Hello everyone!!
A few month ago I felt in love of this flower and decided to plant two bulbs of dahlia in pots, first they got like mold on their leaves and I solve that out, now my leaves look like this and I am really worry about it, please let me know what to do if you guys have any organic solution that will be better.
I live in Costa Rica so it's pretty humid down here!
Are you just seeing this on the leaves that had mold on them? If so it could just be an effect from the damage that the mold did to the leaves before you got rid of it. I haven't had a lot of experience with leaves recovering from mold, but with insect damage you can see a delayed reaction where it seems like the damage gets worse after you kill whatever it was that was causing the problem. I've seen cases where I had spider mites and I got rid of them and the leaves all still looked green and alive at first, but then over time they would get brown and dry up because the mites had already done enough damage to the leaf that all/part of it couldn't recover. The plant always ended up putting out new leaves and being fine in the long run.
Your climate may possibly be too hot and humid for dahlias.
We get hot and humid summer temps here, and the dwarf bedding dahlias are the only ones that tolerate the coastal heat and humidity.
I tried many times to grow the big ones, and they were always covered in mildew due to the humidity.
They perform better in dry heat.
Thanx a lot for your replies.
It is too hot rite now in Costa Rica and the regular showers in the afternoon. I was wondering if I should just cut the leaves that were damage or should I just leave them there?
Just cut them off and pitch them in the trash. The fungus is actually inside the leaf what your seeing is the outside effect. A nice organic treatment is horticulture oil. Every place sells it. Make sure you spray early morning because you don't want to burn the plant. Make sure you have them in full sun and that sir can circulate around them to keep the leaves dry. You can alos, next year start a spray program with the oil. Neem oil is another gret product that deals with everything, but if used on trees with color (blues, greys) it acn dicolor them. But for a nice organic product either oil is great. For now get rid of the leaves because the fungus within the leaves can spread readily.
Thanx I will search for that oil rite away!!!!
I hate to say it, but, I think your trying to grow the wrong type of plant in a pot, these Dahlias need plenty room round the roots as they really are very greedy plants/tubers, they need a lot of rich soil with added manure/compost in the planting hole wich helps feed and reatain some moisture around the roots/tubers to keep the tubers firm and plump, in the pots, they will dry out too fast and will also deplete the soil of nutrients they need to flower and keep in leaf. In you kind of heat, I would maybe try giving it plenty light but less baking sun, also, if possible, when you do water the pots, try to make sure water dont go onto the foliage as this does encourage mold to form on the foliage if in humid conditions, maybe in your pot situation you could water from the bottom by sitting the pots in a bucket of water till the soil is really wet but the top growth is left dry. hope this can help you out a bit as they really are quite stunning when in full flower. good luck. WeeNel.
Thanx,
They are blooming rite now and is looking gorgeous, I took off the dry leaves and they are out side where they just get the morning sun and that's it. I knew from the beginning that it's quite a challenge to plant dahlias in pots, but I had no choice as my garden is too small, soon I will move out as we recently bought our own house and the green area in the patio is huge so hopefully next time I will do it rite, for now I don't want my babies to dye, thanx a lot for all the help!!
lilcaro, Now you know you are to move home, then at least you can just uplift your pots and take them with you to save money and still enjoy all your work, care and attention, good luck with your move and enjoy your new garden area. WeeNel.
Thanx to you guys I know what to do, here is my first Dahlia flower after all the problems I had
