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Originally Posted by PureHarvest
Thanks Steve, that is very helpful.
How many dahlia plants do you grow per year?
I really didn’t know about disbudding. All the guides I read never mentioned what you just
shared.
Not sure that I will have a whole lot of time to disbud.
Checked the plants tonight and there seems to be less leafhopper activity than the other day.
In fact, they were harder to find.
Mildew seems, not surprisingly, cultivar specific. Overall for the planting it may be on 10% of the crop, with Yin Yang being the majority of the ones showing symptoms.
So I guess the tunnel is not as a big help as I thought for powdery mildew, as I read it does not need water to spread like other foliar diseases.
Perhaps I should have begun doing weekly Cooper sprays (if that is safe and effective) a couple weeks ago. I have a bag of the really good stuff that is copper soap. It’s reddish if I recall. Can’t remember the brand but I think it’s made in Europe.
Lastly, talked to a florist today with 4 locations that also does a little wholesaling.
Supposed to hear back from her about buying dahlias. She had to dig up some numbers of what she bought and paid last year. She’s been kind to share that with me.
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I am a small grower (3000 plants) but it is all I can handle by myself. I hire a "disbudder" for 5 hours a week. She can disbud with one hand (and talk on her cell phone with the other hand) much faster than I can disbud with two hands. Maybe try disbudding a few plants yourself this year and, if it seems worthwhile, pay someone to do it next year.
None of the "Karma" growers around here disbud, they sell 5 stems with the bottom 6 inches stripped from each stem, they include the top few laterals with buds in addition to the main flower. They also sleeve the bunches. I assume it must be part of the instructions supplied by Gloeckner or Verwer but I don't know. If you are dealing with one client this year, you can ask what she prefers..