Drowning (in) Dahlias
We’ve had just about every type of weather you could imagine for this time of year! Definitely been on the roller coaster ride recently. Over the past week we’ve had at least 10 inches of rain, kinda lost count after that. We are due for some more through early next week too. Needless to say, we have not been planting tubers this week!
But we have been planting lots of cuttings. We’ve been hopping out in between storms and getting our beds prepped. Permanent raised beds are a big advantage in weather like this- we don’t have to wait for them to dry enough to till. So we’ve just ripped out the previous crop, amended if needed and then replanted!
One thing I love about plants is how much they will teach you if you observe them carefully. Midweek after a lot of heavy rain, I went to our offsite plot which has 3 different fields. Two of the fields look fantastic- new dahlia growth after so much rain is beautiful- so clean and bug free! But the third field is suffering a bit. It’s the oldest and has really good soil nutrient wise but not the same set up regarding drainage. So the plants looked like this as soon as the sun came out:
So many of the tops were flopped over. They’ll rebound but I am definitely seeing some drainage improvements are needed in this field. Below you can see where we had standing water. If the water drains out in 24 hours I don’t worry about it. But over all this field is holding too much water around the roots. The beds in this fiels are about at ground level. They don’t have much raise to them.
In the field next door, there are a few spots that hold water in the pathways but the beds are raised up by 6-8” and it’s making a world of difference.
Most likely we will have to redo the other field this fall. Dig everything out and raise the beds up because even those few inches make all the difference.
But despite the drainage issues, the plants are looking so happy. We cut our first stems this week and are looking at a nice flush a week or so from now. How are your dahlias doing this Spring?