I know this isn't a very active forum - but wondering if people are interested in trading tubers in the spring.

I finally finished dividing my clumps, and dusting each tuber with Cinnamon and then wrapping them individually in saran wrap. The year I had over 400 tubers so it took quite a while.

I have been successfully trading tubers through other sites for several years - I only send tubers that have started to sprout, and am a careful packer. I have quadrupled my varieties for the cost of postage, which is usually less than a dollar a tuber.

I have listed all my my Dahlias on my plant list, with number of tubers that are available for sales or trades.

http://garden.org/lists/view/m...

If you are interested please tree-mail me.

Geof, wow you have some beauties! I hope you do this next year. This coming season I'm going to be maxed out for space, I placed a large Swan Island order from a gift certificate. But the plan is to remove another large section of lawn next summer, fingers crossed.

I had to chuckle about the dusting with cinnamon. Last year as I brought out my tubers one variety started to get some mildew. I did not have any commercial antifungul. I instinctively grabbed cinnamon and gave them a good dusting. Worked like a charm.

Thanks Jennifer - the cinnamon is new for me this year. Previously I have used sulfur as an anti fungal - but that is nasty stuff to work with, and I have read that cinnamon does as good a job. It smelled like I was baking for the holidays!

I have had great successes with trading tubers, so I am sure I will continue doing it. Occasionally one receives a dud, but last year I received about 40 new varieties for less than $40 postage, and while 4-5 of them either didn't eye up or didn't grow for me - It was still a great way to almost double my collection.

How much cinnamon do you use. I have a shaker for powdered sugar. Would that work? Cinnamon isn't exactly inexpensive if you use a lot.

I have maybe 75 different varieties. Some are eyed up and some are trying to grow in storage. I won't know til spring who survives but they look good this year. Also have about 40 on order. MUST stop ordering. So I won't have room for trades this year but thanks for the offer.

I guess I am a cheapskate - I always try to establish my trades before I order any new ones


I bought a large jar of cinnamon for less than $2 at Aldi.

I poured about 1/4 of it into a gallon zip-lock with about 2 cups of vermiculite, threw in 4-8 tubers at a time and gently rolled them around (I am sure you remember "Shake & Bake") - after doing that 8-10 times I needed to add more cinnamon, but the jar lasted through all of my 400 plus tubers.

Great. I will remember for next year. I looked at your dahlias and you have one or two that I ordered and paid $9 a pop for. Ouch.

mandolls- How did the cinnamon work last winter?

It seemed to work as well as the sulfur that I had used before. I will definitely use it again.

I am up for sharing. Not so much though for getting new ones. I am only just now digging so won't know for a bit what I have that looks worth offering. I'll let you know.

How difficult are dahlias to grow from seed? I don't lift my tubers and won't have any to share, but if
anyone's interested in seeds from `Crazy Love' or the NOID red hybrid I have, I'm glad to exchange for
other seeds. Just don't want to wait for years before I get blooms and I'm sure no one does as well.

They are easy to grow from seed and will flower the same year. No need to think you'd have to wait for years.

However.............from what I have heard from friends who do a lot of growing from seed/hybridizing 90-95% of them are not great flowers. But that all depends on what you are looking for, if its just color in the garden, then it will be fun, if you are trying to grow flowers to introduce into the market as "show flowers" then its a long hunt for the perfect bloom. Dahlias are complex genetically and even when you are hand crossing two winners, you will mostly get duds.

The only dahlias I have grown from seed are the little bedding dahlias (12-18" high) - If I start them indoors under lights in Jan/Feb, they have buds on them by the time I plant them out.

You're right, Geof. Most are rather boring and none are exciting - not that I've ever had.

I have some seeds a DG friend sent. Never tried to grow them. Perhaps next Jan/Feb I will give it a try. Little yellow fellows I believe.

The ground has a frozen crust of about 2" now. Digging remaining dahlias tomorrow. Too busy today. Also have some lily bulbs that need replanting. They sprouted in the wrong place and got lost among tall dahlias. I started a mixed lily bed in the front garden and have to remember to only plant short dahlias in front of them as they are not very tall.

The timing may be different where you are, but last year I planted dahlias in front of lilies and the timing was perfect - the lilies were finished blooming by the time the dahlias started to shade them out. (though they were fairly tall lilies)

I have lots of seed grown dahlias and I think they are beautiful, of course not show winners but my non gardener friends think they are amazing. Plus inexpensive and since I don't have to lift tubers in my zone they come back each year. I have a peachy one that I grew from seed swap and it turned out stunning plentiful blooms, branched out like a shrub, definitely a keeper. I gave one of my dahlia seedlings to a friend and she is amazed by its flowering. I'm one of those folks who always has mongrel pets, never purebred, kind of like my garden lol.

Well, clumps are in the garage. How shall we do this? Offer tubers/clumps now or wait til spring. The more I send off the fewer I have to save.

I too need to downsize my dahlias to make room for new ones that I want to add next year. They are getting a bit much to handle at this point.

So @geof since you started this what is our process?

Well.............first note that this was a thread I started last year. I don't really have things organized yet for this year. But what I have always done is do the actual trading in the spring, as weather after digging can be really chancy for shipping tubers safely.

On another site that I frequent, everyone posts a list of the tubers that they expect to have available for trading (after they dig and see what they have), then participants contact each other (tree-mail here would be best) with wish lists. Ideally everyone's tubers last through the storage season, but if not then adjustments are made in the spring.

Last year, I turned my ATP plant list into my list of available tubers (I had a lot and was selling as well as trading) It worked well because pics and info became part of the list, and its easy to edit as the number of available tubers decreases. I then posted this thread here and posted a thread in the ATP classifieds which reaches more people than just the few of us that frequent the dahlia forum. However, what might work better for us as a group is to start a new thread here "Available for trade spring 2016", and everyone could post their lists there, and/or if they want to use the ATP plant lists, post a link to their page.

I prefer to ship using priority mail. The small boxes ship for about $6, and can hold 6-10 tubers depending on the size of the tubers, the medium boxes are 12.65 (?) and can hold up to 25 or so. If its only 1-2 tubers then you can sometimes get away with using padded envelopes, but some tubers are just to fat for those. Last year I put 1-3 tubers in ziplocks with vermiculite, labeled both the tubers themselves and the baggies, and everything arrived safely.

I won't be digging till closer to the end of October, so probably won't have my list together until early November. But if you are ready to go then you could go ahead and start the 2016 trading thread.