I've been growing Dahlias for three years now. This last year was my first year storing tubers. Theres a farm near us that lets people in the community come and dig up clumps for a reasonable price. We cleaned, dried, and divided them. We stored them in plastic bags with vermiculite in a fridge (a seasoned dahlia farmer told us this would work) I've checked on them a few times this winter and they seemed to be doing well. I should point out that it's been very cold here this last month like in the negatives, and the fridge we have has been in our garage. We turned it off and put a heater next to it hoping it would be okay. We checked on them today and they are all mush. We had a total of 350 tubers, now all that work and money for nothing.
I'm so devastated. I wanted a huge dahlia field this summer and now I'm not sure where to go from here. I don't want to purchase tubers from Eden brothers, holland bulb farm, etc. I've learned my mistake from purchasing from the past.
Does anyone have any advice where I can buy bulk from that doesn't break the bank?
by Western_Hunter1682
2 Comments
This is an automatic reminder regarding r/dahlias Rule 3:
When reasonable*, posters should make a good-faith effort to identify which variety/varieties are shown in their photo(s). If you don’t know for certain, please say so. Someone will usually know!
*Common-sense exceptions to this rule will be honored, such as if the photo does not contain a blossom, or if your photo contains large volumes (such as in wide field shots).
If you’ve already done this, thank you! No further action required.
If not, please add a reply to this comment and confirm if you know the name of your dahlia variety/varieties shown in the photo(s). Alternately, if you’re uncertain of the variety name(s), it’s ok to say that, too.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/dahlias) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Personally I have always had succes from old house gardens. Not the cheapest price but huge tuber clumps. Have you ever tried cloning dahlias from cuttings? Or considered doing seed dahlias this year to see if you find anything you like? Many of the seed dahlias are smaller and unpredictable but you could have a huge field of flowers for not too much money and you might find some you want to save tubers from. Sorry about the loss of all your tubers.