Dahlias anyone?

[columbusmomma]

I grew dahlias for the first time over the summer and just love them! They are still blooming but the risk of a freeze is coming and I want to dig up the tubers. I've been reading online about the process. It just seems like a big process with lots of different steps. I'm new to this! Is there a simple way of digging up the tubers and storing them for next year? I've been on the midwest dahlia society webpage and that's where I've gotten my information. Would love any help if anyone has suggestions!

[Lovesong]

We usually just dig them up, shake them off and put them in ordinary grocery store paper bags over winter. Just don't store them somewhere damp or warm and most of them should be fine this way. Think about it as storing potatoes. :)

[columbusmomma]

Thanks for the reply! I was hoping that I could maybe do just as you suggested, vs. all the long instructions I've been reading about!  Then do I just plant them in the spring when the weather is right?

[SweetSilver]

Depending on how damp the storage, once you brush off the dirt you might want to let the dirt and tubers dry a little on the outside (like on the floor of the garage) before storing them.  Where I live, some folks dig up dahlias, others (us) don't.  We live in the PNW.  Some varieties do better with this than others.

[Lovesong]

Well...I live in Sweden, so I can't really just plant them in spring when the weather is right because of the risk of frost nights all the way into May. But if you are more or less guaranteed to be frost free by the beginning of April, then yes, you can just plant them after cleaning the root clumps and in some cases (of very big and dense root clumps) dividing them.

We usually plant ours in big plastic pots in the beginning of April when the most lively of them start to shoot then start to water through the month of April. By the beginning of May, we start to carry the pots outdoors during the day to get them hardened to winds and the temperature change.Then in the beginning of June we plant them with plenty of fertilizer and make sure to spray them with soapy water every now and again to keep pests at bay.

We do usually do loose one or two dahlias with our method. Usually because we dug them up too late and the frost got to them, though.

[columbusmomma]

Thanks!  I just dug mine up yesterday, fingers crossed they will be ok through the winter and then work out again in the spring. A couple of the tubers got chopped by my spade when I first started digging, so we'll see!