How we grow

    At Ironbell Blooms we grow some flowers at our home residence in mainly grow bags, and the majority in a field at the family farm a few miles away. 

Sanitation - We take sanitizing seriously. A 10% bleach soak and rotation of tools while soaking is practiced for cutting stems of each plant, digging, dividing, and during  storage checks when trimming and such may be needed.

We do not offer "you picks". 

Even with our efforts it is impossible to sanitize everything and nature does what it does.

Fertilizing - We normally test field soil yearly. We work in a (slow release/Long acting fertilizer preferred) that meets the soil test needs prior to planting in the spring. 

We then plant tubers with a scatter of alfalfa pellets and blood meal in the hole. Some growers go with bone meal as their preference.

We then re-fertilize mid season which varies on choice and ground vs foliar application. Of course this is always adjusting yearly.

Soil - The soil at the farm is a loamy, mineral rich soil. It had been a family sweet corn field for years. It tests high in phosphorus, so phosphorus free fertilizer is being used. 

               In our grow bags we mix screened topsoil, with some pro-mix, compost, and vermiculite/perlite. Small amendments are made each additional year each bag is used for a variety.

Fertilizing is the same for grow bags as field.

This year for seed starting we adjusted just slightly from our potting soil and enjoyed mixing up the seed starting soil recipe that Floret Flower Farm posted. MI gardener also has a video about making your own pro mix that is good. 

Irrigation - At this time overhead irrigation is used as it was available from sweetcorn field irrigation in the past. We are investigating drip irrigation.

Did we notice later season powdery mildew? Yes. But would we have even with another watering method? likely yes. We do run it for 2 hours just before dawn to help lower evaporation loss and allow leaves to dry happily with sunrise.

Digging - We hand dig our dahlia tubers with a rotation of potato type pitchforks. 

Dividing -In addition to the above sanitation/rotation of tools, we also rotate surfaces when dividing. To do this we use boot trays for each clump and then they can be easily sanitized and rotated during tuber division. (They also are perfect drain trays for flats) The ones we have are from IKEA and when we purchased them (pre-COVID) were like 2.99 each.

I (Kara) am the main dahlia divider, and with helpers label each tuber with its ID, and I make every attempt to circle/arrow to eyes. (and again look/mark in spring if needed) 

Storing - We currently store in Vermiculite in mostly small bins, one for each plant/variety. We actually have the best luck with fine or super coarse vermiculite. Medium vermiculite seems to get our tubers angry. Some people say the opposite.

We have a holes drilled in the lids of our bins. The bins can be staggered in the stacks to lower humidity through the holes or can be covered with the bin above it if desired.

We use our basement and my husband cools it lower by rerouting our water heater cold air exhaust over there so its in the mid/high 40'sF. There is also a convertible fridge down there that we store select ones wrapped in saran.

Every climate and circumstance (and tuber variety) is so different, storing preferences and success vary a ton. 

Disease/Pests -We actively mark any potential, and cull often for significant failure to thrive dahlias or signs of virus. (see policies for more detail) 

We are blessed to have a lot of birds and often a breeze on the field and it seems to deter things such as spider mites, thrips, etc. We don't notice slugs in the field much.

We do get start of season slugs and occasion end of season spider mites and powdery mildew at home location with the grow bags, slightly less sun, and less breeze, etc. We use Sluggo Plus for slugs, or sometimes copper rings around base of plants as slugs cant cross them.  Treating spider mites and powdery milder work best with rotating what product is used each treatment. We like to start with the most natural when at all possible. We avoid the most broad ones that can harm beneficial insects. I'd rather cut the plant back than take out my bumbles and butterflies. 

We base the seasons pest pressure on whether beneficial insects should be released.