, the plants often get sick and, in the end, die during winter storage.

Cuttings are the salvation from aging. It promotes the rejuvenation of the root tuber. It is better to cut in March, or even in April, because there is a lot of sunshine this month. Cuttings take root faster, and experienced growers say that April cuttings give excellent results.

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Gardeners have long mastered cuttings in all sorts of ways. And they found that the best result is obtained if you cut it in this way: wait until the stem grows to 5-7 cm.

Longer and shorter stems are more difficult to root. Then this stalk must be carefully broken off, and it is better to cut it with a piece of tuber, i.e. with a "heel". Such cuttings rot less often and take root better than without a "heel". It is helpful to dip the tip of the stem into a root or other root stimulant.

Now the stalk needs to be rooted. To do this, take a pot with a diameter of 10 cm, you can - peat. We fill it with nutritious soil - I take the same one as for tomatoes or cucumbers. Then I push a hole in the ground three times larger than the diameter of the cutting, 3-5 cm deep. I insert the cutting there so that it does not touch the ground and so that its top 3–4 cm high sticks out above the soil surface. I fill up the space around the stem sand, previously washed with boiling water and dried. This is necessary so that the stalk does not rot. I water and cover with a transparent glass. I put it on a pallet in a bright place.

The best temperature for rooting is + 18 … + 22 ° С. I regularly monitor what is happening under the glass. If necessary, I water or spray with clean water. Usually, after 10-11 days, the leaves on the top of the head bloom, at the bottom of the pot you can see white roots that break through the hole or through the wall of the pot.

If several shoots have grown on the tubers, even at different times, they can also be put on cuttings. Plants grown from such first cuttings usually have an excellent nest of young tubers by autumn, which winters well.

If you nevertheless "missed" the time when the tubers awakened, and white elongated shoots were found on the nest of tubers, then you can try to save them in this way: choose the thickest and not too elongated stems and do with them all the operations that were discussed above. They take much longer to take root, but still something can be saved.

Rooted plants need to be placed in the brightest place, the shelter should be gradually removed and taken care of, as for ordinary indoor flowers: water as needed, feed.

The concentration of fertilizers should be three times weaker than what is written in the fertilizer instructions for adult plants. Young dahlias should not be overfed, since such overfed specimens develop many small roots, which later simply dry out during winter storage.

After a while, near the broken cuttings, stems of the second order are formed from spare dormant buds. It is better not to take these stems for cuttings, because they will have problems with the formation of full-fledged root tubers. There will require special rearing, i.e. additional trouble, but we do not need it.

Plants grown from cuttings are very strong, they grow and bloom well, and their flowers are larger and brighter than those of plants grown from tubers. And one more convenience of this method: you have to do it in the winter, when we are not overloaded with other work in the garden.