Care of gardeners: keeping dahlias at home

To store dahlias at home has been successful, you need to know how to properly dig them and prepare for the winter. Dig them out before the very frost, pre-attaching a label indicating the variety, color, etc.

First you need to release the plant from the supports, garters. Then remove the soil and trim the stem a little shorter than the level of hilling. Now, having retreated from the remaining stem of centimeters 20-25, it is necessary to excavate the trench deep into the spade bayonet and gently pull the tubers of the plant. For the stem to pull it is impossible to avoid damage to the root shoots. They are very fragile.

Excavated roots, slightly shaking off the ground, are transferred to a room with an air temperature of 0 to 8 degrees and humidity 75-85% (you can put a basin with water). In two weeks, the tubers will complete processes for the distribution of nutrients and preparing for a state of rest. Before laying down for storage of dahlias for the winter, you need to remove the ground from them, to inspect well, to remove small and old, broken and sick roots. Cut off all unnecessary with a sharp knife, which is constantly dipped in a solution of manganese. Slices are poured with ashes or smeared with dark crimson potassium permanganate.

Storage of dahlias at home is in boxes or boxes. The tubers are laid in one layer and covered with sand or peat. Then they are sent to a room with the same temperature as when storing potatoes (+1 to +7 degrees) and humidity 60-70%. It can be a basement, a cellar, a basement, a heated garage. In the refrigerator the same conditions. Therefore, keeping dahlias in an apartment is quite possible. What is needed for this?

The main task is the preservation of growth buds, root neck and tubers. If it is supposed to store dahlias at home in the refrigerator, then a bunch of tubers is washed, disinfected for 30 minutes with crimson potassium permanganate and dried for 24 hours. Then put the roots in boxes or polyethylene bags and pour dry moss, shavings, etc. The containers are left open for air access. If there is no ventilation, mold or mold may appear on the roots. Keeping dahlias at home means periodic inspection of planting material. In case of detection of rot, it is cut out, the cut is greased with a zebra, the filling material is changed. Mold washed off with potassium permanganate, tuber aerate.

Small tubers can simply be wrapped in paper, packed in a bag and, without closing, placed in a refrigerator or between balcony (window) frames. Of course, under the condition of an appropriate temperature regime and inaccessibility to direct sunlight.

During winter storage dahlias can deteriorate for several reasons: thickened planting, excessive fertilizing with nitrogen fertilizers (manure, urea, etc.), absence of autumn hilling. If the summer was rainy or the autumn was warm with a sharp cooling, then the roots of dahlias do not ripen, that is, they do not accumulate enough nutrients. And without them they can not tolerate a state of rest.

But in such cases the growers do not despair. They carefully examine the almost ruined tuber in the spring. If you find at least one preserved kidney with a small nodule, it means that the plant will bloom and this year - the variety is preserved.