Plant Health & Dahlia Viruses

In case you haven't been following along on the discussion of dahlia health, I will give you a quick overview along with our stance.

• Unfortunately, it has been reported within the dahlia industry that over 87% of dahlia stock is infected with at least one virus.  
• You could look at dahlia viruses like human viruses.  If our body is healthy than we have a better chance of fighting off viruses and we believe the same is true for dahlias based off the research we have done.
• We feed our dahlias every 2 weeks to keep them nourished.  We water them either every other day or more as needed.
• We apply a Brix molasses solution every other week to help keep the insects from loving our dahlia plants.  The insects were winning the end of this past season as we slacked a bit!
• We cull (pull) any dahlia plant that looks like it might have a virus and dispose of it immediately and sanitize our tools.
• Remember though, we are a You-Pick flower farm, so we do have customers that pick dahlias and do not sanitize between plants as they pick/cut the blooms.
• We commit to you that we will continue to improve on our sanitation practices to the best of our ability with a You-Pick farm.
• We commit to you that we will continue to do what we can to lessen the insects and keep our dahlia plants healthy.
• Remember that many viruses won't show up outwardly on the plant unless the plant is stressed, which could be a year or two later.
• The only true way to know if a dahlia has a virus is to have it tested which can be very expensive.

Please let us know if you have any questions.