I've had several weeks to observe the dahlias as they grow. Typically they come up with two temporary leaves. These leaves are not permanent and will get replaced with real leaves as they grow.
Here is a seedling in super condition with both temporary / seedling leaves and the onset of real leaves:
The real leaves are in the center while the temporary ones are shaped like tear drops and V into the center stem. This plant is healthy looking and would not cause you much concern. Unfortunately, it is fairly uncommon for dahlia seedlings to be in such fine condition.
Dahlia seedling, as they put on permanent leaves, often look like this:
As you can see, one of the temporary leaves has dropped off of the edge of the paper container and the other is held at an awkward angle. The plant doesn't look well, but it is doing fine as long as the permanent leaves are doing well. And this is how the majority of my plants appear as they transition into permanent foliage.
Sometime the plants drop their temporary leaves almost too soon:
Here, very small permanent leaves are all that remain and the plant came fairly close to not making it. I've had a handful of plants that dropped the temporary leaves too soon and failed shortly afterwards. I am not sure why this happens.
It's been 3 going on 4 weeks now and I am nowhere near having a dahlia outgrow the little paper pot that they are in. I did have an occasion to transplant one and the root system seemed as though it had grown into a tight ball/clump compared to other plants.
I will be happy when I can get them in the ground! Two or three more weeks.
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