The Dahlia Guide - Digging
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Digging
Digging happens after I’ve had my first hard frost. The plants leaves will turn a black color and they will be clearly dead. It’s time to chop back the plants and get digging. Tuber length varies greatly from one variety of dahlia to the next. Some of the are ‘big honkers’ roughly the length of a sweet potato. Some of the are mousy little guys who will be so annoying to divide you’ll wonder why keep em (but do keep them, don’t waste precious tubers).
My Process
Cut the dahlias back to 6” above the ground so you have a nice handle left behind from the plant stalk. Remove the stakes and pull up your weed barrier if you’re using it, and then use twist tie wire to wrap your label onto the remaining stalk handle. This is how I can know if I got the right clump of tubers. Using either shovel or a pitch fork, working from about 8” out from your stalk, loosen the dirt around your dahlia until you are able to lift the clump out of the ground. Shake off any excess dirt and gently place your clump somewhere you won’t forget it or accidentally step on it (don’t ask). For me, that’s a black plastic storage tote, so I can keep about 30 of them in a container and it’s way easier for me to move than one by one.
An aside on pitchforks
Pitch forks are recommend because if you accidentally hit your tubers with your digging implement, the damage from a pitch fork is less than a shovel, but honestly pitch forks are expensive and another thing to store so maybe just be careful with a shovel.
Pro tip
Leave your dahlias to cure out of the ground for a couple of days - this is supposed to help decrease the odds they’ll rot in storage. I have skipped this step when I didn’t have time and I did see more clumps with rot issues, but it wasn’t horrible.