Propagation and Planting Out Talks Wed 15th April 09
Over 35 members attended the Meeting to hear two talks:
Propagation by Les Jones
Les gave a practical demonstration of how to propagate Dahlias from tubers. He brought several tubers which had good shoots.
He started with Split Tubers. The first thing to do is get a big knife! This is used to split the tuber from the centre. Then the individual tuber / shoots can be potted on.
Les then moved on to Cuttings. These should be planted in a 50/50 mixture of Perlite and Peat in a tray. Silver sand should be sprinkled on top. This is so that when the hole for the cutting is made (with a pencil) some of the sand falls into the hole and helps drainage. Bottom heat is important.
Audience participation was encouraged. Here Cord and friend from Wellesbourne had a go at taking cuttings from a tuber.
If you do not have 'bottom heat' then placing a cutting in a pot covered with a plastic bag can be done.
AA variation on this theme is to place several cuttings in some damp peat and rolled up together in a 'plastic sleeve' as can be seen below. Once rolled up they are secured with a plastic band and should root in approx 3 weeks.
Les ended his demonstration with a Q & A session. One question was about what to do is a cutting had a hollow stem. He said move to the next pair of leaves up the stem. He also commented that if an internodal cutting was taken ( i.e. in the middle between pairs of leaves rather than just below a pair of leaves) then it would take and flower in year 1, however it would be blind in year 2!
