Are Dahlia Tuber Sales Worth It?

Dahlias—the blooms are the queen of the late-summer garden and the tubers are a critical income stream for flower farmers in the dead of winter when their field is dormant. But as you log hour after hour planting, digging, washing, dividing, and storing, you start to wonder…is all the time and effort worth it?

Let’s get into the numbers. Your numbers will tell you everything you need to know!

How Much Labor is Involved in Dahlia Tubers

 I have grown 4,000 – 5,000 dahlias for 3-4 years now and have held tuber sales each year. The numbers I will use in the calculations below will be from my past experience of growing at this volume. The time has been consistent from year to year.  

Let’s look at the labor involved beginning with the initial planting.  

I spend a solid two weeks planting tubers or 80 hours. I don’t spend time planning a dahlia field or organizing my varieties in any certain way. I make sure the important ones are planted first and the not as important tubers last. This way, I know we will have room for the ones that matter.

I’m sure you are wondering what varieties “matter”. Rare ones. The hard-to-find varieties. The sit at your computer and hit refresh repeatedly to snag just ONE tuber varieties. Those dahlias. And those dahlias also command a higher price per tuber shooting them up in rank. Think Rock Run Ashley, Castle Drive and Jowey Winnie to name a few.

Our dahlias get very little care throughout the season. I don’t irrigate them. I don’t fertilize them. I don’t support them. I will pinch them sometimes but not in the last two years. BUT, that is my goal this season. I need to pinch them and put pinching on my calendar!

So the labor is pretty non-existent during the season. But as fall rolls around, the real work begins. The digging. Digging is very similar to planting, taking another two weeks to dig them all.

We are at 160 hours at this point. 80 to plant, 80 to dig.

I no longer wash our tubers so that has cut out some of the back-breaking labor in the fall. The tubers will sit for a day or two to dry once dug and then head into our cooler where they will hibernate throughout the winter.

As February rolls around I start to work on the splitting, sorting, and inventorying of the tubers. Altogether, I will spend a solid month or 160 hours (4 weeks at 40 hours). I’ll be really honest. I don’t actually work 8 hours a day in the cooler because my hands and toes get too cold! But overall, the time spent splitting and inventorying the tubers is 4 full weeks, bringing us to 320 hours.

It is then another two full weeks or 80 hours to fulfill dahlia orders. But I’m not going to count that here. This expense comes out of the shipping charge. A lot comes out of our $19.95 shipping charge, including but not limited to the actual shipping rate, labor, the shipping label, ink, wood shavings, bags, and stickers. So I’m going to leave those 80 hours out of the equation…but don’t worry, they are absolutely accounted for in the shipping charge.

Thus far, we’re at 320 hours. I do take pictures throughout the season, as well as update our website prior to the sale. Let’s say 8 hours for pictures and 8 hours to update our website bringing us to 336 hours total.

Dahlia Tuber Expenses

 Now let’s look at the expenses involved.

 A primary expense for growing dahlias is the tubers themselves. Thankfully I’m able to grow from my own stock for the majority of our dahlias. Last season I did order 1575 tubers from the wholesaler for $3,573.94. Yes, they really are that cheap from a wholesaler! If you don’t have a calculator, that is $2.27 per tuber with shipping. I have just 375 tubers arriving next month for the 2023 season.

Let’s go with last years number, which was $3,573.94, and I also spent around $3,000 in tubers from various farms.  So the tuber expense last year was $6,573.94. This season, it will be around $1,500.

Let’s figure another $1,000 for miscellaneous charges. I generally top off 10-15 of our beds (out of 66) with compost, I buy wood stakes for dahlia labels, have an Inkbird controller, a humidifier, and space heater. I’m sure there are some other expenses I’m not thinking of.

What Do These Numbers Mean?

 Since our dahlia tuber sale is still happening, I don’t have a final number so I will use last year’s number. We sold just over $67,000 in tubers.

$67,000 in sales, minus the tuber cost of $6,574, and $1,000 misc expenses, the net income is $59,426. This amount divided over the 336 hours is $177/hour. We sold 7,401 tubers last year and kept around 3,500 to grow the following season for a total of 10,901 tubers. With 336 hours of labor paid out at $25/hour is equal to .77 in labor per tuber.

Last year our average tuber sale was $9.08. This year our average tuber sale thus far is $12.05.

Before posting this I have tried to think of every possible thing that could affect these numbers. I few insights.

• A percentage of the sales goes to payment processors. An average number is around 3% which ends up being around $2k.

• Without a doubt, the government will take their cut. (insert major eyeroll)

• I do have a cooler for proper storage however I DO still lose tubers to rot and shrivel. The electricity to keep the cooler warm was not included. The electricity goes to a small space heater, bedroom size humidifier and 2 ink birds.

• This doesn’t include the income from the stems themselves used in bouquets and u-picks throughout the season. Nor does it include income from our dahlia subscription which is just over $11,000.

• I’m extremely disturbed that from growing around 5,000 dahlias, I ended up with around 10,000 at the end of the season. Serious work needs to be done there!! (#2023goal)

In conclusion, I will continue to have dahlia tuber sales every winter. They are an incredible way to generate income in the off season, utilize all parts of your product and serve your nationwide community that you can’t normally serve with fresh flowers.

If you are curious about shipping and the expenses involved with shipping, here is a rundown. Last year I charged $19.95 for every order regardless of size. And yes, I had orders for just one tuber!!

The expenses included in the shipping charge are as follows:

• Processing Fees: Around 3% or $.60 per order

• Planting Instruction Cards: $.17

• A Small Gift (Can’t tell you what it is this year just yet!!): $1.65

• Shipping Labels: $.05

• Pine Shavings: $.25

• 80 hours of labor @ $25/hour = $2,000

• Ziplock: $.021 per tuber

• Tuber Label: $.0065

• Packing Tape: 5 rolls or $30