Dahlias are flowers that are unpretentious in summer, but in late autumn they require increased attention from the gardener. A large amount of work is due to the fact that dahlia, being a heat-loving crop, cannot remain in the open ground in winter. On the eve of frost, the plant is dug up and stored until spring in the basement or apartment - whichever is more convenient. Proper care of dahlias in the fall and preparation for winter of one of the most beloved crops by flower growers is a guarantee that next year the plant will surprise with its rare decorativeness.
Necessary activities for preparing dahlias for winter
First of all, in the fall, care is needed for the area where dahlias are grown. It needs to be prepared for winter:
remove leaf litter;
clear of weeds and debris;
hill up the ridges;
apply fertilizers;
dig up the tubers.
Propagation by dahlia tubers:
At the end of September, the stems are trimmed at a distance of 10-12 cm from the root collar and the tubers are carefully dug out. They are dried and stored in a ventilated area at a temperature from +3 to +7°C.
Experienced gardeners recommend immersing the tubers in an aqueous fungicide solution for 10-15 minutes. If the tuber does not drown, you can safely throw it away; it won’t survive until spring. Then the roots need to be dried and can be stored for winter storage. Shortly before planting, the tuber is divided into two or three parts with a sharp knife so that on each separated piece there remains a piece of the root collar with two or three “eyes”.
Dahlias are planted in open ground in late May-early June, when the danger of frost has passed. Dig a hole the length of a spade bayonet, if necessary, add manure and superphosphate to the hole, mix, water generously, drive in a support about 150 cm long to secure the future bush. Then a tuber is planted in the hole.
For early flowering, tubers can be pre-germinated by planting them in light soil and covering them with polyethylene (you must leave a hole for ventilation and spray them periodically). The distance between plants is selected depending on the variety - from 20 cm for dwarf dahlias to 90 cm for tall ones.
Autumn care for dahlias
In order for dahlia rhizomes to survive the winter safely, they should be thoroughly prepared in advance . Preparatory activities consist of the following manipulations:
- Cleaning the area. About a couple of weeks before the expected day of digging, the ground under the bushes needs to be put in order, removing all fallen leaves, twigs, dried flowers and petals, in general, all accumulated plant debris. Spores of fungal infections are well preserved in this litter (as the temperature drops, this flower crop becomes especially susceptible to them), and all kinds of pests like to settle in it for the winter, which then easily migrate to the rhizomes of dahlias.
- Watering. With the onset of autumn, the flower does not need additional moisture, since excess moisture can lead to waterlogging of the root collar, and then rotting of the rhizomes. Stop watering approximately 1.5–2 weeks before digging. If it rains constantly, then the plants need to be covered with polyethylene.
- Fertilizers. In autumn, dahlias are not fed, so as not to provoke unnecessary shoot growth and to allow the tubers to ripen quietly. The last fertilizers of the potassium-phosphorus group are applied at the end of summer or beginning of autumn (a month and a half before digging), the granules are dissolved in a bucket of water (consumption per bush - 2-3 l): superphosphate - 15-20 g;
- potassium sulfate - 10–15 g.
In order for dahlias to bloom luxuriously next year, they need to be well cared for in the fall.
Digging begins 15–20 days after pruning, allowing the tubers to ripen well . The time for work is determined by local climatic conditions:
- in northern latitudes, where the first frosts are likely already at the end of August, dahlias are dug up towards the end of September;
- in the middle zone this can be done a little later - until the second decade of October;
- in southern regions with mild and long autumns, flowers are left in the ground until the end of October or even the beginning of November.
In the harsh Siberian climate, dahlias need to be dug up in the last week of September. It is impossible to keep them in the ground for a long time, because sometimes decent frosts (down to -10 °C) occur already in October. Even hilled plants will not survive them.
The excavation technology is as follows:
- The bush is dug around the perimeter with a pitchfork, retreating 0.3–0.35 m from the center.
- Carefully remove. There is no need to pull the stems so as not to tear them off along with the buds emerging on the root collar.
Dahlias are carefully dug up using a pitchfork
- Use your hands to carefully remove the soil.
- Use a sharp and disinfected instrument to remove rotten areas.
- Disinfect for 30–40 minutes in a solution of potassium permanganate (bright pink) or treat with Maxim, XOM, etc. (according to the instructions). The cut areas are sprinkled with crushed coal.
- Lay out to dry. It is advisable to attach a tag with the name of the variety to each plant.
- They are put away for the winter in a box with sawdust or sand. You can wrap the tubers in several layers of paper or newspapers, treat them with paraffin or chicken protein. The room must maintain optimal humidity (about 60–70%) and temperature (+4…+9 °C).
Well-dried dahlia rhizomes are placed in boxes and put away for winter storage.
Some gardeners prefer to thoroughly wash the dug out dahlia rhizomes, removing all remaining soil. Others consider this procedure harmful, since it damages the cambium, and then the tubers are stored worse.
How to dig up dahlias for the winter
If you planted dahlias correctly in the spring, then a wooden stake should remain in the center of the bush (remember that when planting dahlias, a stake is first driven into the planting hole, and then the rhizomes are planted). The stems of the plant are tied to this stake. In the fall, they all need to be trimmed and the stake pulled out.
Remember that the very value of the dahlia is not in the roots, but in those buds that arise on the root collar (the place where the trunk passes into the roots). Therefore, under no circumstances should you pull on a bush when you dig it up. Different varieties of dahlias have very thin and fragile necks moving from the roots to the stems. They will simply break off and there will be nothing left to store. If this happens, then there is no point in storing only tubers, just throw them away and that’s it.
To prevent this from happening, be sure to cut the stems at a height of 10-15 cm from the ground before digging. Do this with regular pruning shears, but if the stems are too thick (this happens too), you can use a garden saw.
Then use only a pitchfork or shovel. You need to retreat 30 centimeters from the stem, because the rhizomes diverge to the sides and can be damaged. If you work with a pitchfork, the risk of this decreases.
Having dug in from all sides, carefully remove the earthen ball with roots. Do everything without haste, first stir up the bush so as not to cause unnecessary damage. Pull out the lump of earth with a shovel, and then remove all the soil from the roots with your hands. Afterwards, it is advisable to rinse it with a hose.
However, some gardeners do not do this, placing dahlia rhizomes in containers directly with a lump of earth. They store it this way in the basement, and the tubers overwinter well and are stored until spring. But it all depends on the conditions and storage capabilities.
Protection from early frosts
In autumn there is a danger of damage to dahlias from early frosts.
In some areas this may happen as early as the end of August or the first half of September. But at this time there may still be many growing, small buds on the dahlia bush. It would be a shame if they were damaged and the flowers did not bloom. Therefore, it is necessary to take measures to protect dahlias from autumn night frosts. To do this, the bush is simply covered with spunbond covering material. If you can do this daily, then do so. If you are leaving the dacha for the whole week, then you can cover the dahlias for several days.
One layer of spunbond is enough to protect dahlias from frost. Just wrap the entire bush, tying it along the top with twine. There is no need to press the covering material too tightly so as not to damage the flowers or break the shoots. The lower part can be pressed to the ground with stones.
This way you can protect your dahlias from early autumn frosts.
Dahlias in the garden in autumn
How to label tubers
Labeling of tubers is needed if you grow several varieties of dahlias in a flowerbed. If you mark the planting material, you will not re-sort the flowers. Mark strong tubers in a special way, for example, with an asterisk or a tick. So, you can use them for cuttings in the spring.
If you simply numbered the tubers, then the markings need to be written down in a notebook. In this case, in the spring you will be able to understand which type of flower is which and correctly plant them in the beds.
There are recommendations to fill the space between the tubers with sand or sawdust. Probably a lot depends on humidity, but I myself store dahlias without it.
It is important to periodically inspect the planting material. If in the middle of winter damaged areas are found on the tubers, they are cut out, the sections are disinfected with a pink solution of potassium permanganate and sprinkled with crushed coal. The sand in the box is replaced with fresh sand. When the tubers dry out, moisten the sand.
Dahlias are considered troublesome flowers, since they must be dug up in time in the fall and properly prepared for winter. However, there is nothing complicated about this, you just need to do everything carefully and carefully.
Can dahlias be stored in the refrigerator? Popular methods: how to store dahlias after digging?
Storing dahlias in paper and plastic bags
Clean, dried and suberized tubers should be placed in paper or a bag and the free space should be filled with vermiculite.
If it is not available, you can use dry peat, but the quality of the tubers will deteriorate slightly. Then tie it with a thick thread and transfer it to a cool room. The optimal temperature for this storage method is 5–7ºС; if it rises above, the dahlia tubers will dry out and will be unsuitable for further planting. In the third decade of January, the root tubers need to be moved to a warm room and germination and cuttings should begin. The waste rate for such storage is considered to be 10% of the total mass.
Wintering in paraffin
Before processing, the tubers should be placed in a warm room with a temperature of 15ºC for at least a day; if it is higher, the buds will begin to swell.
Next, divide, spread out the roots to dry the fresh sections and label. Then begin preparing the material for the future shell - melt the candles. To avoid overheating of paraffin, it must be heated in a double-walled metal container on an electric stove with a closed heating element to a temperature of 70–80ºС. When it is ready, lower the roots one by one for a few seconds into the container, take it out, give the layer time to harden and repeat the operation. After this, place the roots in a cardboard box and move them to the coldest place in the house. Paraffin will increase the shelf life of dahlia tubers and retain the necessary moisture.
Storing dahlias in a clay shell
To avoid drying out of the root tubers in winter, they can be covered with clay. After digging up the dahlias, you need to remove the soil from them, dry them for 3-4 hours and soak them in a saturated solution of potassium permanganate for 10-12 hours. Then dip each root tuber into a clay mash with the addition of one of the fungicides, dry until a hard crust forms and transfer to the basement or veranda. In the spring you need to break the clay crust, remove it and start planting.
Methods and conditions for storing dahlias in winter
- Clay mash: water with clay (like sour cream).
- Or technical paraffin: melt in a saucepan with water, do not bring to a boil.
Of course, we won’t process large giants this way: they won’t fit into the pan. This processing method will allow you to store small dahlia roots in an apartment, for example on an insulated balcony. Not everyone has a suitable cool room in their garden.
In the spring, when planting, we do not remove the paraffin, we plant it like this. And we carefully free the roots from the clay - not a complicated process. We have processed it and then choose how to store dahlias in winter. Or rather, we decide where we put it away and how we pack it. Let's discuss several well-known and not so well-known methods.
Winter storage rules
Care during the winter months is minimal, but it also requires the implementation of certain rules.
Preparing the container
Before storing dahlias, you need to prepare the containers in which they will be stored. These can be wooden boxes or cardboard boxes with newsprint on the bottom. A layer of sand, sawdust, dried peat or vermiculite is laid out on the paper. Tubers are placed on top in one layer. It is advisable that they do not touch each other: this will protect them from emerging diseases even if one specimen is already affected.
The roots are sprinkled with slaked lime or the “Fito Plus” preparation for storing the crop. The empty space between the rhizomes is filled with the same material that was laid out below (vermiculite, peat, sawdust, etc.).
Choosing a storage location
The ideal room for storing dahlias is a basement with a temperature of 3-7°C. The main parameter important in care is air humidity. It should not be low and be in the range of 60-80%. It is this humidity that will not allow dahlias to dry out quickly.
Another important parameter is good ventilation. If the basement is not equipped with normal ventilation, then it should be ventilated frequently, at least twice a week. You can periodically turn on a regular fan, which will force the air to move inside the room.
Not everyone has a suitable basement, so many gardeners are forced to store flowers in their home or apartment. It is necessary to choose a place where the temperature will not rise above 15°C all winter. It is necessary that there are no heating radiators nearby, which dry out the air and can raise the temperature to a critical level. Unheated corridors and verandas are good for this.
Care during storage
Once you put the tubers away for the winter, you shouldn’t forget about them. Once or twice a month, you need to inspect each rhizome to identify rot and fungal damage. If such places are found, they are cut out with a knife disinfected in a solution of potassium permanganate to healthy tissue and sprinkled with crushed charcoal. After this, the substrate must be replaced with a new one, since microbes that cause the disease may remain in it.
If it is found that the dahlias have dried out and their surface is slightly wrinkled, this does not mean that the planting material is ruined. The substrate is moistened with a spray bottle so that it becomes slightly damp. This procedure will restore density and normal turgor to the roots.
It may seem that autumn care and care during the winter months is too troublesome, but the flowering of dahlias next year will be a worthy reward for all the work.
Preparing the soil before planting
It is better to think about where to plant dahlias in the fall, since the soil must be dug up in advance and garden compost or well-rotted manure added to it. With the arrival of spring, the soil must be loosened with a pitchfork and bone meal added. In order to protect dahlia tubers from damage by wireworms or onion root mites, insecticides in granules can be added to the soil.
Also take into account what plants grew in this place before the dahlias. If there are roses or fruit crops that have suffered from any diseases, then it is necessary to treat the soil with formaldehyde, copper sulfate solution or potassium permanganate.
Preparing tubers before planting
Dahlias can be grown from seeds, tubers and cuttings. Those who have been growing these flowers for several years now know that it is better to prepare planting material in advance, and with the onset of spring, plant the already prepared material in open soil. To prepare the tubers for planting, towards the end of April they are brought into a warm room, laid out in boxes and sprinkled a little with a mixture of peat and sand, leaving the root collars exposed. It is necessary to maintain a moist state for two weeks in order for the eyes to hatch.
Tubers with sprouted eyes are cut with a sharp sterile knife into individual tubers so that 2-3 eyes remain on each piece of tuber. If the tuber is large, you can cut it lengthwise so that there is one eye at a time. Long tubers can be shortened to 10-15 cm to stimulate root growth and the formation of new tubers. The cut areas must be dried for a couple of days, sprinkled with charcoal.
Now you can plant the separated tubers in pots, which must be placed in a well-lit, warm room.
If planting occurs in boxes, separate the tubers from each other with partitions to prevent the roots from intertwining.
When the buds begin to grow, no more than two of the largest buds are left on each shoot, the rest are broken off. This measure is necessary so that the shoots receive adequate nutrition and develop well. Such bushes will bloom better in the future. And the tubers of such plants turn out to be full-fledged, capable of being well preserved.
Treatment of tubers before storage
This is where neighbors usually wait for me, asking for dahlias during the summer. For experienced gardeners, I immediately separate the necessary fragments with pruning shears. For those who have recently taken up floriculture, I ask you to wait and process the tubers yourself.
For this:
- the roots are cleared from the soil; if it crumbles badly, then I wash it in a bucket or basin with cool water;
- I use pruning shears to separate the segments immediately after removing them from the ground;
- to disinfect, I immerse the material in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for 40-45 minutes;
- as an alternative to potassium permanganate, you can take the drugs “Maxim” or “Hom”, which eliminate fungal infections and prevent the development of rot;
- For a day, the material is laid out to dry in a shady, well-ventilated place (you cannot dry it near a heating system or a working oven);
- To better preserve the dahlia rhizomes, I make a paraffin “coat” for them, dipping the tubers one at a time into a melted and slightly cooled mass of paraffin.
I know that many gardeners sometimes use chicken protein for these purposes, but I have never tried it because I store the preparations in the cellar, and mice sometimes appear there. For me, paraffin is more reliable.
Planting dahlias in open ground
In spring, dahlias are planted in warm, sun-warmed soil. They can be pre-germinated before planting for a month in greenhouse conditions. You can also plant unsprouted tubers.
It is necessary to peel and divide the bulbs into sections. Check the soil temperature. It must be at least ten degrees. We make a hole 40x40 and install a peg on the north side. The height of the peg depends on the type of dahlia.
At the bottom of the hole we put manure, a little ash, lime, superphosphate and complex fertilizer. Mix everything thoroughly and plant the division to a depth of 6-8 cm. Maintain a distance between tubers of 50-90 cm, depending on the height of future dahlias. For irrigation you need four to five liters of water.
After planting dahlias, the first shoots appear within two weeks. Be sure to tie them to stakes and continue to do so as they grow. To protect against frost after planting, cover them with insulation.
Following these simple rules will allow you to grow magnificent flowers on your site that will delight you with their lush inflorescences until late autumn.
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