One of the best things about Dahlias is the ability to quickly grow your stock by sprouting tubers and taking cuttings. If you’re new to the process here’s everything you need to know to get started.
Sprouting Dahlia Tubers
To start, let’s make sure we know a few important things about Dahlias. First, while you can grow dahlias from seed, most growers choose to use tubers. The tuber always creates an exact match of the flower, so you know exactly what you’re getting.
Tubers range from $5-25 depending on the variety, so it’s certainly no small investment. Luckily, you can take cuttings from tubers and drastically increase your number of plants.
That’s what we do and in just two years we’ve gone from a dozen dahlias to hundreds of plants. And to top it all off, cuttings still create tubers so you can exponentially expand your stock.
Even if you’re not taking cuttings, it can help to sprout your dahlia tubers if you have a short growing season like we do. At 8,000 feet, every day counts when you’re trying to grow dahlias in Colorado!
Supplies Needed for Sprouting Dahlias
It doesn’t take a lot sprout dahlia tubers, but it helps to have a few basics.
These include:
- Pots – 2.5-inch pots work great when working with single tubers. For larger clumps you’ll either need to divide the tuber or size up to gallon size pots.
- Potting soil – We’ve used a variety soils and they’ve all worked well, but we’ve especially seen good results with this potting soil from Fox Farms.
Waking Up Dahlias
Okay, now that you have your tubers and your supplies ready, it’s time to wake up your dahlias. Whether you’ve been storing them over winter or just purchased them, the process is the same.
Bring them into a warm room – anywhere from 60-70 degrees is great. Place them out of direct light and let them sit for a few days. The warmer temperatures will signal to the dahlia that it’s time to get growing.
Potting Up Dahlias
Now comes the fun part. Fill your pots with soil and organize your dahlias.
You’ll want to mark the variety so that you can keep track of what is growing.
Stick the dahlia down in the soil, leaving an inch or two above the surface. It’s imperative that the “eye” of the tuber is out of the soil, as this is what sprouts.
The eye of a dahlia looks like a little black or red bump. Imagine a sprouting potato, it’s very similar to that.
Water lightly and leave in a warm place (but avoid bottom heat). Once sprouts appear, you can move the tubers to a bright window or greenhouse.
Stay tuned for part two where I cover everything you need to know about taking Dahlia cuttings.
