Dahlia - nipping and cutting too late?

[Return2thebasic]

I've got this beautiful Dahlia plant a few weeks ago. Still trying to decide if it shall go into the garden straight or stay in a new pot.

I came across an article talking about nipping the branches to encourage growth and replant the cuttings. But the article and some online videos seem to refer to much younger plant. I'm wondering if it's too late to do it to mine... If not too late, shall I cut the tallest branch of the younger/lower branches? Would appreciate someone shed some light.

Yes, do it. I don't think it's too late.

It's awful isn't it, I just don't dare plant out my dahlias out yet in this godawful weather, but they should really be blooming away in the sunshine by now!

Definitely not too late. I did mine about a week ago. It will encourage the plant to branch out and you will get lots more flowers. Go for it 🙂

You can still do this, but what are you intending to achieve by it? Do you want to get material for cuttings or is it just to improve bushiness? If you do decide to try cuttings, don't take the growth that has the flower bud on it as these won't root very well.

I don't know if the article explained it, but the growing tip of a shoot creates a growth-suppressing hormone that it sends back down the shoot. If you cut off the tip to just above leaf nodes, two new shoots will grow from those nodes. So you get two shoots where once there was one. Wait awhile and do the same to the two new shoots, the plant will have four new shoots. This is how you encourage bushiness and ultimately more flowers in your flowering plant.

(Also nosy and wondering what variety you've got there)

@TheNoodlesIncident

You can still do this, but what are you intending to achieve by it? Do you want to get material for cuttings or is it just to improve bushiness? If you do decide to try cuttings, don't take the growth that has the flower bud on it as these won't root very well.

I don't know if the article explained it, but the growing tip of a shoot creates a growth-suppressing hormone that it sends back down the shoot. If you cut off the tip to just above leaf nodes, two new shoots will grow from those nodes. So you get two shoots where once there was one. Wait awhile and do the same to the two new shoots, the plant will have four new shoots. This is how you encourage bushiness and ultimately more flowers in your flowering plant.

(Also nosy and wondering what variety you've got there)

Ah, thanks for the explanation about the suppressing hormone. It's VERY interesting to know. Also the tips about how to cut. :)

I want more flowers. Some more tubers would be even better. The article I mentioned seems to suggest "if you want strong happy flowering tubers, then you should have no more than five shoots growing off your tuber."

www.greenhousesdirect.co.uk/garden-blog/posts/2020/april/our-essential-guide-how-to-plant-pot-up-dahlias/#:~:text=Growing%20Your%20Dahlias%20In%20Pots&text=Use%20a%20pot%20about%2030cm,water%2C%20cut%20stems%20and%20deadhead.

Mine is Dahlia Eveline. It came with a very healthy look. I haven't done much to it, but it already started having flower buds after 3 weeks.