Jessica Swaray 10/15/26 Jessica Swaray 10/15/26

Free Dahlia Tuber Tracker: Get organized for winter

Dahlia digging season is now here! I am planning to start my dig next Monday, and before I start digging, I want to make sure that I have a way to organize my dahlia tubers to better understand how many tubers each variety produces, what their storage behavior is, and have a good labeling and organization system. As a grower and seller, it’s pretty important for me to stay on top of this.

I used to write things out on paper, and while that’s all fine if that is what you are comfortable with, but computerizing information about your plants and tubers can help you have a successful next Spring, and also make decisions about which varieties stay, and which ones get the boot.

To help other dahlia lovers, I’ve created a free Dahlia Tuber Tracker to help you keep everything in one place. It is an easy to use Excel spreadsheet that lets you enter all the important information as you dig, divide, and store your tubers. The individual worksheets within the excel file are linked, so information automatically carries over between sheets, saving you time and keeping your records organized.

Whether you grow a handful of dahlias or hundreds I hope this tracker makes your dahlia organization a little easier!

Get Your Free Dahlia Tuber Tracker

Jessica Swaray 10/4/26 Jessica Swaray 10/4/26

Preparing to dig your dahlias this fall: what you need to know now

Dahlias need 120 days in the ground before they can be dug up for tuber removal and storage. If you live in a mild climate, you may opt to leave them in the ground. Here in Zone 5, in southeast Wisconsin, we dip below freezing towards the end of October and have a long cold winter. Therefore, digging is a necessity is you want to save your tubers for next year!

Our dahlia tubers were planted in mid-May, and we are starting to plan to start to dig at the end of October. This gives us enough time to dig over 700 plants before it is absolutely freezing outside! A few days before we dig, we cut off the plant’s branches to 4 inches or so from the ground. Here’s the pruner tool that we love and use to cut through thick stems.

A quick note that we clean and divide our tubers for winter storage - other growers may store them in dirt either in clump form or singly. Since we clean and divide, the following guide is in reference to our own protocol.

Dahlia plant that has been cut to prepare for digging

Tools you will need to dig:

Pitchfork - reduces the risk of slicing a tuber with a shovel when digging
Hose nozzle with a high power option - all dirt doesn’t easily wash off. You need strong water pressure - so ensure you hose nozzle has one!
A bin or other storage box to hold and transport multiple tuber clumps.

Old tulip crate bins to haul tuber clumps in

The next step will be dividing and labeling your tubers. There are different means to do this - here’s the tools we use to get it done

We divide our tubers using floral shears - these are very pointy, and very sharp, just what is needed for cutting through some of the tops of thick tubers clumps. The pointy-ness is also helpful when slicing between tubers where eyes are close and precision is needed.

We use a garden marker for writing directly on the tubers each individual name.

Find the shears here and the garden pen here

The next most important thing to decide before digging is HOW you will store your tubers. Some people use the saran wrap method, peat moss, vermiculite, or store them in their own dirt. We store them in medium coarse vermiculite, in plastic labeled bins, in a refrigerator. Medium coarseness vermiculite allows a little more breathability in the containers.

You can buy vermiculite at Greenhouse Megastore, Home Depot, or Lowe’s to name a few places

Now WHERE will you store them?

First, it is highly recommended that tubers be stored between 40 and 50 degrees, with humidity between 80-90%. We store ours in a refrigerator with the temp setting at 42 or so. Some people opt for wine coolers due to their high humidy. Some people use an unheated basement. Some people say, ‘I threw them in a bag, forgot about them and it was fine’. And that IS fine. But when you store hundred and thousands of tubers, for us that is not an option :)

A note that if you are using a refrigerator for storage, and your weather goes below freezing during the winter, do not keep the refrigerator in your garage or elsewhere that is unheated. A refrigerator can’t keep the temperature above freezing if the temperature around it is below 32 degrees.

Dahlia tubers stored in **plastic bins** in a refrigerator. We also stick in a **small temperature gauge** to monitor the temperature

In sum, here’s all the tools you will need for tuber removal and storage:

A hand-held pruner
Pitchfork
Hose attachment with a high pressure option
Bins or other container to store tuber clumps as you are digging
Storage medium - we use medium coarse vermiculite
Floral shears
Garden marker
Small temperature gauge
Plastic bins for storing tubers

If it is your first year, give yourself grace as you navigate what’s best for you. Also know that some tubers don’t store well, so even if you give it the most ideal conditions, you may still find it starting to shrivel or even shrivel up terribly. That being said, we still plant most shriveled tubers with much success. We just don’t sell those ones :)

Good luck!

Jessica Swaray 3/30/26 Jessica Swaray 3/30/26

How to take cuttings from your Dahlia tubers

A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS

Do want to expand your Dahlia collection, but don’t want to pay the cost for all those dahlia tubers? There is a simple method for multiplying your Dahlia collection exponentially without having to shell out lots of money for more tubers. It is propagating or taking ‘cuttings’ from your current dahlia tubers that are being stored over winter. I’ve been propagating our Dahlia collection by taking cuttings for 3 years and I’ve worked out the kinks, pitfalls and failures to now have method that has proven successful here on our Wisconsin farm. Everyone might have their own methods that work for them, and this is not the only way to do it, but its what works beautifully for us. Here’s exactly how I propagate (take cuttings) from our dahlias

Step 1: When to take dahlia cuttings

You want to start the process about 3 to 3 ½ months before your last frost date in the spring. This ensures you have enough time to wake tubers, take cuttings, have the cuttings take root and grow a nice root system before planting out after all chance of frost is past. Tuber varieties vary in the time it takes to ‘wake up’ from 2 weeks up to 7 weeks in our experience. The vast majority of our collection starts waking up within 3 weeks but we do have stragglers that can take their time.

Step 2: What supplies you will need

Good quality potting soil (we use Fox Farm’s Ocean Forest)
Four-inch pots or plastic bins with a few holes drilled underneath (for placing your tubers for cuttings)
Root riot cubes (optional)
Grow lights (simple ones you can get at the hardware store)
Heat mats
Plant tags
Soil temperature gauge (these work great)
Seed cells and trays (we use 50 cells)
Humidity domes

Step 3: Waking up tubers

We wake our tubers up by putting them in potting soil in either a large plastic bin (we chose long ones that fits nicely on our seed starting shelves). For these bins, we drill small holes in the bottom for drainage. For some tubers, we use 4 inches pots. Tubers are placed either at a 45 degree angle or straight up - it really depends on the size and shape of the tuber. We place the tuber so that only the crown is sticking out. We try to avoid tubers with very skinny necks (to mitigate risk of them drying out) when possible. However, if you only have 1 or 2 of a variety, and that’s the tuber you have, you just go with it! Just makes sure the neck is covered up with soil to help prevent the drying out. An important step you cannot miss - make sure tubers are labelled! We write the names of the variety on the body of the tuber, but also we write the name and date the cutting process starts on a plant label tag and place the tag very closely against the tuber.

Step 4 - Removing the sprout

Once you position your tubers in the potting soil in which ever container you choose, they should be kept under grow lights. We turn on our lights around 7am, and they are turned off at 9pm (14 hours). Another important step that seems to help is placing seed starting heat mats underneath the containers to warm the soil. However, the soil temperature must be monitored. Soil temperature gauges are readily available and are inexpensive (the ones we use are ~$10 on Amazon). Soil temperature should not exceed 70 degrees, otherwise you run the risk of your tubers rotting. After tubers are under lights, seed starting mats in place with temperature gauges inserted into the soil (particularly if you use a large tub like we do), then give your tubers a ‘watering in’. We don’t mist the soil, but we water the soil so that all of it is moist. After that, we check the soil daily by inserting our finger inside the soil - if it is drying out, we add water (but not oversaturating it). Now, you wait. In our experience, the first tubers should starting eyeing up in about 2-3 weeks, with other to follow suit in the following weeks. Once tubers eye up, they will start sprouting leaves. Let the sprout grow until it has 3 sets of leaves on each side. At this point, you should remove the sprout from the tuber by either cleanly slicing if off the base (razors must be sterilized between tubers) or twisting it off in a slow, circular motion.

Step 5 - Preparing the cell trays for the cuttings

You’re going to be placing the sprout into potting soil to encourage growth of roots. We like 50 cells trays and use a sturdy brand from Bootstrap Farmer that can be found here. Fill the tray with pre-moistened potting soil and place it on a tray, then on a heat mat, again under lights

Step 6 - Taking the cutting and start the propagation

Once you have your cutting, you must first strip the bottom set of leaves. This is where the cutting will start to root/ Next, place the cutting inside a cell with potting soil, making sure to bury the place on the cutting where the bottom leaves were stripped (the node). Then, transfer the plant tag used to identify the tuber in the pot, inside the cell with the cutting. Water the cell and spray the leaves with water. Finally cover the cell tray with a humidity dome.

Dahlia cutting before stripping bottom leaves.

Step 7 - Letting your cutting grow roots

Once your cuttings are in potting soil, under lights, with a heat mat and a humidity dome, keeping the cuttings hydrated is absolutely key here. Spray your cuttings with water 1-3 times a day to keep them hydrated, and check the soil to ensure it is moist. While the soil must moist, and a humidy dome is placed over the tray, the environment can get TOO moist and the cuttings can die off. In my experience, you may lose some cuttings until you figure the right amount of humidity / water in the soil. It’s okay - even the best flower farmers still kill plants! :) Once you find the best environment, you’re in the sweet spot. It takes at least a few weeks, but your cuttings will root. Once they do (you can see by checking the bottom for roots coming out), they need to be transferred again to a 4 inch pot (or similiar). After transferring them to a pot, for the first 24 hours, do not put them under lights, let the transferred cutting acclimate to its new home. After a day, it can go under lights and continue to grow. Congratulations, you made a new plant! Be careful, you may become addicted to the process.