What's Eating My Blooms?

How many times have you walked up to a bloom to admire it’s beauty and then turned it around to find the petals chewed up?

In my case, quite a few times! A few weeks ago, Valerie sent me these pictures of her dahlias wondering what to do.

Petals chewed to bits and black mounds left behind.

I knew instantly what was wrong because unfortunately I’ve seen it all too often: Grasshoppers! Definitely one of the top nemesis when growing dahlias. The black mounds (grasshopper poop) are the tell-tale sign. Grasshoppers love them some dahlia petals.

So what’s a grower to do? You have a couple options. The most organic way is to cover the bloom with an organza bag- commonly known as dahlia pops!

If you put the bag on the bloom at the green bud stage (once the bud is sturdy enough to hold itself up on the stem without flopping but before it’s showing any color), the bag will keep pretty much any muncher out. The organza bag system is a great one for production growers dealing with lots of blooms.

Perfect stage for bagging

A bit late but better late than never

However if you grow dahlias to enjoy their beauty in your garden, you probably don’t want to look at bags. So your next option is to spray or find something that eats grasshoppers. If you keep chickens, they love them and can keep your population at a controllable level. Other birds will help too. Having a source of water in your yard encourages birds to come. Then they stay and eat your bugs!

Spraying will help but grasshoppers are so thick skinned that it’s hard to find an organic spray to deal with them. Most organic pesticides aren’t strong enough.

Creating a thriving ecosystem in your yard yields better results. Also I’ve found that the more dahlias I grow, the more perfect blooms I get. I mean, they can’t eat them all! And I’m good with any excuse to grow more dahlias!