Dahlias

Hey @JackJJW, I didn't have 2 of the same tubers to hand so I went out and got one pack of 3 speckled, amazingly one has 1 shoot, the other 2 and the last one 3. Also a pack of Topmix, one white and one pink

@wiseowl Could be worse.. could be shooting up like these ones bit of patience woo! (and heat, these were next to a radiator for 3 days after potting up, never again!)

 

Ahh Woo I watched that last night, loved his tip of taking off the bud case so the petal goes all the way round the back, definitely going to do that. He had some beauties, fairplay!

 

Mine have only just started too woo. Two have shoots like yours and others just tiny purple buds starting. I think I did get them going earlier last year but I think this spring has been cooler so far. Don't overwater right now or they'll rot, made that mistake last year.

 

I've got a bed for just dahlias this summer, I'd love a show like Jack Gott who was on the programme.

 

Great! :D

I had some advice from another gardener and he said that if you have one shoot you pinch out to get branching, if you have lots of shoots you don't bother pinching and just let them grow. Seems so obvious now he's said that. Essentially, you aim to have 3 - 5 shoots either way.

I think the experiment is still worth doing to see if there is any difference in the size of flowers.

 

I'll keep that in mind with my other dahlias probably pinch out on the top mix too as they are only small and I'd like a few blooms of them but I'll try and keep the speckled as they are

 

Yay! Looking good wiseowl!

 

Grown my Dahlias from seed the past two years - got a few seedlings in my greenhouse that are about 3/4 inches tall, hopefully they'll be fine despite the mixed weather.

 

My Dahlias are a little tardy at sprouting this year about 8 out of 12 have shown so far.

 

Mine have been really slow, but I have a few shoots coming through now. Last year I grew some from seed with no trouble, this year I don't have one seedling I blame the weather , I'm not giving up just yet, they are no ill store in the cell tray, I have several spare cell trays at the moment

 

Mine are at the same stage as woo's. Wish they'd get going as I'm hoping to take some cuttings before they go out!
The bed is all ready now, deweeded, dug over and compost and chicken manure added. I had some bargain basement primroses with nowhere to go so planted those round the edge as they won't be seen under the dahlias and can spend the summer bulking up.

 

How much chicken manure do you add CharlieBot? Do you use pellets or do you have chickens?