Dahlia Winter Storage and Off-Season Care

While we are more than happy to be your annual dahlia storer and supplier, we also want to empower you to store and multiply your own tuber stock!

Step One: Cut and Dig

Dahlias will die once they get hit by the first hard frost. Unless you are in Zone 7 or above, you will need to store your dahlias indoors for the winter.

If the weather allows, wait 10-14 days after the first killing frost to dig. During this time, the skins of the tubers cure and this improves storage. The clumps of tubers will be fine in the ground until night-time lows hit the low twenties and the soil begins to freeze solid.

To prepare to dig, cut back all of foliage 4” to 6” above the soil, leaving a thick, short stalk. Using a digging fork, gently loosen the soil around the clump and then pull up the tubers using the stalk as a handle. 

Be gentle when handling the clumps — take care not to puncture the tubers with the digging tool, and minimize damaging the tuber necks, which leads to a non-viable tuber.

Step Two: Clean

If you want store your clumps through the winter without dividing, leave them dirty as the dirt will help protect them from drying out in storage.

But if you want to divide your tubers ahead of winter storage, the next step is to wash your clumps to make it easier to identify eyes while dividing.

Step Three: Divide

We divide in the fall as it fits into our seasonal routine, the eyes are more swollen and visible, and the individual tubers take up a fraction of the storage space as intact clumps. 

The most important thing to remember is that every tuber needs an eye and all eyes are on the center stalk just above the neck, the narrowest part of the tuber. Not all tubers will connect to a neck with an eye above it so do your research and be discerning.

Step Four: Store

We store our tubers in plastic containers filled with vermiculite and do a biweekly check of tubers throughout storage to ensure humidity levels are correct within the containers. Simply cracking the lid of the container for a few days is often all you need to do if you notice moisture build up on the inside of the lid.

Store tubers between 40 and 50 degrees.

Step Five: Wake them Up!

As we get into mid-April, we recommend pulling your tubers out of storage and waking them up by bringing them into a warmer environment with temperatures in the 60s a few weeks before planting. This will encourage the eyes to swell which will decrease the amount of time needed for them to sprout in pots or in the ground and allows you to double check how you did dividing in the fall.

And then, the cycle of growing dahlias starts all over again!