Check out the FAQ about storage for some ideas on different methods... Post Season Questions

Simply digging the tubers with soil still attached, and plopping them into a shopping bag might do the trick... Just be sure to leave the bag opened so moisture can escape, or they will rot.

There are many ways to be foiled at storage attempts, and not all of them are in your control. Some varieties of dahlias are simply bad tuber keepers, and will flummox the most experienced grower's attempts to overwinter.

In my personal experience, temperature doesn't effect the dormant tubers as much as humidity levels in conjunction with temp. As long as the tubers are dry with low humidity in the air, they will stay dormant.

I have never had luck overwintering the small bedding tubers... Perhaps you will do better with your seedlings. Good luck!

Cici,

Do you think that a storage unit would work for low humidity storage? I have had some beauties this year and want to really try to keep some of them for next year. It is not a air conditioned unit but after first frost, I would hope that it wouldn't retain too much moisture inside.

Terri, it is tough to say. I'd suggest splitting the tubers up, storing them in two or more places. If you don't know how cold the storage unit gets in winter, storing in multiple locations would be even more prudent. Remote thermometers are pretty inexpensive, so you can keep track of it from in the house, or you can set some of them so the high and low temps will be recorded without you personally observing the dips/peaks. If the temp dips below 33 degrees, you will probably have mush on your hands.

Thank you. Unless I keep them in the house, I really don't have any other spot to keep them. Will mulch encourage rotting during storage?

I keep my personal inventory in my house, tucked in a corner in three boxes at 68 degrees all winter. I use course vermiculite with those. The rest of the 8-10 boxes of tubers is what I sell/trade in the spring, and those are in a very damp cellar at 60-65 degrees. As I have a difficult storage area, I've trialled shredded paper, wood chips and dirt to keep the tubers dormant, and all work to a degree. I have learned the hard way that I have to stay away from all forms of plastic in the high humidity, or my tubers rot. That is ONLY my situation, thanks to high humidity. Many growers swear by plastic bags and plastic bins. You have to trial what will work best in your particular situation, and storing in more then one location with more then one packing medium will give you much better chances of viable tubers in the spring. Learning curves are tough sometimes, but worth it in the end if you stick with it.

I packed mine in vermiculite last winter and had the best survival rate since I've been overwintering tubers. I don't have a cold room, these were just in a dark room in the basement.

We keep the house pretty cool in the winter. Is it safe to divide in the fall so I can see if any survive without losing everything?

I wonder if being at about 2,000' elevation will help at all...

I placed each of my tubers in a walmart bag covered with peat moss. I stored them in my garage and everyone of them bloomed for me this year. The year I'm going to tie a piece of yarn the same color as the dahlia on the bag so next year I don't have all the colors grouped toghether.

Peat moss is a hit-or-miss kind of packing medium. If too dry, it can leave your tubers dried out husks. If peat moss is too damp or moisture can't escape, they can rot out your dahlias. Some folks use it all the time, and in their particular storage areas and packing technique, it works fine. Just be aware that it doesn't work so great for everyone.

I've tried storing dahlias in peat moss inside loosely closed plastic bags in unheated garages with varying success. Last winter I tried a method new to me, which was to cover my dahlia bed (after a freeze in the fall) with about two feet of dried leaves, leaving the dahlia tubers in place where they grew. Then I covered the leaves with a large tarp. I weighted the edges of the tarp with stones large enough to keep our vigorous Colorado winds from pulling it off. The dahlia bed is about seven feet wide by twenty-five feet long and holds about 30 to 35 dahlias during growing season.

I got 100% survival, and they were all in perfect condition when I dug them this spring in early April. We didn't have a terribly severe winter, but we had a number of days where the minimum dipped below zero and stayed there for a couple of days. We also had pretty good snow cover when most of the cold weather occurred, so that may have helped, too. I did the same thing with my garden crop of carrots and beets, and they survived very well. One of the dahlia clumps not only survived the winter, but also survived being overlooked at digging time and run over with my rototiller!

I wouldn't advise doing this in an area where you are troubled with voles. They would probably devour a dahlia crop in short order. We have the usual grey house mouse around in liberal numbers, but they didn't bother the dahlias or the root crops. In a colder climate than northern Colorado, one might need to put on a slightly deeper cover of leaves. I'm convinced that this is the way for me to store my dahlias.

Would a crawlspace under house work?

It could. It would depend on how well sealed off the crawlspace is from entry of outside air. I would carefully monitor the the temperatures outside and in the crawlspace the first winter that

you try it, to get an idea of how much variation in temperature there is. If you happen to have a radon mitigation device which constantly pulls fresh air in under the house, it would likely be too cold to store dahlia tubers there.