January 15th, first flower of 1999.
Winter flowering heather.January 15th, first flower of 1999.
Winter flowering heather.
The dahlia tubers are placed on the surface of the compost and sunk slightly into the surface leaving most of the tuber exposed. The boxes are then placed onto the Dexion shelving, underneath the shelving are tube heaters which are low wattage units of the order 80 watts per foot. These are adequate to provide enough bottom heat to start the dahlia tubers into growth. Some of the boxes are placed on the cutting bench.
This photo of the shelving shows one of the 400 watt Mercury lamps, the second one is just visible at the far right of the picture. In the foreground one of the stand pipes for the mist head and also the leaf sensor can be clearly seen. The dark rectangle in the middle and at the far end near the roof are air outlets, air enters at ground level.
After a week or so a gentle pull on the dahlia tuber will show
that they have produced roots by their reluctance to come free
from the compost.
After three to four weeks shoots will appear from the tubers. Different
varieties are more proflic
than others at starting into growth so there is no need to panic
if after four weeks the tubers have not sprouted.
It is normal practise to remove and discard the first shoots
that appear by cutting as close
to the tuber as possible
with a sharp knife. 
Another view, the red line indicates where to
cut off the cutting from the tuber, as you can see it is very
close to the actual tuber. This allows the severed
shoot to produce another four
shoots from the previous cut this is the end result.