Flower growers are happy to see colorful and lovely dahlia inflorescences in their backyard flower garden. According to legend, this charming flower grew on the site of the last fire, which died out during the onset of the ice. Its tubers were able to be well preserved under the ice, and after the retreat of the ice cap to give their first sprouts, multiplying over time and delighting us today with their lovely flowering. Perhaps that is why dahlias are considered a symbol of the all-conquering power of life.
Today there is a wide variety of forms and color range dahlia. Small and large, spherical and cactus... There are many of them, and each of them is capable of pleasing the eye, enjoying their beauty and unique aroma.
Dahlias bloom profusely in an elevated and well-lit place, in nutritious soil with sufficient moisture. But in order to get good result, it is not at all necessary to buy fresh seeds from year to year and grow them, as they say, “from scratch.” Today we will talk about how to store dahlia tubers, how to prepare them for planting, and we will also dwell in more detail on the process of cutting dahlias, which allows us to obtain more planting material and rejuvenate old plants.
Proper preparation of tubers for wintering
So, the flowering season of your dahlias is already over, and now you need to properly prepare the tubers for wintering. After the first autumn frost, when the dahlia bushes begin to freeze and take on an unsightly dark appearance, the shoots must be cut at a height of 15 cm from the soil. After this, take a bayonet shovel and carefully so as not to damage underground part, dig around the bush on all sides and slowly remove the tubers from the ground.
Carefully clean them of any remaining soil, being careful not to damage the surface. After you have thus dug up the tubers of all your dahlias, pour water into a large bowl and gently rinse the rhizomes. Prepare a bright solution of potassium permanganate and place the tubers in a container for half an hour. Experienced flower growers recommend not to miss this moment, contrary to the existing opinion that tubers with soil residues are better preserved in basement until spring. However, washing with water followed by treatment in a solution of potassium permanganate helps to destroy pathogens that live in the soil!!!
After the dahlia tubers have stood in the potassium permanganate solution, you need to select them and turn them upside down with the rhizomes facing up and give them time to dry thoroughly naturally.
Carefully inspect the rhizomes of the tubers and carefully remove any of them that have undergone rotting or mechanical damage. Treat the cut areas with charcoal powder. Experienced gardeners recommend separating such tubers from healthy ones and storing them in a separate container.
Place them in containers in one row and sprinkle with pine sawdust. This promotes free breathing of the rhizomes and prevents them from drying out. If you live in a city apartment, you can store prepared tubers in boxes on the balcony.
There is another way to store tubers - waxing. This method allows you to store dug tubers even in warm room with high humidity.
But to use this storage method, you need to slightly change the method of preparing tubers for waxing. First, you will need to remove the stems right down to the bud belt. Then delete sharp knife all damage and divide the tubers into parts, focusing on the root collars. Rinse all received planting material plain water and immerse it in a solution of potassium permanganate for 15 minutes.
After all parts have dried well naturally, treat them thoroughly with paraffin as follows:
- heat the paraffin in a water bath,
- prepare a container with cold water,
- dip the prepared parts of the tubers in hot paraffin and immediately transfer them to cold water,
- spread a cotton cloth on the table and lay out the tubers to dry,
- place the prepared paraffin tubers in a plastic bag and sprinkle them with dry peat,
- Tie the bags tightly and store them in a convenient place in your room.
Tubers prepared using this method are well preserved throughout the winter. Before planting, it is not recommended to remove the paraffin shell, but to plant it in the ground in the same form.
How to create favorable conditions for germination of tubers?
It is not at all difficult to germinate well-preserved dahlia tubers - you just need to take them out of storage and transfer them to the conditions room temperature. But, if after inspection you find damage, then you should definitely remove it with the tip of a knife and treat it with brilliant green. Let the tubers dry thoroughly, place them in low boxes in one row and sprinkle with a little substrate prepared in equal proportions from peat and sand.
If there is such a possibility, then favorable conditions Coconut fiber is used to germinate tubers. Plant dahlia tubers in it without immersing the upper part of the root collar, on which the regenerating buds are located. Water the substrate generously, making sure that the water does not get directly onto the root tubers.
The containers should be placed in a sunny window. The most favorable temperature for germination is +22 - 24 degrees Celsius.
Periodically spray the top of the tubers with water at room temperature from a spray bottle, which stimulates the development of shoots from the buds, which are located on the root collar.
As soon as you notice that the shoots have begun to move and grow, it is recommended to reduce the frequency of spraying and lower the storage temperature to +16*C. To obtain high-quality shoots that will be suitable for dahlia cuttings, root tubers need to increase daylight hours. For this purpose, as a rule, phytolamps or fluorescent lamps are used, placing them above the plants at a distance of 40 cm.
Cuttings of dahlias - methods and rules
After 2-3 weeks, you will notice how shoots with internodes will begin to develop from the buds. When the height of the shoots is at least 10 centimeters, you can begin the procedure of cutting dahlias.
The procedure for cutting dahlias can be carried out in two ways:
- Cut with the edge of a knife.
- Break out with a piece of root tuber.
More effective way cuttings from dahlias is the second option, because cuttings obtained by breaking them out take root faster.
However, both methods are good, as long as the process itself is effective. Of course, more developed and powerful shoots take root much faster and develop well.
So, carefully separate the shoot, capturing a small part of the rhizome. Please ensure that when cutting dahlias, the cutting line is located under the leaf node and at a distance of approximately 5 mm from the leaves. This way you will be able to achieve faster root formation.
If the shoots are located at a close distance on the tuber, it is recommended to first cut off the entire group, and then carefully divide them into petioles.
After the cutting procedure is completed, carefully remove their lower leaves and sprinkle the bases with Kornevin. Now transplant the workpieces into containers with substrate, carefully compacting the soil at the base. The planting density should be carried out in such a way that the leaves of the cuttings do not touch each other. Cover the container plastic film and set aside for rooting in a warm and lighted place. As soon as you notice that there is a lot of condensation on the film, remove it, carefully wipe it, water the cuttings, and cover it again with dry film. Over time, you will be able to watch new shoots begin to emerge from the mother plant, which you can also use for cuttings after a few weeks.
Transplanting cuttings into separate pots
After your cuttings have completely taken root, remove the cover, and after a few weeks you can begin the most exciting process - replanting into separate small pots. During planting, the cuttings must be lowered into the substrate to the level lower leaves. If your cuttings are tall enough, you can provide supports for them and carefully tie them.
Now take the pots with cuttings to indoor balcony and provide them with a temperature of +17*C - the process of gradually preparing the plant for open conditions. Do not forget to periodically water and spray them, feed them 1-2 times a month with mineral and organic fertilizers.
Planting cuttings in open ground
The period of possible night frosts has already passed, and our plants are already fully prepared to decorate your flower garden. Around the end of May, you can begin gardening work.
Dig holes for the prepared plants, water them generously and install supports for the dahlias. It is important to install supports before planting, not after. This way you will be able to avoid possible mechanical damage to the root.
During planting, the plants must be lowered into the hole to the level of the first pair of developed leaves. By this point, your plants should already have a well-developed root system, so there is no need to worry that during the transplanting process you accidentally destroyed the earthen lump.
Dahlias are beautiful flower, they tolerate the training process well and can very quickly adapt to new conditions.
You have already dealt with the process of cutting dahlias, planted the plants in open ground to your favorite flower garden, and now all you have to do is properly care for your pets, so that they can soon delight you with their diversity abundant flowering. For your young dahlias, you need to provide standard care: periodic watering followed by loosening the soil and regular weeding.
Planting and propagation of this representative of the flora must be carried out according to certain rules. You can grow dahlias by propagating the tuber, the so-called “dividing” (nest of tubers) or from seeds.
Reproduction of dahlias by dividing a nest of tubers
Root tubers grow from the root collar of the central shoot. Propagation of dahlias by cutting tubers is carried out in spring or autumn. In spring, renewal buds are more visible, which allows the division procedure to be carried out with greater accuracy. If the root tubers are divided in the fall, then the cuts made are treated with drugs against diseases and only after that the planting material is stored. ON THE PICTURE: A nest of dahlia tubers prepared for division.
How to properly divide a nest of tubers:
- Dahlias are dug up. The shoot with root tubers is cut off, leaving a stump 5 to 10 cm high, and the root system is washed to remove any remaining soil.
- The cut must be made with a very sharp knife. Before dividing each plant, the blade must be disinfected by fire or by keeping it in strong solution potassium permanganate.
- The stem is cut in half lengthwise so that renewal buds remain on both sides.
- Each half is divided into two or more parts. In this case, each division should have at least one bud and 2–3 root tubers. There is no need to leave any more tubers. The large root system will not receive enough nutrition and the bush will develop more slowly.
- IMPORTANT: Do not leave tubers without renewal buds - without buds, the tubers are useless and can be thrown away . This applies to both purchased dahlias and those grown in your own garden.
Propagation of dahlias by delenka tubers is practiced more often than other methods. It is quite simple and gives almost 100% survival rate of plants.
Growing dahlias from tubers - cutting sprouts
Propagation of dahlias by cuttings occurs in the following order:
- Selected root tubers are placed in individual containers half filled with nutrient substrate. They are sprinkled with earth on top so that a third of the tuber remains outside.
- The containers are transferred to a well-lit room with a temperature of +20°C.
- Plants are provided with regular soil moisture. It is important to avoid stagnation of water so as not to provoke rotting.
- When the height of the sprouts is 5–10 cm, they are carefully broken out at the base (cut ones take root worse).
- Separated dahlia cuttings are planted in small pots for growing.
- Steady when advancing warm weather the strengthened seedlings are moved to permanent place in the garden.
ON THE PICTURE:
Growing dahlias from tubers followed by cuttings is the fastest and most obvious method of propagation.
Video: propagation of dahlias by tubers and shoots
Growing dahlias from seeds
Growing dahlias from seeds is practiced for obtaining new varieties, propagating dwarf dahlias, or for growing as annual plants, if you organize excavation and proper storage root tubers was difficult.
ON THE PICTURE: Dahlia seedlings, ready for planting in individual pots.
You can grow dahlias from seeds following the plan:
- At the end of February - March, dahlia seeds are sown in containers with prepared soil.
- Grown seedlings are planted in separate pots (you can use peat, or better yet, coconut tablets).
- Grow in a warm, bright room until the end of May.
- At the end of May, they are planted in open ground.
NOTE: Growing dahlias from seeds allows you to get flowering bush already in the first season, but the tubers of such a plant will not have time to form before frost (this is especially true in the central zone of Russia, to the southern border of the Voronezh region). If you want to save the plant, dig it up BEFORE the first frost and keep in a cool, bright room at a temperature of +5 to +8 ° C in a small container (an ordinary plastic bucket can also be used). The upper vegetative part may remain green or partially dry out; there is no need to cut it off completely. Keep the substrate slightly moist until spring. In early spring protect against premature growth. Plant the bush only when the soil warms up to +15°C.
Hello, dear friends!
Typically, propagation of dahlias is carried out in two main ways: dividing tubers and cuttings. The latter is considered more productive - it allows you to get up to 40 cuttings from one plant. Dahlias propagated by tuberous cuttings bloom better and have almost identical characteristics of the mother variety.
It is better to take cuttings of the flower forms you like in mid-winter - January or early February. Root tubers are placed in pots with soil substrate purchased from a garden pavilion or peat, having previously been disinfected with the “Maxim” preparation. The root collar is buried halfway. For productive shoot formation, it is advisable to spray the plantings with the Zircon stimulant, then carry out a similar irrigation daily with settled water. If possible, planting material is covered with transparent cups, providing greenhouse comfort for the vegetative reproduction of dahlias.
When the emerging sprouts stretch up to 10 cm, they are cut off stationery knife diagonally, leaving a few millimeters at the base: in the area of the cut, the development of new buds will continue, which ensures large shoot formation. After the initial separation of the root cuttings, the planting material is again sprayed with the Zircon solution.
For rooting received during propagation of dahlias green cuttings usually require 3 weeks. To do this, each sprout is buried in a moist substrate, placing it in separate narrow containers. Dahlias are heat-loving, their ancestry has Mexican and Colombian roots, so rooting plantings need to be provided with warmth and light.
It is premature to transfer grown seedlings to an open flower garden in May; even the smallest temperature drops can lead to a fatal outcome. Before planting, the cuttings are pre-incubated by placing them in a closed, sunny veranda or greenhouse, where they are gradually hardened by opening the windows, first during the day and then at night. They are then transferred to the planned growing areas when the weather turns into summer.
Dahlias grow comfortably in mineral-enriched sandy and loamy soil structure in areas open to the sun. Root and tuberous forms of vegetation are very susceptible to infection by pathogenic strains of fungi, so it is better to completely exclude the use of manure, litter and mullein from the diet. From huge selection When feeding in retail, it is easy to select suitable complex formulations, and use urea, green fertilizers and natural plant compost as nitrogen.
Rooted cuttings - seedlings - are buried in prepared holes up to the first pair of formed leaves, half a meter apart and watered abundantly. In the first week of adaptation, young dahlias are irrigated regularly. Throughout the season, caring for plantings consists of weeding weeds, removing dead and damaged stems, faded inflorescences, fertilizing and infrequent watering.
Growing bushes, especially hybrid forms, need to be tied to stakes, since the dahlia has a poorly developed superficial root system, which is not always able to withstand the volume of leaf and flower mass. A strong harness will ensure a healthy and blooming species plants.
In autumn, flower plantings are highly mulched wood chips or peat crumbs to protect the tubers and the base of the bush from the expected drop in temperatures. Mulching is carried out selectively and only on high-quality, healthy bushes, the varietal forms of which are planned to be bred in the future. They are marked in advance with tags to prevent varietal confusion. All frail, with signs of disease and underdeveloped dahlias are removed from the flower garden by digging up the tubers.
After the first frost, dahlias are cut off, leaving 10-centimeter petioles, and the buds on the root tubers are waited for a week to “ripen.” Then they are dug up for drying and sorting, keeping in mind the signed tags, and are subsequently placed for cold storage in containers with peat chips.
I would be glad if this article is about propagation of dahlias cuttings will be useful to you when working in the garden or flower garden. See you!
In my childhood, when experienced flower growers began to plant dahlias, I bought dahlias from them. I cut cuttings from them and planted them directly in the soil in partial shade, without covering or shading them with anything.
I just watered it from above with a watering can and loosened the soil. When the plants took root, I fed them and then cared for them as usual. By mid-September they had bloomed, but not all of them. But everyone’s nodules were truly a sight to behold - strong! They wintered well.
Autumn cuttings of dahlias
I took cuttings late in the fall from the above-ground parts of the plants (before frost destroyed them). All the same, the greenery dies and has to be destroyed.
I planted the cuttings in pots with soil right in the house. I took containers 25 cm in diameter, and cuttings with 2-3 nodes. After the plants took root, I moved them to a cool, fairly bright room. They spent the winter there.
Spring cuttings of dahlias
At the end of February, I brought dahlia tubers into the house from the basement and put them in boxes for germination in ordinary soil.
When the sprouts reached 10-15 cm in height, I carefully trimmed them so as not to damage the dormant buds - without a “heel”, but quite low.
I also drew cuttings from the dahlias that had been in the house since the fall. She set them all to take root in a known way- in glasses.
Time passed, and on the nodules from the basement, which had already been given cuttings for reproduction, many shoots appeared and successfully developed around the cut one. When they grew to 7-10 cm, I cut them off again and put them to root in water with the addition of aloe juice (1 teaspoon of juice per 2 liters of water).
It was already April. The roots appeared quickly. At the beginning of May, the planting material I prepared went to its summer home in the garden. All the plants were strong and bloomed beautifully. Neighbors asked what the secret of care was: the stems of my dahlias are like young trees.
And the care is usual: water on time, feed, plant, do not plant densely and love your plants.
Dahlias can be propagated by seeds and vegetatively - by cuttings and dividing tubers. The seed propagation method is rarely used and is suitable only for some varieties of dahlias. It is much more reliable to use the vegetative propagation method. it allows you to preserve all varietal properties.
Propagation of dahlias by seeds
The seed propagation method is used only in some cases, because with this propagation method the properties of the varieties are very rarely preserved:
- when growing low-growing non-double dahlias, known as Funny boys ,
- when developing new varieties and hybrids.
Therefore, in practice, dahlias are usually propagated vegetatively - by dividing tubers or cuttings.
Propagation of dahlias by tubers
Timing for propagation of dahlias by tubers
Tuber division is carried out:
- for preliminary growing (in early April),
- or for direct disembarkation in open ground (in end of April - early May).
How to propagate dahlia with tubers
The division of tubers begins when they appear on the root collar (the junction of the root tuber with the above-ground stem). kidneys or sprouts 1-1.5 cm long.
To speed up this process:
- March 15th(or April 1, if the cuttings are planted in open ground), transfer the tubers from storage to a warm room,
- inspect, remove all rotten, damaged parts of the tuber, sprinkle the sections with crushed charcoal and dry 8-12 hours.
- Then dig the tubers into boxes or pots.
Substrate for dahlia tubers it can be:
- garden soil,
- peat,
- sphagnum moss,
- another substrate that retains moisture well.
Planting dahlia tubers
- If you maintain the growing temperature at 18-22°C, then in 1-2 weeks sprouts will appear on the root collar.
- Then the tubers are carefully dug up and cut with a sharp knife so that each part contains a tuber and a piece of root collar with 1-2 eyes (sprouts).
- All cuts are sprinkled with crushed charcoal, the cuttings are planted in pots or tetrapacks with nutritious soil and placed in a bright, cool room.
⇒ Grown and hardened plants in late May - early June planted in open ground.
⇒ Ungrown Dahlia divisions are planted in open ground in early May.
Propagation of dahlias by cuttings
I prefer to propagate dahlias from cuttings.
Advantages of the cutting method when propagating dahlias:
- plants grown from cuttings usually bloom better,
- they are superior in decorative qualities to bushes grown from divided tubers,
- the plant is renewed, which allows the variety to be preserved for decades without losing its valuable qualities.
How to propagate dahlia from cuttings
- IN mid February - early March I take dahlia tubers out of storage,
- I look through, remove rotten parts,
- I plant them by variety in a box, sprinkled 3/4 with soil, i.e., so that the root collar remains uncovered.
At a temperature of 14-18 °C, the buds wake up and shoots begin to grow.
- When 2-3 pairs of leaves develop, and the sprouts reach 6-8 cm, I cut them off at the base; then, at the place of the cut, another 2-4 shoots grow, which I also cut off.
- I place the cut cuttings in bottles with water, where after a while they produce roots, after which they can be planted in pots or cups with nutritious soil.
- I grow cuttings at a temperature of 13-20°C and good lighting.
To speed up root formation, you can use various stimulants, such as heteroauxin, sodium humate, succinic acid or aloe juice (a few drops in a bottle of water).
