MAINE, Maine — Gardening with Gutner completes its Dahlia journey by learning from Backyard Blooms how to dig up and store Dahlia tubers for the winter.
Back in the spring, the micro flower farm showed how to plant the tubers. Then, a visit in the summer showcased all the beautiful blooms. Now, it's time to harvest the tubers and store them for next year.
It's this process that discourages many people from growing the bodacious blooms, but one plant will create numerous tubers, giving you a huge payoff.
"So Dahlias are tropical plants. They're not hardy to this zone," Jason Aucoin, one of the owners of Backyard Blooms, explained. "If we leave them in the ground, they will die, and then we will have lost the potential for pulling up the tubers and replanting them for next year."
First, make sure your plants are labeled while they are blooming, so you know what kind of flower the tuber will grow.
Next, use a shovel or a spade fork to dig up the plant. Make sure you are far enough away from the center so you don't damage any tubers. Shake the excess dirt off.
"Each one of these will grow a new plant," Kate Hanavan Ross said as she pointed to all the different tubers joined together.
Aucoin was able to identify the mother tuber by the darkened skin and extra roots growing off of it.
"So now, the next step is we need to rinse this off, and we are going to divide this into all viable tubers to grow all new Dahlia plants," Hanavan Ross instructed.
Aucoin said to make sure all your clipping tools are clean and sanitary. They use rubbing alcohol on their snippers.
Begin with cutting the big stalk of the plant from the tubers.
"Right at the base, you can see some little bumps. These little bumps here are the eyes," Aucoin pointed out. "The eyes are what you need to have on each tuber in order to grow a plant."
Aucoin snipped above the eye to separate the tuber from the bundle. He warned to make sure the neck of the tuber is solid and stable. Sometimes the tubers are damaged when they are pulled from the soil. If the neck is broken or damaged, the tuber is no good. Finally, you can cut off the hair-like roots from the body of the tuber.
For storage, Backyard Blooms uses plastic drawer containers filled with coarse vermiculite.
"It seems to be best, the coarse vermiculite, because it tends to allow more airflow through the Dahlia tubers over the winter," Aucoin noted.
Hanavan Ross demonstrated the alternating layers of tubers and vermiculite.
"You can see they're just all gently layered in there. And so layer of vermiculite, layer of tubers, layer of vermiculite, layer of tubers," Hanavan Ross said.
Even though it is winter, the Dahlia tubers need some moisture. Aucoin waters the tubers as they lay in the vermiculite with about 1/2 cup of liquid per month and frequently checks them over cold months.
"So once the soil temperature outside has reached 55 or more, we'll put them in the ground. We like for the weather to be settled.," Aucoin clarified.
Don't let the labor associated with storing Dahlia tubers discourage you from growing some of the most beautiful flowers. One plant will reward you with even more blooms to fill your garden.
