Description
**Description**
Dahlias are the workhorses of the petaled flower world, delivering massive blooms in hundreds of varieties from midsummer through first frost, and this advanced seminar gives you full command of the entire tuber-to-tuber cycle. The seminar begins with an expert-led module on tuber anatomy, teaching you how to identify viable eyes, assess tuber health, and make clean division cuts that maximize your planting stock year over year. You will receive a visual dahlia variety guide covering ball, dinner plate, cactus, pompon, and waterlily forms, with growth habit data, stem length averages, and retail demand ratings. Planting depth, spacing, and staking systems are covered in detail, including a comparison of bamboo stake, metal cage, and horizontal netting methods with setup demonstrations. You will follow a complete pinching and disbudding protocol that teaches you when and how to remove growth for maximum stem length and bloom size — the same technique used by competition dahlia growers. A pest management module covers earwigs, slugs, thrips, and spider mites with integrated pest management strategies that protect pollinators. You will learn to read your dahlia plants for water stress, overwatering symptoms, and powdery mildew onset, with corrective actions at each stage. The seminar dedicates a full session to end-of-season dig timing, including a frost damage assessment guide and step-by-step tuber lifting and cleaning procedure. Curing conditions, labeling systems, and winter storage methods — including vermiculite packing and temperature monitoring — are covered with a downloadable storage log template. A bonus module walks you through building a simple dahlia trial garden to test new varieties and track performance data across seasons.
**Format**
Advanced seminar video series with a variety guide PDF, storage log template, and a dahlia planting layout worksheet.
**Duration**
5 hours of seminar content across 10 in-depth sessions, with a bonus module.
**What You’ll Learn**
Tuber division and eye identification; variety selection for market; pinching and disbudding technique; pest and disease management; end-of-season dig and winter storage systems.
**Target Audience**
Experienced home growers, flower farmers, and dahlia enthusiasts who want to optimize their production and preserve high-quality tuber stock annually.
