Wherever you are going to place dahlia tubers for the winter, they must be properly prepared before wintering. It is impossible to simply store tubers dug up with roots and soil on a shelf at home.

How to store dahlias after digging? Uprooted tubers need:

• Get rid of adhering dirt and soil;
• Make sure the integrity of the root system;
• Dry (can be in a greenhouse for 5 days);
• Remove the stem, leaving a couple of centimeters;
• Treat the cuts with lime;
• Leave for another week in a room with a temperature of 20 to 25 degrees.

Storage in the basement, cellar and underground

It is sometimes difficult to find a place in an apartment with suitable conditions for storing seeds, root crops and other products of your dacha activities until spring.

Those who have such an opportunity prefer to demolish it all underground. Basements provide the necessary space. The dahlia bulb in the basement can be placed in different ways.

How to store dahlias underground in winter at home:

Storage method	Description of the method	Secrets
Filler layers	A few centimeters of filler (soil, sand, sawdust or peat) is poured into a wooden or foam box, dahlia tubers are laid out on top and filled with filler.	You can alternately lay out several layers of bulbs and filler. The main thing is to fill the entire box so that there is no free space left in it.
In a clay shell	Place the tubers in clay mash and let it dry. After drying, place in convenient location in the cellar.	It will take about 4 days to dry the clay.
On the shelves	Treated tubers can simply be placed on shelves in the underground until spring	The room must be ventilated several times a week

But the basement has its drawbacks:

• Presence of rodents;
• Possibility of premature germination;
• Rotting;
• Drying;
• Freezing.

To avoid adverse consequences, the following conditions must be ensured:

• Provide a temperature of 1 to 10 degrees;
• Maintain humidity from 50 to 80%;
• Ventilate the room;
• Inspect dahlias for damage and get rid of unsuitable tubers.

In the apartment

Naturally, maintaining a temperature of 10 degrees in an apartment is difficult and dangerous for residents. Therefore, if there is no basement, you will have to dodge and look for a cool place for the tubers.

They can serve as shelter staircase, place under the sink, next to the cold water pipe.

It is possible to place dahlias next to the refrigerator or freezer, on the floor, next to the door to the balcony.

In the refrigerator

Annual or perennial dahlias dug up in the fall will feel great in the refrigerator.

What temperature will they survive at? They should be placed in a vegetable chamber, or in a zero chamber, since they cannot withstand temperatures below zero.

Storing dahlias in the refrigerator is carried out in a simple way. Carefully processed tubers are wrapped separately in newspaper or in sphagnum moss.

Place the wrapped dahlias in a regular plastic bag, or wrap them in cling film, make holes to let air in and put them in the refrigerator. There they will spend the whole winter.

Sphagnum moss is bactericidal, allows root crops to breathe and is often used as a filler for storing tubers.

Its disadvantage is the possibility of complete drying. If you cover the roots with sphagnum, it must be moistened.

On the balcony

On the balcony you can put boxes with tubers prepared using the same technology as dahlias stored in the basement.

Alternative methods can also be used for storage on the balcony:

1. Tubers in paraffin. The peeled tubers are dipped into paraffin diluted in a water bath several times to make the layer harder. Then the bulbs, framed with paraffin, are placed in a bag filled with dry sawdust.

   In the spring, when preparing them for planting, simply crack the paraffin crust so that it crumbles;

2. Storage in a buried barrel. A barrel made of any material or other large container is suitable for this; filler is poured into it and dahlias are placed.

   Holes are drilled in the walls so as not to leave the flowers without an influx of oxygen. An empty box is placed on the closed lid (we create an additional air gap), and earth is buried on top.

3. Storage in foliage. For this method, dahlias do not need to be cleared of soil; it must be left in large quantities around the tuber.

   Dahlias are placed in boxes and covered with dry leaves (it is better not to use apple and pear foliage, as they are often susceptible to mold and fungi).
   In this form, they can be placed in any room where the temperature does not fall below zero and does not rise above ten degrees.

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Dahlias are beautiful garden flowers. They require mandatory digging in the cold season, since their root tubers do not tolerate frost. Therefore, gardeners need to know how to store dahlias at home in winter so that they do not die and next season they will again delight their owners with their flowering.

How and when to dig up dahlias for storage

There is no need to rush into digging up root tubers. The longer they are in the soil, the more successful storage will be.

• If a gardener has a large collection of dahlias, then harvesting of root tubers begins right before frost or a period of prolonged rains.
• If only single specimens grow in the garden, they are dug up after the onset of light frosts.

A slight frost damages only the inflorescences and leaves, while the tubers in the ground still continue to ripen.

Before harvesting, the plants are cleaned: all rotten and diseased specimens are dug up and thrown away, otherwise they will infect others.

Digging procedure:

1. Cut off the flower stems and carefully remove the tubers, being careful not to injure the neck. To do this, it is better to carefully dig them up from four sides and only then push them out of the soil. Of course, when using this technique, long roots are damaged, but the root tubers themselves remain intact.
2. Remove the soil, turn the root tubers over and leave to dry for 2 - 3 hours.
3. Autumn - best time for propagation of dahlias. To do this, they need to be washed and carefully separated into parts.
4. To protect the cuttings from rotting and various diseases, before storage it is recommended to treat them with fungicides, soaking them in the prepared solution for ¼ hour. Tubers that do not sink when lowered into liquid, but rise to the surface, are thrown away, since they will not survive the winter in any case. . All work with chemicals For safety reasons, carry out only with gloves.

After processing, all cuttings are dried, but not on concrete, as it strongly absorbs moisture, which is why the root tubers begin to shrink prematurely.

Optimal conditions for storing tubers

Ripened root tubers from strong and healthy plants don't require special conditions for wintering. But there is rare varieties who endure this period painfully, and they need to be provided with the most optimal conditions for storage.

• The temperature should vary from 2 to 7ºС. At low temperatures planting material may freeze, and if elevated, it may rot or germinate prematurely.
• Optimal humidity levels are 80 – 90%. If this indicator is lower, the root tubers will shrink and will not be able to germinate.

Storage features largely depend on the humidity level in a particular region. In areas with wet winters, planting material cannot be stored in hermetically sealed bags. It is necessary to pierce 5 - 6 holes for gas exchange.

Storing dahlias in the apartment in winter

Since in the conditions of city apartments in heating season It is difficult to find a cold place; it is better to store dahlias in hermetically sealed PET bags mixed with very dry perlite.

If the rooms are humid and warm, only waxing will do. But such processing has not become widespread, since it is quite labor-intensive. In addition, sections treated with paraffin wake up much later. But in some cases there is no other choice. Such root tubers are stored in bags with pine sawdust or dry peat.

The balcony is a very suitable place for storage. The root tubers are washed, dried, wrapped in thick paper and a bag, leaving it slightly open for ventilation. If it is frosty outside, it is recommended to take the planting material into the room and then take it out again to the cool balcony.

How to store dahlia tubers in the basement

The best place for storage is a cool but fairly damp cellar. If the room is dry, you need to take care of sufficient moisture in time. In a warm and damp basement, it is very difficult to preserve planting material in its original volume, since such conditions provoke the appearance of various diseases.

• It is convenient to store dahlias in the basement in thick plastic bags filled with large vermiculite. The main condition is low temperature storage (maximum 7ºС). The fact is that this material retains moisture and, when the temperature rises, can lead to rotting of the tubers.
• A good option is to use sand. Dahlias are stored well in it, but in the spring they may produce young shoots prematurely.
• Large sawdust from wood coniferous species also used for storage. Fine sawdust is not suitable as it will draw too much moisture from the root tubers.
• Also, planting material is stored directly in the ground. To do this, take large wooden boxes and cover them with several layers of paper so that its edges not only cover the bottom, but also the sides. They pour on the bottom thin layer soil, lay the tubers at a sufficient distance from each other and cover them again with soil, filling all the voids. This is done until the entire box is filled. It is also covered with paper on top.

To prevent the root tubers from drying out, they are covered with a clay shell.

After digging, the cuttings are kept in a solution of potassium permanganate for 12 hours, then dipped into a mash of clay, water and any fungicide. The root tubers treated in this way are dried and stored in a cold, dry cellar. With the onset of warmth, the clay shell is broken by tapping and dahlias are immediately planted.

Store in the refrigerator

You can also store root tubers in the refrigerator. The dried planting material is kept in bags with sawdust, in which it is recommended to make holes for ventilation. The bags are additionally wrapped in paper and stored in the lower compartment of the refrigerator. If there are few root tubers, they are simply wrapped in paper and stored in the lower vegetable compartment.

For any storage method, planting material is checked approximately once every 4 weeks.

Damaged tubers are immediately thrown away so that they do not infect healthy sections. In spring, boxes or bags with dahlias are transferred to more warm place so that the root tubers awaken faster.

Knowing how to properly store dahlias, you can admire these beautiful flowers in your garden year after year, preserving your favorite varieties and not worrying about decorating the site every year.

With the approach of cold weather, the stems of dahlias are cut to 10-15 centimeters, the remaining leaves and side shoots, if any, are removed from them. Then the bush is carefully dug up at a distance of at least 25 centimeters, depending on its height.

Dug up tubers are shaken off the soil, taking utmost care not to damage them. Then they are dried in a dry room with good ventilation at room temperature. If the weather permits (sunny, dry), you can dry it in the open air.

After 5-7 days, the tubers are freed from small roots, and the remaining stems are shortened to 5-7 centimeters.

All cut areas must be treated with fluff lime or crushed charcoal or activated carbon.

After processing, the tubers are dried, but in a cool room, also with constant access fresh air. In this case, the tubers are covered with light material: straw, burlap or simply newspapers. So they are kept for another two weeks. The less the tubers wrinkle when dried, the better they will last until spring, and they will retain more vitality.

Tubers can be marked at any time during drying, using any suitable method for this.

Next - bookmark for storage. It is this task that is most difficult for city residents. Basements and attics in modern high-rise buildings are reserved for communications, and there is no way to use them. Therefore, we have to look for other ways.

If there are only a few tubers, you can storage use a regular home refrigerator. The tubers are placed in a plastic bag with holes, sprinkled with sawdust and placed in a vegetable drawer. Instead of sawdust and peat, you can wrap each tuber in newspaper.

Relatively small amount prepared tubers are well preserved for glassed balcony(loggias), if in winter there remains a low positive temperature. They are placed in boxes, preferably wooden or plywood, boxes made of thick cardboard, plastic containers, into which there is access to air. They are then sprinkled with clean sand or peat. Also, as in the previous case, you can use newspapers. Then the container with tubers is placed on the balcony.

Home-stored tubers They regularly check to see if mold has appeared on them or if the process of rotting has begun. If such a misfortune occurs, the affected tubers are immediately isolated. Mold can be washed off, and rotting areas can be cut off. Then the tubers are dried again and stored, but separately from healthy ones.

If the first two options are completely unsuitable, properly prepared tubers are buried in summer cottage. They are placed in a barrel, metal or plastic, interspersed with moss. Then the barrel is placed in a specially dug hole and covered with a lid with ventilation holes. A box, wooden or plywood, is placed on the lid, this creates an additional air gap. This entire structure is covered with a thick film or non-woven material so that the tubers are not covered with soil. Next, the barrel is covered with earth. This method is usually used when there are a lot of dahlia tubers.

During the winter, the tubers are checked regularly in order to detect signs of rot in time. In this case, the affected areas are cut off and treated charcoal or brilliant green.

Great( 5 ) Badly( 1 )

Many gardeners consider these plants to be unpretentious. Indeed, dahlias feel good even on rather poor soils, they delight with a variety of shapes and colors, as well as luxurious long-term flowering.

The difficulty is caused by storing tubers in winter period.

When to dig up dahlias

Dahlias are perennial flowers; in warm climates they successfully overwinter in the soil, but harsh Russian winters can destroy the plants. Nevertheless, luxurious varieties of dahlias, such as spherical, pompom, and anemone-shaped, need to be dug up for the winter.

How not to miss this moment? Very often, summer residents complain that with the onset of cold weather, dahlias bloomed even more magnificently and beautifully. There is no need to rush into the digging procedure, even if autumn is in full swing outside. If frost is expected, there is a risk of losing plants.

When to dig up dahlias. Dahlia diseases

September-October is the active time for bud formation in dahlias. You can notice the formation of tubers at the very beginning of flowering, but their full ripening occurs in the fall, so it is recommended to leave dahlias in the ground as long as possible, and it is worth monitoring the weather forecast.

Cut off the lower stems - this will speed up the process of plant ripening. It would not be a bad idea to hill up the dahlias, insulating them with a soil “blanket”, which will protect the flower from the first cold weather. Dig up flowers after the first frost, when they wither. It is recommended to complete this work no later than 3 days after the arrival of cold weather. The same rules work for gladioli.

How to dig up dahlias correctly

If there are flowers on your site different varieties, it would be advisable to attach name tags to the stems. This will greatly simplify your task when planting plants, and you can easily decorate your dacha by planting plants based on their colors.

How to dig up dahlias correctly

Immediately before digging, cut the stems; a length of 10-15 cm will be enough. It would be a good idea to cover the cuts with foil or cellophane to prevent the stem from rotting in the event of precipitation. Do not forget that the root collar of dahlias is very fragile. An ordinary break will not disappear without a trace - such tubers will not survive the winter.

After cutting the stems, dig up the soil around the plant, choosing a radius of about 30 cm. It is better to use a pitchfork instead of a shovel. This way you can significantly reduce the risk of tuber damage. After digging, carefully remove excess soil; be especially careful around the root collar of dahlias.

How to prepare for storage

You need to work a little with the dug up tubers:

1. Do not pick up plants by their stems to avoid damaging the neck.

2. If the weather is sunny, leave the tubers in the garden for several hours. During this time they will harden thoroughly and become stronger.

3. The next procedure is washing the tubers. It will be convenient to use a regular hose for watering the garden or washing the car. Good pressure will remove all the soil, and the dahlia tubers can be easily inspected for disease.

4. Minor damage is simply cut out and covered wood ash. If the plant is severely damaged ( gray rot, fusarium, nematodes, greenhouse whitefly), throw it away. Otherwise, there is a risk of losing healthy flowers.

5. You can trim a little during the process. thin roots, it won't hurt. It wouldn’t hurt to do this procedure in the spring before planting flowers.

6. Good results gives special treatment of tubers: fundozol is diluted and the tubers are sprayed. Next, you should wait until the skin of the plants hardens. This may take up to 5-6 days, but it will extend the shelf life.

How to store dahlias in the cellar

Some of the most beautiful flowers in your flower bed will delight you year after year if they are properly stored. The cellar is an ideal place for this task, but there are several conditions:

It must be insulated and not freeze;

Make sure there are no rodents in the room.

Prepare storage containers - boxes, boxes, soil. Sprinkle the tubers sawdust. If possible, use conifers. Regular sand will also work. Plants can be laid in several rows, but the fewer there are, the better.

During the winter, dahlias can rot, freeze, and dry out. Premature germination is also a problem. Therefore, from time to time you need to go down into the cellar and check your favorite flowers. Once a month will be enough.

Having discovered a small lesion, a place on the tuber is cut out with a small margin and burned with brilliant green. This “treatment” can be done with any other fungicide. The sand or sawdust that covered the affected dahlia is replaced with new ones. Do not forget about ventilating the cellar - the air where the plants are stored should not be musty.

How to store dahlias in winter at home

Dahlias are great flowers for birthdays, weddings, women's holiday, this is an ideal gift for mother, wife, daughter. But in order for them to survive until the event, having been revived after wintering, city residents have to invent different ways storage One option is to put flowers for the winter right next to balcony door. A dry basement is also suitable, where the temperature is guaranteed to be 2-5 degrees and the humidity does not exceed 60%. However, do not forget to cover the tubers with a layer of peat or sand.

Storing dahlia tubers in cling film

In the apartment you can leave dahlias in plastic bags or shoe boxes. In the latter case, the tubers are transferred with paper. IN plastic bags It is recommended to place sphagnum moss. Apartment - no best place for storing dahlias, because high temperature indoors is fraught with drying out of the roots.

The editors of the site hope that your dahlias will survive the winter without any problems and invites you to look at the largest flowers in the world.
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Much more difficult than growing. New varieties, as a rule, produce weak root tubers. After excavation, and with certain subtleties, a long winter period of unrest begins for the safety of the material. Home conditions are not always close to ideal, but numerous ways experienced flower growers allow, with varying degrees of success, to store them both in the cellar and in the apartment.

Prerequisites and subtleties of digging

Dahlias can delight with their flowering in September. But even small drops in temperature below zero can lead to the cessation of the normal functioning of the plant’s nutritional system. That’s why it’s so important not to delay the excavation time. All sorts of tricks by experienced gardeners, such as a smoke screen or mulching the soil, may not work. Although they are justified. After all, the ability of a plant to stay longer in the soil automatically makes the tubers larger and stronger. The approach of serious, regular frosts is a reason to prepare dahlias for winter.

Advice. After digging up the tubers in the morning, let them dry until the evening.

Digging up dahlias is not the easiest task, because it is important not to damage the tuber:

1. You should dig with a large distance from the cut stump - at least 20-25 cm.
2. They are afraid of breaking the neck - they shake off the earth without lifting it above the surface.
3. If it is possible to observe optimal storage parameters and underdeveloped tubers (for example, propagated by cuttings and overfed with nitrogenous fertilizers), do not shake them off vigorously, leaving part of the soil in the form of a lump.

You need to dig up dahlias very carefully

Ideal conditions

Most common varieties of dahlias will thrive in these winter conditions:

• average temperature +5°C;
• air humidity 60-75%;
• regular ventilation;
• air circulation.

The last two points are guaranteed to reduce the risk of fungal development. Preliminary disinfection of the room will also not be superfluous (for example, fumigation with sulfur).

The tubers are laid in no more than two rows, and on a dry surface. It could be:

• sand, earth;
• wood shavings, sawdust;
• wooden surface.

Treatment of tubers with sand

Real opportunities

But not all dahlia lovers always have basements and cellars with classic parameters. Practice shows that there is always a way out, and the percentage of tubers remaining healthy is quite high.

1. Carefully trim old roots and stumps (distance 2-3 cm from the neck). Treat with lime. Dry at room temperature for about 7 days. Wooden box line it with thick paper of a suitable size, fill it with soil, lay the root tubers and cover it again with paper.
2. Wash the roots thoroughly and trim off any excess thin roots. Treatment with potassium permanganate is carried out by soaking, with a fairly thick solution, until the tubers change color to dark golden.
3. Can be stored in the refrigerator in the upper chamber (plus temperature). But this option is only for a small amount of material.
4. On an insulated balcony in boxes that are brought into the apartment during severe frosts. But the disadvantage of this method is temperature changes; mold may begin to form or germination may begin.

Helping materials

1. Paraffin. Quick treatment of the roots in this substance will create a protective shell that can be easily removed in the spring. Not recommended for late varieties.
2. Clay. Process and dry in the same way.

Tubers should be stored in a cool place

Unreliable methods include cling film. There is a very high risk of rotting even with the slightest damage to the root system, which may not be visually noticeable. Therefore you should use this method in combination with vermiculite. Holes are made in polyethylene, wrapped tubers are placed, and covered with this substance. Used relatively recently in plant growing, this versatile natural material has proven itself well. Its obvious advantage is that it can be used repeatedly.

Attention! If several varieties are grown, it is advisable to prepare stickers and labels for specifics.

Don't forget to check the tubers periodically, at least once a month. After all, there are too many factors, even when dahlias grow in summer period, can influence the safety in winter. Practice shows that the better the dahlias bloom, the more difficult it is to preserve them. Only by taking into account all the factors of specific storage conditions, adding your own to the most popular methods personal experience, you can keep all the root tubers intact.

How to preserve dahlias in winter: video