Pinching out your dahlias will create stronger bushier plants with more flowers. Pinching out is also sometimes called stopping. My video this week shows you how I do it and gives a quick update on how the dahlias are getting on in May.
Thanks so much for watching! I am glad you found it helpful and good luck with growing your dahlias this summer. Fingers crossed for lots of flowers. I am just starting to see the first buds on mine now.
Thanks so much for watching. I am glad you found it helpful and good luck with your dahlias this year. I hope you get lots of blooms after pinching them out.
Those dahlias really have got big. They are all at different stages this year as some are still just getting leaves and some yet to sprout! They were potted up in March and I have been putting the fleece on and off them at night the whole of April as it was so cold!
@@melc1918 they are definitely worth the work put into growing them. So many varieties to grow and every year I have a new favourite for using in my bouquets.
Thats really interesting, sounds like we have similar growing seasons. When does yours run from and too? I normally get flowers April onwards and then it can be variable. Last year the frosts took the dahlias by the last week in September but occasionally they have lasted until November.
We plant out in Spring June 1st. Try to have stuff fairly mature. We cut back perennials and dig up dahlias and at first real frost .October 8th .last year . . Zone 5 . 61 latitude. I put begonias, fushias , and dahlias, in root cellar and roses ! In late Fall.october. In Alaska in heated Greenhouse with out grow lights, only geraniums can sustain until sun comes back January . ( December only 6 hours sunshine ).March 10hours sunshine, so start planting seeds in Greenhouse. Lots of snow outside , though . So we crank out seeds And starters, and get tubers , bulbs growing in Greenhouse. June 1st plant out. 138 days summer . Everyone loves summer 22 hours sunshine in June .huge 300 lb cabbages.
It’s really interesting hearing how you garden with such extremes of daylight at different times of the year. You have similar planting out and first frost dates to us in Scotland but the summer hours of daylight for you have so much potential for growing some fantastic things, 300lb cabbages, that’s amazing!!
They are hopefully! going to fit in a big bed in the flower patch and I am going to keep some in the bigger pots this year so I can move them around if the weather gets bad in autumn. Looking forward to seeing all those flowers!
I started my tubers inside and Potts with the southern window. One of mine is that tall but it doesn’t have that many leaves, so I’m wondering if it’s stretching quite a bit and what I should do about that.
Thanks so much for watching. I would try and get it into a location with a more light if possible on all sides as it may be stretching due to low light even with being on a south facing window. If that is the only place it can be I would turn it frequently so the plant gets light on all sides. As soon as it has developed 3 sets of leaves I would pinch it back leaving 2 pairs and it will hopefully bush out from there and become a stronger plant.
Hello thanks for watching. The varieties I grew were still tall varieties in pots as an experiment last year. The pot size I used was 10 litres. They did work and flower well. My only concern with growing them in pots was making sure they got enough water as the soil dried out far more quickly than in the beds.
@@cloudberryflowers-flowerfarm thank you. I have planted some in raised bed, some in soil border and some in pots so will be making notes on which grow best.
If you just pinch out the main leading stem that will be enough to promote a bushier stronger plant. If there are a few stems that look like strong leading stems you could pinch these out too to encourage even more branching. However if a lot of the stems are pinched you will have to wait longer for flowers. By just pinching 1-2 stems and leaving the rest you will get some early flowers followed by lots later. Every time you cut dahlias for a vase throughout the growing season you are also effectively causing the same promotion of more flowers just like pinching.
Hi thanks for watching. It depends on the plant. If it’s a plant that just has one obvious strong main stem I will pinch that out and leave the smaller ones but if it is a plant that has put up a few main strong stems I will pinch them all back. So some plants 1 shoot pinched. Some bigger plants 2-3 bigger stems pinched.
I’ve seen videos where they say to pinch when the dahlia gets to be about 12 inches. (Don’t know what that is is centimeters.) Should I wait until they are bigger?
Thanks for watching. Around 12 inches (30cm) is perfect for pinching out your dahlias. No need to wait until they are bigger. They all grow at different rates so some might be bigger then 12 inches by the time you get time to pinch them but that’s fine it wouldn’t be too late then. I wouldn’t pinch out anything too small though. They need to be putting on some good growth first to cope with being pinched which is why we wait until they are about 30cm.
Thanks! I usually wait until they have at least 3 or 4 true sets of leaves. It seems to work pretty well, just wondered if it would work better if I waited longer.
@@judyjamison9860 I don’t think there would be any extra benefit to waiting longer, it would just delay flowering until later in the season. That would be fine if you lived somewhere with a long season. I always want my dahlias flowering quite quickly as last year our first frosts were in September.
