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Dahlias Rocky Mountain Gardening

Can I start Dahlias inside in cardboard boxes instead of pots?

12 days ago

I have about 50 Dahlias to start inside. Can I plant those in cardboard boxes? I don't have pots for so many and it is pricey to do that.

I'll be relocating these plants after my Iris' bloom so I have a month or two for them to be inside (last frost date is May 5th in my zone 6). If cardboard boxes are a bad idea does anyone have any advice for pots I can use at lower pricing?

Thanks!

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Comments (5)

diggerdee zone 6 CT
7 days ago
Beth, I always seem to have an issue with my dahlias needing to be planted before it's time to put them out. Just this morning I was looking online for some ideas. In the past, I've potted them up and put them in a small cold frame type contraption on my sunny driveway against the foundation, and they actually did fairly well. But what a pain in the neck potting up all those pots (a good 80 or so). And an expense for all that potting soil.

This morning I read that one can put them in a plastic tray or box and keep them in a sunny window inside. So, a few things. First of all, I just skimmed the articles and plan to go back tomorrow to re-read. Secondly, I'm not sure if this is just to get the eyes to sprout, or to start growing them for real. Lastly, I'm thinking you could probably use a cardboard box, as long as it doesn't get too wet - which I'm thinking it won't because it seems you shouldn't keep the dahlias too wet. If I try this indoor way (and I might) I am looking at some clear plastic boxes I have - various sizes, like those Sterlite boxes, if you are familiar.

Try googling "waking up your dahlias" or something similar. Good luck!

:)

Dee
Beth D.
Original Author
4 days ago
Hi Dee, apologies for the delay in response. Thank you so much!!! Super helpful!!! Looking at the weather I got kind of anxious. I actually did end up doing boxes for a week and it worked great! Even the like 10 that I thought had no hope started sprouting (which I feel a bit bad about since I emailed the company that they were dried out and they sent me new ones. Oops :/ ). Anyway, so yeah! Had them in my basement under grow lights and worked quite well. Yesterday I started putting them in these felt “pots” I tried last year. They aren’t too bad. $22 for 12 on Amazon. With last frost looking further out than normal I ended up investing in a bit more than I wanted to :/ But it wasn’t too bad. But yeah the soil… I’ve been out of the gardening game for a few years and forgot how pricey it is!!!!!! Ouch!!!!! Anyway, so here’s my plan until they can go outside. A few little heaters I’m HOPING will keep the garage warm enough. Last night was the first night and it worked pretty good but we’ll see as it gets colder. Thanks so much for the advice!!!!!!!!!! I’ll try a plastic trays for the “replacements” when they arrive 😬 Best of luck with yours too!! :) Thanks again!!
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The eyes donÂt need to be covered. Like Russ said, they donÂt need to be fully planted; as they are just being "started" preparatory to going outside. This is my 3rd or 4th year doing them this way, which I learned about on this forum. On mine the clump "shoulders" are actually exposed as well, really only the bottom half is in dirt. You save potting soil, pot space and some effort. My plastic pots are lined with newspaper which acts like a peat pot: at planting time you pop the tuber and its paper liner out of the plastic pot and plant the whole thing very easily. (do a search here for "paper pot" for the whole system, or look at Jroot's post for pictures.) http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/dahlia/msg041343391520.html I am going to go with the baggie method for the rest (thanks, poochella!) as I need to conserve further space. For underneath I have deep foil trays I bought at the dollar store. It will be a good comparison of the two methods, as making the paper pots (when you do a lot: I have ~ 30-35) does take some time.
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Hey there, The refrigerator might be a little too cold. Instead of 60 degrees, you could just plant them when everyone usually plants their tomatoes or melons. Melons are usually a couple of weeks later. I am not sure about that 60 degree figure and think it might be folklore. Please see other messages on the forum, where other people also discuss, including someone who is experimenting by planting out tubers early in zone 5. If you do want to go with 60 degrees, it refers to the AVERAGE through the day and night, and I think also refers to 6 inches down, where people usually plant their tubers. If I were you, I would start the plants inside in pots and then bring them out in a few weeks. You could also keep them outside during the day when temperature is high enough. Mine thrive this way.
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I do similarly as NHBabs & Sedum. At the end of the season (perhaps after a light frost), I snip off the foliage, clean up the topsoil, then store the pots w tubers in an unheated, dark-ish cellar area (45-50 deg in winter). Most of them are large pots. Every month or so I sprinkle to pot with a cup or so of water so that the tubers don't dry out. Too much water and they could rot or get moldy. In the late spring, I unpack, and clean hot the jam packet pot. I bring some to a window or growl ight area to get a head start. I often have extra tubers. NHBabs, maybe if you put a bit of landscape paper cloth over the tops, they wouldn't start sprouting as early? When mine sprout too early, I prune them back. I've grown dahlias from seed. Magic! I bring some of the geraniums into the house for the winter; it's heartening to see them blooming with snow just beyond the window. i've even had clematis inside over winter and one year had clematis blooms up and around either side of a large south-facing window. Cheaper and more fun than buying flowers. I've got a small Ville de Lyon I may bring inside along with an extra rooted one from the garden.
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LOL!!! Yeah, it’s ALL high, Digit! Most of us posting here right now are along the Front Range, which is on the plains, TR. Denver, the Mile High City, is at 5,280’! And, going west, it just goes UP from here! Methinks you definitely wouldn’t want to live in Gunnison, Digit! It’s often the coldest place in Colorado! Before they took the official weather station out of it, Fraser, Colorado used to always be the coldest place in Colorado—and most of the time in the lower 48. Fraser, way back then, was called “Ike’s Icebox,” and “the Nation’s Icebox.” Eisenhower used to “vacation” there! (Mamie lived here as a child, and was married to Ike in Denver.) After Fraser “shut down,” Bemidji, MN claimed that honor for a while, but the weathermen don’t seem to make such a “big deal” out of “the coldest place” anymore. If you were here for a whole month you should have gotten over any altitude sickness in about a week. Monarch’s 11,312’, so it is kind of high, but most peoples’ bodies adjust within the first several days. Funny story—I think! Many years ago when my in-laws (at the time) came to Denver to visit us—from (pretty dern close to sea level) Pennsylvania, we took them for a drive out to Aspen and then drove over Independence Pass coming back to Denver. My father-in-law “didn’t like” being out in the mountains because he always had “altitude sickness”—he never would admit that it was because he was scared of driving (being in a car) out there! Now I can’t say the he didn’t really have some degree of altitude sickness, but he felt REALLY bad when were up on Independence which is 12,096’. The “funny” part came up when we got over the pass and “all the way down to” Twin Lakes on the eastern side! We were on FLAT ground there, and he was feeling MUCH better! Ok! Twin Lakes is at 9,200’! He didn’t know that—and we didn’t tell him that! It was flat, so he didn’t have “altitude sickness” anymore! Maybe his particular “altitude sickness” should have been called “mountain road steep drop-off sickness!” And, yeah, much of the reason for our extreme temp swing is because of the changes in altitude. Especially here along the front range where the mountains can “mess with” both the winds and the precip coming from the west. The WINDS we had yesterday are called Chinooks here—“warm winds.” And that’s why it got so warm yesterday. The Chinooks ZOOM down on the Front Range bringing all that nice warm air to us, but the “warm” comes with a price since we get the WIND which can cause problems for plants/trees, and also, as we had yesterday, high fire danger since Chinooks are also DRY winds. It’s still a little breezy out today, but MUCH better than is was yesterday—and cooler! The reason the 148 mph gust on Monarch yesterday was “unofficial” is because NOAA didn’t really “trust” their equipment and they were going to send somebody out to check to see if it was working right! Haven’t heard anymore today! I think we’re sorta taking this thread OT, but it seems to have pretty much run its course anyway! Skybird P.S. Mathew, I think I need one of those retractable awnings just for the veggie garden! Well, and maybe for my perennial beds!
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diggerdee zone 6 CT
3 days ago
So Beth I happened to be out and about the other day, and bought some foil roasting pans to use for my dahlias. So instead of potting up individually and putting out in the cold frame, I did as I read and after dividing (what a pain! lol) I laid them in the roasting pans on about an inch of dry potting mix, then covered it with another inch or so. The instructions said to mist lightly, but I didn't, since I had washed off the tubers to work with them more easily, and figured that was damp enough for now. Then I just put them on a table in my living room in front of a window. That was Monday and I lightly misted today.

The ones that had obvious eyes or even sprouts I will have to pot up, I guess, and put out in the cold frame. I had hoped to do that today but didn't get to it. And actually, while I will pot up the "special" ones lol, I have lots of certain kinds and those I will just lay in seed starting trays with soil in the cold frame, instead of individual pots. I did that last year when I got fed up with potting individually lol, and they did okay!

You are right about the extended frost date/cool temps, and wondering when is it time vs. when is it too soon, but at the same time I keep reassuring myself that they should be fine, as last year I did all this stuff in April, and here we are in May, so they should be fine in the cold frame. I hope lol....

Good luck! Let us know how they make out!

:)

Dee
Beth D.
Original Author
2 days ago
Thanks for the tips!!!! good luck to you too!!!! bte good to talk to uou again :) We communicated a bunch years ago wjen i first started gardening and i disapeared for a while. happy to be in touch again! thanks Dee :)
diggerdee zone 6 CT
yesterday
Oh wow, it's so nice to have you back! Hope all is well with you. Come on over to the perennials forum - it's a bit busier than here. Sadly GW isn't the hopping place it used to be but it's still my go-to gardening site. I just ask most of my questions on the perennials forum now. Some of the more specialized forums (aside from hostas, daylilies, and roses lol) just don't get the traffic.

Thanks for the kind words, and again, best of luck with your dahlias!

:)

Dee

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