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Post by sweetpea on Mar 25, 2013 23:04:43 GMT
Some good shoots there ML. Remember that each time you take a cutting two more(sometimes three) will grow and you will be kept quite busy dealing with them all.  |
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Post by Moonlight on Mar 26, 2013 9:40:02 GMT
Some good shoots there ML. Remember that each time you take a cutting two more(sometimes three) will grow and you will be kept quite busy dealing with them all.
I was looking forward to looking after my cuttings (didn't realise that there could be potentially that more could grow after) but I have asked in the Dahlias for beginners forum what conditions are necessary to grow the cuttings. I can't provide them  I've got an unheated green house with 1 broken window pane and no electricity, for a heat pad or burner heater to have a warm sustained heat that the cuttings are going to need to survive.
Luckily my Dad offered to take the cuttings home to look after in his warm green house, so fingers crossed they don't have the same problems as everyone else seems to be having this year. I am disappointed and it feels like I'll be cheating, they are my tubers and my cuttings but ultimately the main thing is to give them the maximum chance of survival and I can't give them that which is a shame but it is not the end of the world. I would be gutted if all mine went black and died, especially as I have so few in proportion to everyone else here, I have not got so many back up tubers to select the best cuttings from.
I hope that my Clearview Jenny in particular grows because it is a new variety but as it still only looks like a dinosaur bone, I've just got to have my fingers crossed and try and be patient.
I also feel like I'll be cheating letting my Dad look after my cuttings but survival is the main thing. Once this awful weather goes and the plants become established I will have them back. Bit of a shame but keeping them alive is the most important thing. Too hot and not enough light inside my house and too cold in my green house, it is the logical thing to do.  |
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Post by sweetpea on Mar 26, 2013 11:36:02 GMT
Electricity is not essential. There is more than one way to skin a cat or in this case, to heat your dahlia cuttings.
I will explain more later. Don't have time right now.
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Post by Moonlight on Mar 26, 2013 16:54:56 GMT
I'll appreciate that Sweetpea.
I've received an email back, I am getting some replacement tubers because they agree that they really should have arrived in better condition than they did.
Fingers crossed, I just wish that I had done it earlier. Happy Halloween is doing well but Downham Royal is struggling.
Interestingly Dad asked me if I was going to take any cuttings. Only if he is there to show me how to hold the blade.![]() www.epilepsysupport.org.uk/imagehost/emoticons/yikes.gif [/img][/color]
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Post by Moonlight on Mar 26, 2013 20:22:09 GMT
Girls and I planted some trailing sweet peas and some ground nuts this afternoon.
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Post by sweetpea on Mar 27, 2013 12:52:33 GMT
Electricity is not essential. There is more than one way to skin a cat or in this case, to heat your dahlia cuttings.I will explain more later. Don't have time right now. hang some polythene sheeting or similar from the g'house bench to the floor making an enclosed space below the bench. Put a small paraffin heater in there. Have your cuttings each in a cell of a multicell tray (ideally one of the polystyrene types as they are warmer) sitting on a gravel bed above the heat source and cover with a plastic lid.like the propogator lids and I always had good results with this set up. Another method I used was to place a cloche on top of my compost heap to trap the rising warmth with the tubers on a tray. Admittedly we had rabbits then and the droppings when added to the compost heap caused such heat that even when the snow came down the heat kept it clear and the cuttings struck easily.. You can improvise a small hotbed by digging a square pit about a foot or so deep and filling with fresh stable manure. place a tray with tubers/cuttings on top and cover with glass or polythene to keep heat in. much easier with electricity of course but when needs must........... |
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Post by Moonlight on Mar 27, 2013 22:12:25 GMT
It has not been a very happy day in the gardening department. 
I went down to the green house to check on plants and I could not open the door because it had frozen solid. When I managed to get it open I was gutted because my plants were frozen.
Came inside, checked on the dahlias in the prop. 1 has started to go mouldy.
Came home from work and a 2nd one looks like it might be going mouldy as well. .
Feel very much damned if I don't and damned if I do.
I had them sitting in the soil and they did nothing (where as Downham Royal and Happy Halloween have). I bought a prop. to kick start some grow and just as I am beginning to get a bud, they start going mouldy.
I planted them in damp compost and because the lid had condensation on it, I had not watered them at all.
Currently they are 'cooking' on the prop now aka cooking on a hob with lid off.
HH was very supportive of me, it is my 1st year of growing them and using the greenhouse and weather has not been kind.
"Maybe next year we will need to talk about getting heat in there............."
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Post by Moonlight on Mar 27, 2013 23:36:33 GMT
Electricity is not essential. There is more than one way to skin a cat or in this case, to heat your dahlia cuttings.I will explain more later. Don't have time right now. hang some polythene sheeting or similar from the g'house bench to the floor making an enclosed space below the bench. Put a small paraffin heater in there. Have your cuttings each in a cell of a multicell tray (ideally one of the polystyrene types as they are warmer) sitting on a gravel bed above the heat source and cover with a plastic lid.like the propogator lids and I always had good results with this set up. Another method I used was to place a cloche on top of my compost heap to trap the rising warmth with the tubers on a tray. Admittedly we had rabbits then and the droppings when added to the compost heap caused such heat that even when the snow came down the heat kept it clear and the cuttings struck easily.. You can improvise a small hotbed by digging a square pit about a foot or so deep and filling with fresh stable manure. place a tray with tubers/cuttings on top and cover with glass or polythene to keep heat in. much easier with electricity of course but when needs must........... |
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Post by Moonlight on Mar 28, 2013 0:24:39 GMT
Just done my bedtime squirt i.e. watered the plants. Looks like I am going to be taking my first cutting tomorrow.
Happy Halloween everybody
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Post by Geranium on Mar 28, 2013 6:45:06 GMT
Not so sure about 'Halloween' - it sounds like you're missing out the spring and summer months, Moonlight!  Good luck with your cuttings. My Dahlias are nowhere near that stage. |
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Post by steve on Mar 28, 2013 7:32:55 GMT
So glad you went on to explain moonlight ;D |
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Post by Moonlight on Mar 28, 2013 10:22:17 GMT
I've shrunk the photos, to save on the scrolling 
What I probably would have typed if I had not been tired is:
Just done my bedtime squirt i.e. watered the plants.
Looks like I am going to be taking my first cutting tomorrow.
Happy Halloween everybody 
[/quote] Geranium: ![]() www.epilepsysupport.org.uk/imagehost/emoticons/yikes.gif [/img] Actually think that we have already missed, spring, summer and autumn and gone straight back to winter. Steve:  Me and my sense of humour. I actually don't like Halloween because it is so Americanised. When we lived in London, we used to turn all the lights off and sit at the back of the house. They used to throw eggs, some thrown at our window. Not nice. Here girlies like dressing up and we go to my Uncle and Aunt's house to trick or treat and then come home again. It seemed really mean of me to stop them having fun just because I don't agree with so many random groups of strangers knocking on doors. They had a Halloween school disco and all the children dressed up and had fun. I remember apple bobbing as a child but I think that nowadays people take things to the extreme. I don't think that Happy Halloween is the best dahlia in the world but I do really like it's bright pumpkin orange petals.
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Post by Moonlight on Mar 28, 2013 10:32:12 GMT
My 7 'seater' propagator arrived this morning. hmpf  My plants are getting on so well in my current prop.
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Post by Lou78W on Mar 28, 2013 11:35:35 GMT
Those cuttings are looking good ;D ;D....take the lid off the propagator with the dahlias in...pronto. Its just bottom heat they need. You should be able to wipe the mould off ok.....talk to them nicely and say sorry...I'm sure they will forgive you  |
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Post by Moonlight on Mar 28, 2013 13:23:32 GMT
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I've got an unheated green house with 1 broken window pane and no electricity, for a heat pad or burner heater to have a warm sustained heat that the cuttings are going to need to survive. 
My plants are getting on so well in my current prop. 
