Wow. Such different weather down there.

Today I was much too hot digging the last of the dahlias. It was 56, sunny, no wind at all. I shed my jacket in a few minutes. Tomorrow it will cool down.

I am only an hour or so east of RJ & Gary, but the snow missed us. Highs of only 35 today but it is supposed to be sunny, so I'll try to get out and deal with the dahlias, or at least some of them.

My vow to have them in and divided before thanksgiving isnt going to happen, but at least I have most of the coming week off of school, so I'll get them done before December rolls in.

Our temp dropped below freezing last night. I saw the ground frozen on the surface this morning and went into panic mode. The high today was 36 and windy. Not the greatest weather to work in. But I cut down 140 dahlia stalks and bagged/canned them for yard waste collection tomorrow. I also picked up 8 more bags of leaves and I don't even have any trees besides a crab apple. I wish some neighbors would learn how to rake. There are probably enough for 10-15 more bags unless I get a favorable wind and "gift" someone else with them.

I have 30 stalks left to cut. I hope to finish that tomorrow and put sandwich bags with rubbers bands over the open stumps. The temps are supposed to warm into the mid-40's for the next week but there's rain in the forecast almost every day. I hope to dig the tubers next week without standing in mud.

This poor ragged Elsie Huston and two yellow Janal Amys opened Friday in our 70-something degree heat. I should have cut them and brought them inside. They looked good yesterday. The 50 MPH winds this weekend and the freezing temps last night did them in. This ratty bloom is showing signs of "freezer burn". I think it's safe to assume this will be my last bloom of the year. LOL

Dan, that sounds just plain grim! We are sitting at 29F with 6-7mph winds. Doesn't sound bad until you are out standing in it getting hypothermic. You couldn't pay me to work in it. Well, I may have when I was much younger. Silly kids.

The cold just motivates me to keep moving faster. LOL My biggest problem is cold hands when hosing off the clumps. I hate wearing gloves but sometimes have no choice. I've been slacking a little this year partly due to being spoiled (again!) by the mild weather. Once I get started I only have one speed that's called, "Get outta my way!" Hardest thing is getting started. The rest of the job goes pretty fast.

I've always been amazed at the amount of water that comes out of some of the cut stalks. I'll swear some of the big ones must have had a cup. I don't worry about it since I divide the tubers after allowing a couple days to dry. My only concern is the few that I bag as whole clumps. But I think turning them upside down for a day or so should drain out enough water to prevent any rot.

I have four boxes of freezer bags, a bag each of vermiculite and cedar shavings and a couple rolls of Saran Wrap on stand-by. It's time to get serious!

This morning's harvest. I had hoped to dig all of them today but it looked like it could rain any minute. So I hurried to finish digging these, labeled them and set up my washing table. Just as I turned on the hose it began to rain lightly. No big deal since I was dressed from head to toe in Gore-tex anyway. After washing, I put them into laundry baskets to dry in the shed. Now I have 76 out of the way and I think I counted 94 left to dig. The forecast shows rain in the morning but ending by 7 AM. I should be able to finish up the digging tomorrow and maybe start dividing by the end of the week.

I was really disappointed with many of the clumps. There were a few plants that didn't produce any new tubers. The mother tuber being the entire "clump." Some had only one or two new ones. My soil test last spring said I needed to cut waaaaay back on the phosphorus. Maybe that's the reason. Next year I'll go back to a more balanced fertilizer.

Rain is in the forecast every day for at least the next week. After the extremely dry spring and summer we had, who would have thought it would come at digging time?? Me!!

Holy cow. What a pile. Looks like tons of work in the washing and dividing. But they look relatively dirt free. The dirt just clung to mine. I had to lay them out on cardboard on the garage floor stem down for a few days before I could even get the excess off. Didn't want to store them with moist soil packed in them.

Dan's are so clean. I shook mine off, left them out to dry, then packaged them. Later today I may go through them and try and separate some of them.

Yup. Mine were mud balls.

Having a great time! Wish you were here!

I'm done! At least with the digging phase. This is the second day's harvest. I can't wait till next year to do this again. It took me at least twice as long to dig these as normal. Our blessed rains arrived just in time to soak the ground and make the clumps heavier and messier. I also found this jumbled mess of matted roots, or moss or whatever (?) in much of the backyard bed. It's growing over, under and through the clumps. I had to dig down and try to separate it from the clumps so I could pull them out of the ground. Still, I broke more tuber necks today than in all the other years combined. I felt like I was in a tug-of-war contest. Some clumps had 4 or 5 handfuls of this stuff around them. There's nothing growing on top of the ground. I've never seen this much of it before. I'm tired and will pass on any workouts tonight.

Thanks, but those tubers yesterday were not close to being clean. A lot of wet soil hanging on them. I finished washing the ones today and put everything away. Then I remembered the other six growing along the tool shed. I went ahead and dug them but left them lying on top of the ground. The next rain can clean them. I wasn't about to unroll the hose again.

The nice thing about today was the weather. We had a sun/cloud mix and temps in the mid 60's. Not bad for late November!

What IS that stuff Dan?? Can't you till up in the spring and/or put some sort of buried edging down say 6" to keep it from regrowing. That would make it horrible to dig up tubers. As you= so eloquently stated.

Your clumps still look cleaner and drier than mine were. Maybe because they are outside and it is 60F. It was in the 30's when I dug mine and they went into a garage so while temps were in the mid to high 50's there it also held humidity.

I am going downstairs to day to see how they are doing. Also have a pot with a lily in it I want to check on. Set it by the footing hoping it would be a little cooler there but I doubt it. Not enough difference to matter.

Yup. We will be chomping at the bit to go through this next fall (with the definition of 'fall varying greatly.)

No idea, Mary. I've seen a bit of it in the garden before. But it was mostly around the perimeter so I assumed it was just some grass or weeds creeping in from the lawn. Now there is at least a little of it in different places over about half the garden. It may be something that came in with potting soil or compost. I read something on-line about someone tilling leaves and grass clipping into their garden and later finding masses of roots that sound like what I found. I have tilled in a lot of uncomposted leaves, grass clippings, etc. over the years. Maybe something grew out of that. Nothing has ever grown through the surface though. Every year or so, I find a new weed I've never seen before. I'm sure some of this comes in with top soil, compost or mulch. I remember reading about a guy who used cypress mulch in his flower beds. Something grew out of it and spread all over the neighborhood. The neighbors were ready to kill him. I hope this won't be like the old sci-fi movie, "The Blob" in that the more you try to kill it, it only gets bigger. LOL

If it hadn't been for all the rain lately, my clumps would have been much cleaner. Due to all the sand in much of the garden, I can normally stick the garden fork in one or two places and the clumps just pop out of the ground with almost all of the dirt just falling off. I wish the digging had been easier. These matted roots are a royal PITA in more ways than one!

Here we are the 1st week of December, and finally my Dahlias are out of the ground!

I kept putting it off because we had such a nice warm fall, then when it was time, I sprained my back, then when that started getting better, I got a tooth infection, then Thanksgiving visitors blah blah bah.

I spent 6-7 hours digging and hauling in the dahlias yesterday. It was snowing - 2-3 " in total, but at least it wasn't very cold.

It is supposed to drop down to the teens at the end of the week, so it was bring them in or write them off.

I didnt get 15- or 20 of them in, but they are ones that I dont think I will miss, and cutting back next year is a priority. 200 is just to many for me to deal with.

I still have to divide them all, which will take a while, but at least they are in now.

Congrats Geoff. sounds like 'just in the nick of time' too. Good way to keep the 'count' down.

I divided all the clumps last weekend and started bagging or saran wrapping Sunday afternoon. I finished last night after 9 o'clock. I am sooooo grateful to get that over with. The wrapping is not the neatest looking job in the world. In fact, some look like I threw the tape on from across the room. But I was getting tired toward the end. I went with about a 50/50 ratio when bagging or wrapping last year. The wrapped ones turned out so good that I upped it to 75-80% this time. Maybe I just got lucky last year and will end up regretting not bagging more. C'mon, think positive!!

I dusted everything with copper fungicide this year. Heck with that smelly sulphur. I bought a big bag of cedar shavings this morning to add to the bagged tubers. All that's left to do is put them into the attic and promise myself I'll never, ever grow this many dahlias again!

Geof, do you use anything other than standard saran wrap? I saw some wrap at the supermarket that was a dark green color and seemed to be a little thicker. The thicker type might provide more protection but I decided to go with the clear wrap thinking it might be easier to see through and spot a potential problem.

My tubers (undivided) are doing great. I checked them this morning. Nice and firm and full of life.

psudan said:Geof, do you use anything other than standard saran wrap? I saw some wrap at the supermarket that was a dark green color and seemed to be a little thicker. The thicker type might provide more protection but I decided to go with the clear wrap thinking it might be easier to see through and spot a potential problem.

I just use regular saran. I used to dust with sulfur, but it is such nasty stuff, the past few years I have dusted with cinnamon, as I read it is a natural anti fungal.

I usually dont ever bother checking the tubers until I am ready to wake them up. Since the are wrapped individually, if one does rot, it is contained, so I dont worry about the one rotten apple spoiling the barrel.

Shhh! They are all sleeping soundly and doing well thus far.

that is funny Gary. I keep saying I am going down to the crawl space to check but haven't made it yet. And we will be around the bend into January soon. Days are just flying and it seems like you guys down south have barely gotten yours dug and into storage.