Hi guys, last winter I stored some of my dahlias just in bags with new sandy soil in a dark and dry place each of the clumps unwashed placed in a new plastic polythene black bag..those very cheap plyable plastic bags with some holes for drainage at the bottom ( very similar to the grocery bag method). They were kept up in the main storage room dark and piled up two layers. Then in early spring I moved them to my greenhouse. A few weeks later they had all sprouted 95% success rate. As the bag already had some compost added to the very sandy soil, the tubers started regrowth with some nutrients as well. In late spring ( that is November here) they left the greenhouse with their first flower buds showing so they went into their holes in their beds by dec 1. Thus I had a very early start with many cultivars already in bloom by mid- December. Somehow new sandy soil keeps the average humidity level for the tubers to avoid shrivelling and if kept dry also avoids rotting fungi. Reading the various opinions along the thread, for those that have too dry winters then perhaps they may need perhaps a light watering by mid winter once. My environment never has winters with very high atmospheric humidity so that excess humidity inside the soil doesn't seem a handicap. I've lost uplifted tubers to molding by keeping them in sealed plastic bags and to shrivelling by keeping them in just too aereated bags ( i.e too many holes). What I try to emulate is what those tubers would have done in their native Mexican original environment, where winters are cold ( below 30ºF) but never freezing the ground and very dry. Somehow lifting them completely out of soil doesn't seem within their preferences. The only drawback of my method is that it requires much more space. The dividing part can be done as soon as the bags show initial buds popping up. Those first shoots are so vigorously vital that I've discovered by trial and error that if they happen to snip one off instead of discarding them they can be planted aside as a cutting and they may probably reach flowering size even in their first season in spite of their own tuber being no longer attached. Arturo
