Life of the Dahlia-Chapter 5 May

Dahlia News from Eric May 2023

Last year it was rain, rain go away! This year we were blessed with seasonal weather and perfect planting temperatures of 60’s during the day and high 40’s at night. Then high 80’s, go figure! The normal planting period is from May 1st to June 1st, with soil temperatures around 50 to 55 degrees. As of this article, all the of the club gardens have been planted.

I really enjoyed planting my garden again this this year, moving all varieties to new locations. This year I had a dozen new varieties and seedlings from 2022 that I took lots of cutting from. I plant either six tubers of each variety or six cutting plants, or a combination. This year I was able to fit everything in the yard as well as plant my daughter-in-law’s garden to help stock up my inventory of favorite varieties All of the cutting plants are showing signs of new growth with extra warm temperatures.

A good rule of thumb is not to water until new shoots emerge. Watering at the time of planting could possibly cause new tubers to rot! The tuberous roots we have planted tolerate dry soil much better than wet. Unless your soil is extremely dry, and Spring weather is very warm, you should not water at planting time. This heat spell we are experiencing now will be a challenge whether to add water or not. I installed my drip system on Mother’s Day and watered for a short spell to assure everything worked properly. An important note, growers must be patient when plants begin to emerge. DO NOT fall victim to digging around the soil breaking off tender new shoots.

Cultivating you garden will be important later in the month as our friends the weeds begin to appear. Weeds steal water and nutrients needed by your dahlia. Shallow cultivating at this time gets rid of the weeds before they can get established. Cultivation also keeps the soil from compacting if it ever rains again. However, by the time plants are a foot tall, cultivating care must be taken not to disturb the shallow feeder roots of the dahlia.

If you have grown seedlings and/ or cutting for your garden, once acclimated to the outdoors, can be planted now. Growers will break off two sets of leaves and plant the cuttings a little deeper (like a tomato plant). By doing this you may get some tuber production from the cutting plants. Give some half strength liquid fertilizer to encourage new root growth. If the sun is intense in your garden, you may want to shade the new plants. Cuttings must be well watered until so they will establish themselves and thrive.

How come my dahlias are coming up yet? It has been over a month. The number one enemy for our young dahlia shoots is slugs and snails! I begin placing slug control after the first week of planting because some of my tubers had exceptionally long shoots and will soon pop out of the ground. If you planted seedling or cutting plants, protection is a must. Cory’s Slug Bait and Sluggo Plus are excellent baits for successful slug and snail control as well as physical removal (spearing, smashing, ducks), traps using cheap beer, and barriers (copper wire). Other pests that could be munching include earwigs, brown stink bugs (there seems to be increased population), root weevils and aphids. If you don’t know what’s eating your plants, go out into the garden with a flashlight. Your local agricultural extension office or Master Gardener program will have more information on how to deal with these issues using integrated pest management.

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A special shout out to all our KCDS members who participated in the planting of our three club gardens! These special gardens, when in full bloom, draw hundreds of visitors each summer. Family and friends take pictures of their favorite blooms and make wish lists for our tuber sales. Our gardens have made the Dahlia one of the most popular summer flowers.