"lowlife" wrote in message
...

hi i was talking to someone about dahlia tubers today, who said that
they have potted their tubers already, and hope to take and grow
cuttings. I think they do it to sell the cuttings rather than plant.
I've had a quick look on another dahlia website, and it seems simple to
grow and take cuttings. It doesn't say what you do with the tubers once
you've taken the cuttings from them.


You only need to take cuttings if you want extra plants.
I would recommend just planting the tubers out in May as normal and see
what you get. If you really like some of them, then use cuttings next year
to get more.
Dahlias take very easily from cuttings. You can also split tubers to
increase the numer of plants.

I'm new to gardening and dahlias, and just dug up and split the tubers
out so that they survived as much as anything else. the plants had
obviously been left in over winter for a couple of years, and the
tubers were a tangled mess. Am i right in thinking that only the fat
tubers will be any good?

They might all be ok.
When you pot them, you usually get a few shoots per tuber.

or should i pot some of the weaker looking ones and try and grow
cuttings from them?
i don't know what happens when you pot them, do you get only one shoot
from each tuber?
and then if that is removed, is the tuber useless? or could it still
grow another in time for the season?

i know some of the dahlias were show flowers, but some had grown from
dropped seeds and were no longer true to type. I have no intention of
showing them, but it seems daft not to keep them as they were
intended.
also the ground i dug them from is still bare, should i grow something
in here as cover or to aid the soil until i'm ready to plant out. i
would appreciate any help thanks.

Nothing much will grow there between now and the Dahlias being ready, apart
from weeds.
Just dig it and dig in some organic matter and remove any weeds.






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lowlife