02-24-2010, 05:04 AM
Decades ago I had a midwest home on a sandy lot. Dahlias (and just about anything) grew like crazy. You did need to pull them for the winter there. (I actually thought I had a green thumb for the years I lived in that house! I then moved to a house with clay...& learned I had no such gift!)
I did have dahlias on the clay, but it was much more work, and the poor things often got rotten. I learned to place a loose sandy soil into a clay pot. I watered the plant by dunking the pot (on larger pots I would soak the pot with the hose, then sprinkle the topsoil). These potted plants were under the lanai plants only. I did have a couple of neighbors who would plant out dahlias just for a season & then turn them under (the tubers would get too full of critters....) but my pot method seemed to keep the critters to a minimum (of course, I did need to take the tubers out of the pots during the winter).
Haven't tried them here... but my first inclination would be to make sure they are in very well drained soil, rotate out the tubers to dry them to keep the tuber critters to a minimum, and probably place them in an area that you can control the watering...
I did have dahlias on the clay, but it was much more work, and the poor things often got rotten. I learned to place a loose sandy soil into a clay pot. I watered the plant by dunking the pot (on larger pots I would soak the pot with the hose, then sprinkle the topsoil). These potted plants were under the lanai plants only. I did have a couple of neighbors who would plant out dahlias just for a season & then turn them under (the tubers would get too full of critters....) but my pot method seemed to keep the critters to a minimum (of course, I did need to take the tubers out of the pots during the winter).
Haven't tried them here... but my first inclination would be to make sure they are in very well drained soil, rotate out the tubers to dry them to keep the tuber critters to a minimum, and probably place them in an area that you can control the watering...