Digging Dahlias & Satisfying Annual Cleanup!
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00:00 the ground we are a zone six. that's risky because i think dahlias are hardy to zone eight if i'm not
00:05 mistaken. but we did you know the silage tarp and then a big thick layer of straw and leaves
00:10 and we got about a 60 percent return which i honestly think was pretty good. when you look at
00:16 that number versus the amount of time and effort, the hours it takes to dig and clean and store, i
00:22 think that we were ahead by getting a 60 percent return. but by using all of that layer you know
00:27 the layer of straw and leaves and debris i think we overwintered a nice crop of thrips out here.
00:33 so that's something to consider. i don't want to do that this year. so we are going to dig.
00:38 now this morning it got down to 18 degrees which usually you want to wait for one killing frost
00:44 to where they look like this and then if the weather is going to stay right around that kind
00:48 of light frost which is 28 to 32 range you can leave them in the ground for another couple weeks
00:54 and that helps their eyes to form up a little bit better if you're going to want to divide them in
00:58 the fall before putting them into storage or you can dig them up right away. i dug a test one because
01:03 i thought oh 18 degrees that's really chilly. hopefully they're okay and things are looking
01:08 good. i even waited like we're in almost afternoon now it's only 33 degrees still
01:13 but i wanted to make sure it wasn't freezing temperatures when i dug them up out of the ground
01:17 that's important. looking good. this went in the ground as one tuber and it came out as one two
01:23 three four five six seven. awesome. so typically we dig which we use a digging fork to do that
01:30 because you're less likely to ruin tubers and you want to make sure that you start in by digging
01:34 sort of away from the base of the plant. like let's say that one's still in the ground. if you
01:38 go right up to the base of the plant and start digging i mean you might pierce tubers and sometimes
01:43 the tubers can be quite large like even bigger than this. so i usually start like a good foot
01:48 away from the base of the plant kind of like that and just kind of gently pry from different angles.
01:53 they are sort of fragile so you want to make sure that you don't do it too hard because you don't
01:58 want them to snap. anyway usually we dig them and then we rinse them off and let them dry for a
02:02 couple of days before we get them into storage. i don't know if that i'm going to rinse them this
02:06 year. i'm not sure exactly what i'm going to do. the soil is a little bit moist around them like
02:11 you can see the soil is kind of sticking but i think maybe just leaving the soil on and then in
02:16 a couple of days lay them out like in the greenhouse where it's a little bit warmer but it
02:20 won't freeze in there. we'll maybe come in and just brush that extra soil off and then get them
02:24 into storage instead of introducing any water into the business. i don't know that i want to do that
02:29 this year. so we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. now i do have all of these tagged and that
02:33 may or may not make a difference to you. you know if you're not growing them to sell or you know
02:38 that sort of thing then it probably doesn't matter as much. i like to tag them because one if i'm
02:43 going to be giving them away i want to be able to let the people know what variety they are
02:48 and then also if i make bouquets i like to let you guys know what variety is in the bouquet.
02:52 but i went through with flagging tape and got them all id'd while they were still in bloom. it's
02:57 really nice to be able to verify variety and let me tell you i found some mistakes in here.
03:02 i didn't have everything labeled properly so hopefully i mean i would be happy with like 98
03:08 percent accuracy but like this one is a sweet natalie right here and that will just stay
03:13 around the base of the plant. so this is what's looking at us here. i don't think we're going to
03:17 get all of it done. in fact we're only going to cut the tops off of the ones we know we can get
03:22 dug today. i think the tops add a little bit of protection to you know the ground around it and
03:27 such. and it hasn't been cold enough long enough for the frost line to go down in the soil clearly
03:33 yet. okay so start to finish here's our dahlia clump. we're going to just cut the stems off like
03:39 four or so inches above the base. then we'll take our digging fork about 10 to 12 inches away from
03:47 the base of the plant. gently gently pry. oh yeah. all right i'm removing as much of the soil as i
04:04 can. we might have to rinse these off you guys because otherwise i think some of this mud might
04:09 not ever dry out. we'll see. that is a huge clump right there. my goodness. okay so there's clump
04:18 number two right there with a lot more soil around it. so that's the process right now guys. we're
04:24 just going to unearth all of these.
04:37 so
04:51 so
05:05 so
05:19 so
05:33 so
05:46 one row done. took about a little less than 45 minutes. and this is what came from the row right
05:57 here. it is just amazing to me that something this ugly produces something so beautiful. and
06:05 you'll notice if we get in here close that most of these came out with a bunch of soil packed
06:09 around their roots. if they came out as clean as that first clump that we looked at i probably
06:14 wouldn't rinse them. but we're going to go ahead and take the time to rinse them today. that way
06:17 you can tell if there are any issues going on with your tubers like crown gall, leafy gall,
06:22 and you can get rid of those tubers right from the gate and not try to store something that has
06:27 that kind of issue. maybe we can toss a picture up on the screen but crown gall is very apparent.
06:32 the the tubers in the crown of the plant itself produces all these little knobs and kind of
06:37 growths on the tubers. makes them look all gnarly and weird. and leafy gall is usually just a bunch
06:42 of leaves like a bunch of stems coming out from the same spot. like the tuber put on crazy growth
06:47 all of a sudden and it can cause some distortion. i haven't really noticed them bloom differently
06:54 than my other dahlias but it's definitely not something that i would want to perpetuate in my
06:57 space. if you have that go on you can crop rotate if you have the space plant dahlias somewhere else
07:02 the next year. if you can't crop rotate if you have a small space or like this is our dahlia area
07:07 so i don't crop rotate anymore. i have planted dahlias right back in a spot where i had one that
07:13 had crown gall and didn't notice any adverse effects and i didn't that tuber did not get it
07:19 but it is a risk. if you do have the crown or leafy gall crop rotation is your best method
07:24 to get rid of it. don't plant your dahlias back in the spot that had that at least for a season.
07:29 okay we've got to go get supplies and i've got to get a hose out.
07:34 we've started to put hoses away most of them now that it's getting so cold.
07:38 so
07:52 so
08:01 so
08:12 so
08:25 so
08:47 so
08:57 i got them all cleared off and i wanted to show you what my face looks like afterward.
09:01 this is why i carry a rag and a mirror. i don't carry any makeup with me but i do notice
09:06 comments about how clean my face is usually during projects and it's because usually i take
09:11 a minute but this is the reality right here of what this chore does to you. okay i think that's
09:16 better. my rag is so dirty but you're using that jet spray and a lot of it like it hits a tuber
09:23 and then it comes right back at you. and this table worked out beautifully. i'm so glad there
09:28 was nothing on it. i was able just to pull it out, pull the hose out. i mean the water is right there
09:33 and the water will soak right in. it's getting quite a bit warmer right now. our forecast is
09:37 actually looking really good. we're gonna get another freeze tonight and then the nine days after
09:41 lows in the high 30s low 40s and highs during the day close to 60. so it's going to be gorgeous and
09:48 really it makes this chore like i don't have to get right after it. we had the couple of nights in
09:52 the teens and low 20s which thankfully did not the frost line did not get down to the tubers. so i
09:58 think we're in the clear so i don't feel like i have to get it all done today. and for the most
10:03 part all of the tubers look really good like really healthy. i've got tons of tubers like this
10:11 one. what is this? this is a bloomquist tori right here. i'm going to be able to separate this into a
10:18 whole bunch of single tubers. i do have a couple of good examples of galdo picking my way through
10:23 the mud here. okay so here's the first one. see all that knobby growth right in there? that's what
10:29 you don't want to keep. and then this one right here i mean the whole thing is like a huge gall.
10:34 oh my goodness. the variety on this one is a nijinsky which is a really pretty one.
10:41 so that's sad but i'm gonna toss those two. that's why it's good like i didn't even continue
10:47 to clean them. but it's good to clean them because like galls aren't necessarily huge.
10:52 they might be hidden underneath a little bit of soil. so just that initial blast from the hose i
10:57 was able to see like oh boy there it is. we don't want to keep that. look at these. look at how
11:03 gorgeous. so like this right here this is all you need. just this one. there's the body of the tuber,
11:09 the neck where it gets skinny, and then there's an eye right here. so we'll be able to cut that
11:14 right off and that's going to be its own individual plant. this one's got a bunch on it.
11:19 all right that's a big time separating to do or dividing i suppose is the proper term. but at this
11:25 point the important thing since we introduced water we need to make sure that they dry out. so
11:30 i'm going to cover these with like a piece of that harvest guard material. it's like that gauzy white
11:35 so it still allows airflow. i'm going to cover them. i'm going to put them in the greenhouse. we
11:40 are running our heater in there so that it doesn't drop below i think like 50. so it shouldn't run all
11:45 that much. it gathers up a lot of heat during the day in there. but i'm going to leave these in there
11:50 for a day or two to dry and then we will pack them in vermiculite which i've shown you before.
11:55 that's the way that i found the best success with it anyway. we just add the slightest amount of
12:01 moisture to the vermiculite just to... i mean it's not even damp really. it almost just is enough to
12:07 make the vermiculite feel cool if that makes sense. and then we pack that around all these
12:11 tubers in our bulb crates which i can show you lined with burlap so everything breathes.
12:17 and then usually i don't have to add any moisture during the storage period. we put them in our root
12:22 cellar. so we take one of these bulb crates right here or you can use i mean like a milk crate.
12:27 cardboard box is fine. and then we put burlap in here because burlap breathes and it keeps the
12:33 vermiculite from running out the sides. then we do a thin layer of vermiculite at the bottom and
12:38 then start packing our tubers in and then pour in more vermiculite and sometimes we can get two
12:43 layers of tubers in there. and then we pull them out in the winter time and do our dividing and
12:47 then i usually pack them back up until we're ready to plant. it's a really good job for me to do in
12:52 the winter time. it's different for everyone and everyone's got a different storage method too. it's
12:56 kind of trial and error. but some people like to divide them in the fall right after they dig them
13:01 and then they'll even like wrap individual tubers in plastic wrap and store them that way.
13:05 you know for me i don't have as much time right now to get that done. it's just like we're lucky
13:10 to get them all dug up and into storage but in the winter i have so much more time. so i can take
13:15 them out one crate at a time get them all divided and it just works out. it works out that way. and
13:21 then in the root cellar they're kept at around 40 to 45 degrees and our humidity is all over the
13:25 board. we're still trying to get that system honed in. like just a few days ago i went in there it
13:31 was 97 percent humidity. i've never had it be that high before but we had to kind of fix the fan
13:36 wasn't working properly. so it's something you have to really be mindful of. but dahlias want to
13:40 be like 75 percent humidity which usually i try to keep mine at 60 to 70 percent because i'm storing
13:47 all kinds of different things in there and i kind of have to find a happy medium. but we have good
13:50 luck with that. so right around 45 degrees and 75 percent humidity works out pretty pretty good. so
13:57 what we're going to do now is just let these kind of drip dry out here and we're going to go dig
14:01 another row. i think getting two rows done today is awesome. we only have seven rows and we are
14:07 like i'm not super worried about the gall that we found today because you know i mentioned that
14:12 crop rotation is the best way to take care of it. i'm not super worried because we are going to be
14:16 planting our dahlias back out in that same location but we're moving around where the
14:21 rows are so they're not going to at least be planted right back in the exact same spots.
14:25 but let's go get some more dug up.
14:37 so
14:51 so
15:03 so
15:16 so
15:44 oh my goodness you guys two tables worth all cleaned dug and cleaned in the greenhouse.
15:49 it feels good. i've got mud all up in my hair. i did check my face so i think i got it
15:55 sort of wiped off but that's just kind of the name of the game when you're dealing with
15:59 a jet stream of water hitting muddy tubers. and they'll be just fine in here. i'm going to make
16:05 sure that the little slats on the heater are closed a little bit more. i just want to make
16:10 sure that the heat isn't coming straight down on them. and they should be good in here for the next
16:15 day or two. we will check them tomorrow if they're dry. we'll probably get these all packed up and
16:20 then start the process over again. we've got to do it what three more times if we do two rows every
16:26 day. yeah not too bad though honestly. i did find i think three yeah three clumps of tubers that had
16:34 crown gall from that second row so i pitched those. they were all the sonic bloom variety
16:39 which i want to get rid of that variety anyway. it tends to get powdery mildew and i've got a ton
16:44 ton of them so not too sad about that. cheddar's like "oh what kind of bed have you created for me?"
16:49 cheddar look. cheddar look. tubers. and you know another reason why it's good to clean them off
16:56 which i forgot to mention, not only can you locate disease but you can also locate anything that's
17:01 broken or that has been pierced because those are not good for storage. those rot really really
17:07 quickly if they're not dried all the way out by the time you put them into storage so we will
17:11 remove anything like that before we put them in their crates. and you guys while we were working
17:16 on that, Aaron he bought himself a deep fryer because he decided that he wants to deep fry a
17:22 turkey for thanksgiving. so he's doing a test run. i think we should go check on him. i actually took
17:27 a break during that second table of dahlias and i ran in and i put some cheesy potatoes in the oven
17:33 so we're gonna have deep fried turkey, cheesy potatoes, salad, and some rolls. doesn't that
17:38 sound good? it does after a long day of digging. hi baby. is daddy cooking over here? oh yes. did
17:47 you just get up from your nap? how's it going? good. let's take a look. all right stay back baby girl.
17:57 you're so dirty. i don't know if everybody can see this but yeah. oh i can see the top of the
18:04 turkey up there. it's looking pretty brown. yeah we got 40 minutes left. oh that's perfect. like
18:09 minimum 40 minutes. okay. yeah daddy's cooking his dinner. isn't that nice? you're supposed to keep it
18:15 between 320 and 350 i think. uh-huh. and i'm having a hard time keeping it above 300. oh.
18:22 i've got it maxed out like i can't get it any more flame so. i wonder why. maybe the amount of oil?
18:30 and you guys that is it for today's project. super happy to have a jump on the dahlias
18:34 and so thankful that we have favorable weather over the next 10 days so we can just plug away
18:39 at it. the digging and cleaning process will be exactly the same as what you saw today
18:43 and i will be sure to show you when we start packing up these dahlias probably well tomorrow
18:48 if they're dry enough or the next day we'll pack up some of those and i'll just show you that
18:52 process and i'll show you them them in the root cellar in their stacks. it's not super exciting
18:57 but at least you can see kind of where they're going to hang out for the next few months.
19:00 also while i was doing that and aaron was prepping this turkey, paul and bethany were hard at it
19:05 cleaning out annual beds this afternoon. you know everything got nailed in that night last night,
19:10 18 degrees, and they were looking pretty crummy. so that's what we will leave you with. just some
19:14 pretty views of paul and bethany doing some hard work. so anyway thank you guys so much for watching
19:21 this video i hope you enjoyed it and we will see you in the next one. bye.
19:25 so
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