Dahlias are one of the most beautiful flowers, one that I personally cannot get enough of. Over time I have figured out how to continue to multiply them via dahlia cuttings themselves and let me tell you, my dahlia loving heart has never been happier!
In this post I will describe to you how to use your own dahlia cuttings in order to multiply your dahlia plants!
Big fan of dahlias? Me too. Here are some tips for storing dahlia tubers as well as 11 of the most beautiful dahlia varieties.
Guilty pleasures. We all have them, don’t we? Personally, I steer clear from smoking and keep my alcohol consumption modest. I’m not the one you’ll find splurging on a shopping spree or cosmetic facials. But dark chocolate? That’s my weak spot—I indulge a tad bit more than I probably should for my own good.
Then there’s those fancy dahlia tubers that call my name during the chill of winter. My basement is already overflowing with stored tubers from last season, yet I can’t help myself—I must get my hands on the latest hybrids and new introductions.
I know, forking over $20 to $30 on a single tuber seems a bit over the top. Luckily, I’ve developed a knack for propagating those beauties from cuttings!
I can justify the expense because I take that one pricey tuber from the supplier and turn it into six or seven plants. Those plants grow during the course of the growing season and produce their own brand new tubers – crazy, I know! But that means I’ve taken that $20 investment, spent a little extra time and effort on it and multiplied it by 10-20 depending on how many tubers each of those cuttings create!
What Are Dahlia Cuttings?
The art/science of taking cuttings is a magic trick any good horticulturist has up their sleeve to propagate coveted plant material. How to take dahlia cuttings couldn’t be easier once you know how to do it.
Dahlia cuttings are a method of propagating dahlia plants by taking a portion of the plant, typically a stem with leaves, and encouraging it to grow roots.
Why We Love Dahlia Cuttings
Cuttings are a great way to increase your stash of a particular favorite variety you’ve saved from the fall. Those pricey options I mentioned earlier? They are why I started doing this!
This season here at Wild Iris, we’re culling some of the varieties that aren’t top sellers and beefing up other varieties (like Cornell, Rock Run Ashley and Caitlin’s Joy) that we love and want to have lots of this autumn for the CSA and farmers markets.
So here’s a handy step-by-step guide for how to take dahlia cuttings to multiple your stock.
We order our new tubers almost exclusively from other small flower farmers and start waking them up in early March so we can get the cuttings going in the greenhouse and nicely rooted for planting come mid-May.
How to Take Dahlia Cuttings: A Step-by-Step Guide
Cultivating dahlias from cuttings can be a rewarding experience for any gardening enthusiast. The process starts about ten days after the tubers are introduced to warmth, and involves several careful steps to ensure successful growth. Here’s a how-to guide to help you through each stage of taking dahlia cuttings.
Materials needed for taking dahlia cuttings:
Here is a list and links to our favorite materials to get your dahlia cuttings going.
- Dahlia tubers
- Pencil and plant labels
- Substrate of choice
- Trays, pots or crates
- Heat mat
- Grow lights
- Sharp, sterile knife
- Rooting hormone
The Dahlia Cutting Step By Step Guide
Step 1: Stay Organized with Labels
Pull the dahlia tubers you wish to take cuttings from and write out one label per tuber.
For new growers, here’s a little general tip you might not know. Write your plant tags with pencil. It will last much longer than a pen, marker, or anything else. Trust me. It seems illogical, but it’s true.
Step 2: Pot Up Dahlia Tubers
After we’ve got a tag for each tuber/variety written up, we pop the tubers into your substrate of choice – we recommend a light potting mix like this one – to wake them up. You can do this in pots, cell packs or into open trays or empty bulb crates – whatever works for you! We’ve used all types of containers and they all work great, it just depends on what you have and what your growing space looks like. Also, no need to water, the tubers will shoot up eyes and sprouts from the energy they have stored within.
Tubers should be placed vertically with the top of their necks remaining out of the soil (we’ll talk more about this in a moment), then place the tray on a heat mat under grow lights.
Step 3: Wait for Sprouts
After placing your tubers on a heat mat, be patient. In roughly ten days, sprouts should appear. Give them an additional week or so, allowing shoots to develop two full leaf sets with stems reaching at least an inch in length.
Step 4: Prepare for the Cut
The reason for keeping tuber necks above the soil surface is now evident—it facilitates precise cutting. To create a cut, where the fresh green meets the tuber’s brown neck, must be approached with care to prevent damage to the growing point within the neck. A damaged growing point can drastically reduce the tuber’s productivity.
Step 5: Set Up Your Cuttings Tray
Before cutting, get a tray with moist potting soil ready, making sure your heat mat has room for it. Cuttings thrive with bottom heat; without it, they may not root and instead deteriorate. Have your rooting hormone, such as Dip ‘n Grow, prepared at a 20x dilution.
Step 6: Taking the Cutting
Use a pencil to make a hole in the potting soil within each tray cell. Sprouts that make viable cuttings should have at least two leaf sets and be about 1-2” tall. To take the cutting you will use your sharp, sterile knife and cut as close to the point of connection between the base of the stem and neck of the tuber. One swift, clean cut is best, don’t be shy! Dip the fresh cutting into the rooting hormone for about 5-10 seconds to make sure the stem is fully coated. After dipping your cutting in the hormone, place it in the pre-made hole to maintain the hormone coat and gently pat in the soil around it.
Step 7: Keep Cuttings Organized
Label each cutting with its variety and the date taken. This helps manage your assortment efficiently and track the rooting timeline, being mindful to discard any that remain dormant for too long.
Step 8: Care for Your Cuttings
Maintain the cuttings on the heat mat until they resist a gentle tug—indicating root development. Then, you may transfer them into a larger tray or leave them be. Ensuring the soil remains moist is paramount. A daily leaf misting can assist in retaining moisture.
Step 9: Transition to Growth
When ready, move the cuttings from the heat mat. They can be transferred to a more significant tray or container to continue their growth. During this phase, avoid direct sunlight and excess humidity which can stunt growth or promote rot.
Step 10: Continue to Harvest Cuttings
Up until late April, continue to harvest cuttings from the mother tubers, aiming for five to seven cuttings each. Taking more can exhaust the tuber, diminishing its field viability.
Step 11: Rooted and Ready
Conditions permitting, cuttings typically root within three weeks. The size of the plant when it transitions to the field is a matter for your judgment and desired outcomes.
We fertilize both dahlia cuttings and dahlia plants in the field with weekly foliar applications of a mild mixture of various ingredients such as fish emulsion, kelp, bat guano, humates and compost tea. The exact formula changes during the course of the plants’ life cycle. This application really helps combat disease and encourages the plants to put on healthy growth quickly.
Now that you know how to take dahlia cuttings each spring, you can quickly multiply your stash in no time. Each cutting, if grown properly for a full season in the field, will produce several tubers that can be dug up in the fall. Play your cards right and from one expensive tuber in the spring, you can have 40-60 healthy tubers by the fall. Talk about magic!
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