How to save Dahlia tubers

I bought 4 little seedling Dahlias this spring-bronze leafed. They did very well and made nice plants. I have just dug them up after the frost, and there are tubers- not big, but good. Should I overwinter them in vermiculite, pot them up in soil, or what?

Put them in dry vermiculite or peat moss and store them in a cool dark place.

But probably not in a plastic bag-? How about a brown paper bag?

An old shoebox works well.Just be sure to keep moisture out.

Then you will want to check on them - say, after Christmas? and if the tubers are shriveling sprinkle a bit of water. Actually, this is how I did mine last year - a very lazy way -
After they turn black dig up the whole plant, leave most of the dirt around the roots, plop them into open plastic grocery sacks, put them in a cool basement corner on the floor, and if you are as lucky as we are to have a bit of rain seep into that corner when the rains start in the spring, you never need to even look at them until you see green sprouts reaching for the light and it's time to plant!

You can also use wood shavings such as those used for a hamster cage. Whatever you use cannot be totally air-tight, but plastic veggie bags work well. Check every couple of weeks for rotting and shriveling tubers and remove those. You can also just leave them totally dry in pots, place in a cool, dark and dry room and start watering them again in April.

Thanks for all the information. I just grew some myself this year not knowing that they all made tubers and had been throwing them away.

I need to store mine in a shed outside. Do I need to worry about critters eatign them at all?

Mice will eat them - don't know about other critters. You can put them in a wire cage, such as the 1/4" wire you can get at the box stores.

Jo, for your information, I planted some seeds for those, what I call container dahlias. They are gorgeous and they grow just like tubers. I start them about April in the house and when it's time just like with the rest of the plants, our last frost is end of May, then I plant them out. I put 3 little seedlings in a whiskey barrel and you would have thought I had planted big tubers.

They were red doubles with bronze/purple folliage. We have had about 10 days of freezing weather, low 20s, so I'm not sure if they are still good out there. I had better look. However, I did save some I put in other planters, they were double yellows, again with the bronze folliage.

Jeanette

Maybe I will get some seeds and try next spring. My flowers looked like you described- really nice doubles.

Very pretty Jo, looks just like mine. How tall are yours? Also, I saw seeds in T&M new catalog for seeds for the big ones. I have never tried them, but maybe I will this next year.

Let me ask you, did you pinch yours? They look like you might have. 'course coming from a tuber might have made the difference. It has been so long since I have used tubers I can't remember. Altho, I do remember when I had tubers in the ground on the tall ones that I pinched them.

So they would bush and I didn't have to use stakes.

Jeanette

I didn't pinch mine- just kept them deadheaded- they were seedlings- not tubers. They were a bit more than 2ft tall when the freeze got them.

I normally pinch my dahlias when they are about 6 inches tall. So they will get bushy. That way, like I said, you don't have to stake them. That wouldn't be a problem so much on the shorter ones. Just the tall ones.

That is about the height mine were. I would say between 18" and 2'.

I went out and pulled the ones up that I hadn't gotten to and they did have tubers. Not big ones, but nice fat ones, and I would say just by looking and not taking the soil off, probably enough for 4 plants next year. Now, the yellow ones that I brought in, I just left them in the pot and put them in the basement. I suppose I will go down one of these days and take them out of the pot and knock some of the soil off. I won't worry about all of it. And just put them in a bucket in the pantry. No lid. I do that same thing with my tuberous begonias. I leave some soil on, put them in a bucket and into the pantry. Normally about the middle of February if I remember to look, the tubers are sprouting. That is ok with the begonias because I normally start them the end of February, but I plant the dahlias with other things sometimes in the containers, like trailers or even a taller plant once in a while so I try to hold them off until around mid to late April.