Interestingly enough, I have just written an article about maximizing the vase life of your cut flower bouquet. Unfortunately, I cannot link to it here because I would be booted to the curb. And, we don't want that happening do we? No. We certainly do not.

So, briefly, I will just tell you that perhaps your proportion of water to preservative is out of ratio. If your solution is too weak, what happens is that the sugar in the preservative enables the growth of bacteria and the weak solution also will not contain enough antibacterial agents to stop the growth of bacteria, and thus creating the situation you have described. This will also dramatically shorten the vase life of your bouquet. In all actuality you would be better off using plain water rather than a too weak preservative solution. One more point: If your tap water is too high in salt and fluoride, that will also throw off the proper balance of sugar, hydrating solution, and biocide contained in Floralife.

Three years is an awfully long time though. Just for no reason other than idle curiosity -- Are you cutting into buckets of preservative every time you harvest flowers?

Trish

Hi Trish, thanks for responding. The reason that the bucket is so old is that it was put in the back of the storage closet and forgotten about until just recently. I dont cut all my flowers into perservative, zinnias and suns go into plain water, some others in to hydration solution. I do put the perservative into the vases and buckets for market and I usually measure out in the small cup measure into the amount of water that is in the vase/bucket. Our water here is quite high in sulphur and so is filtered through chlorine but I would have expected that this particular situation with the slimy goo would have shown up before now. I purchased a bunch of flowers from Costco the other day and tried their flower food in the vase and did not get the goo. I shall try the Floralife again and double check what I am measuring and I will report back. Thanks again. Kat

This is my first year taking flowers to the market in large amounts. Where do you get floralife and what sizes are available.
owl

Owl, sorry for not responding sooner, I had completely forgotten that I started this thread. You can buy Floralife directly from them, you have to call and set up an account. They are very helpful. I dont know what their pricing is like now but I did notice that Harris Seed is offering the bucket for bulk flowers and the packets for individual bouquets. I have linked below. Good Luck. Kat

Here is a link that might be useful: Harris Seeds