horticulture , Propagation
Free plant ! What ’s not to like ? Let ’s dismiss for a minute the fact that I do n’t have room for them . No , really , shhh . La - Louisiana - la not listening !
The start decimal point for this process is Dahlia pinnata tubers . These can either be tubers , bought at great expense , or Tuber that have been overwintered . Mine are the latter , ‘ Bishop ’s nestling ’ that I grew from seed last spring . To be reliable , they ’re a piddling number cheap , but that ’s half the fun with dahlias .
I will be doing the same with some luverly dahlias I ordered recently but they ’ve just arrived so I need to wait for them to produce shoots .
First thing to do is get the dahlia tubers into some unfermented compost , either using tray or pots depending on how many you have , seeherefor an earlier post on this . It ’s apparently best to leave behind the tops of the tubers sticking out , this is to make it easier to take a clean cutting later . I did not do this and am rue it a small now . Water them a bit so they ’re dampish not slopped , bequeath them somewhere warmish and light and wait till they cast off up shoots . I had mine sit down on bench in the unwarmed part of the glasshouse , they start to show shoots after about 2 weeks . Do n’t let them dry out but do n’t go away them sitting in a puddle either .
I expect until they were a few inches long , with leaves at the top .
Bishop’s Children. Naughty Bishop!
Watch out for slugs at this level , by the manner , they seem to be very fond to a juicy dahlia shoot . Using a sharp , clean vane , I cut the shoot away from the tuber , cutting as closely as I could get to the surface of the genus Tuber . If the genus Tuber is undamaged it should cast up raw shoots in the same place .
Although , interestingly , there is contravene advice about this . Sarah Raven ( see video recording link below ) sound out you should adjudicate to take a part of genus Tuber as this helps with rooting . Seems to be a choice between full chance of the cutting striking properly and the parent flora catch a good deal . As you could see from the above exposure , the base of the stem is buried which is why it ’s better to bury the tubers initially with the top clearly showing . I pick out two or three shoot from each tuber , cautiously cutting away the lower leafage so that there was a clean radical , also tidy the end if needed to avoid rot .
I used two methods for press clipping here .
Shoots ahoy
They are similar generally , differing just in the lieu where the cutting is made .
When I had finish up taking the cuttings it was fourth dimension to set them up . If I was take wads , or got interrupted , I would have put the cuttings in a damp fictile bag to keep them nice and perky . I did n’t need to on this affair . I give each one a stuff shot / shake in rooting endocrine gunpowder then popped them in cutting off compost .
For the cuttings compost , I have used an equal parts mixture of grit , vermiculite , sand and multi determination compost . The goal is to have a nice open mixing .
Plenty of stems, it won’t miss a few…
I ’ve used 7 curium pots , three or four slip to a throne , but tray or modules could be used instead . I made a pickle first with a dibber then pop one cutting in each hole , remembering to firm it down softly to ensure the radical is in physical contact with the compost . I gave the pot a good water with a hunky-dory rosebush ..
I ’ve put them in the heated up work bench without any additional cover , hoping that the chief workbench cover provides the needed humidness . A propogation unit with a vented chapeau would do , so long as it is somewhere affectionate , ideally with heat underneath .
The cutting will allegedly root after a few weeks . We shall see . I ’ll take more cuttings as the shoot evolve on the other larger tubers I have on the go . Particularly looking forward to taking cutting from the new I .
Hindsight is a wonderful thing…
I did n’t have much of a clue about how to go about this whole process with Dahlia pinnata , but luckily there are some right Dahlia pinnata fanatics out there who have trodden this path before and give chapter and rhyme :
I ’ll be back in a few weeks , with an update on rout , I hope …
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Related
4 on the left are nodal, 3 on the right are basal
Only the cut needs the powder, shake off the excess.
4 horsemen of the compostolypse
Avoid the leaves touching, they can rot.
Yummy! Looks like a giant pudding.
