dahlia cuttings from tuber

[adrianhumph]

Hi all,  :)
                 I have started off in a plant pot 2 dahlia tubers, they are set just below the surface of the compost, on GW, Alice, showed how to take cuttings from these as they grow. Do I take off all the new growth,  and plant the tuber as deep as I would a dormant one? Or do I only take some as cuttings & then plant the tuber, burying the growth that I have left on? Or do i plant the tuber the same depth as it is now, that is just below the surface?

                                                                           Confused ??? Adrian.

[adrianhumph]

[hopalong]

I assume you mean softwood cuttings? You remove the first shoots when they are 3 or 4 inches tall, usually in early spring. Cut above the the lowest node but leave a bud on the tuber.  After you have taken the cuttings keep the tuber in a warm moist place.  I leave the tuber in a box of moist compost in the shed, with the top exposed above the surface, until new shoots appear, then give it a foliar feed before planting out.

This year I just left the tubers in the ground under a thick mulch and didn't take any basal stem or softwood cuttings.  Despite the worryingly cold winter weather which I feared might have killed them off, the shoots are showing through strongly now.

[adrianhumph]

Hi hopalong, :)
                       Thanks for replying, I think you have hit the nail
on the head, I didn`t think i should be burying the foliage, I need to sever the softwood cuttings but leave enough new growth on the tuber to begin growing again.
                          Regards, Adrian.

[Tee Gee]

There are a few ways to propagate Dahlias here are three of them;
http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Dahlias/Dahlia%20propagation/dahlia%20propagation.html

http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Dahlias/Dahlias.htm

http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Dahlias%20(bedding)/Dahlias%20(bedding).htm

[Digeroo]

Many thanks  you reminded me, I have just taken a cutting from a tuber that a neighbour left on my door step. 

I came home last week and found them waiting for me.  What a lovely present that was.

I think they are Bishop of Landaff, anyway they are bright red.