Did you know you don’t need a sachet of flower food to keep your flowers fresher for longer?
Create your own flower food at home with our simple recipe. Quick, easy and good for the planet!
When you purchase cut flowers, there is often a little food packet that either comes tied to the stems at the bottom, or you will find it separately. We highly recommend that you don’t need these food flower packets anymore, and you should make flower food at home instead. It’s not that difficult to do, and it doesn’t take that long either. In this article, we are going to be taking a look at how you can make flower food at home, as well as some of the other information that you need to know about flowers. Keep reading down below if you would like to find out more.
Why make flower food at home?
The first reason that you should make flower food at home is because as soon as you know how to do this, it’s super simple. But, it’s more than just ease. If you think back to plastic straws and all of the attention that surrounded that, this was because they are no longer good for the environment. The same thing is true now with this flower food, so it’s time to make a change.
You might be sceptical that your flowers won’t last as long if you make your own flower food, but we guarantee you it will. If you follow the directions for flower food to the letter, your flowers are going to last for a long time, maybe even longer than with the pre-made food. Eventually, if people stop using flower food that comes with cut flowers, and requesting that the florists stop including it, it will stop and the environment will be thankful for it.
Why do flowers need food?
Like all living things, flowers need food in order to live. If you think back to your science classes, you might remember that photosynthesis is the process that plants use in order to make their food. Seeing as cut flowers have no root anymore, this is not possible for them to achieve. As such, it’s important that you are giving your plants enough food for them to survive and thrive. If you don’t give them the right amount of food, they are going to die quickly.
Most people make the mistake of assuming that if you have a bouquet of flowers, the only thing that they need to survive is water. However, this could not be further from the truth and you’re going to have flowers constantly dying fast if you don’t make sure to feed them.
How to make flower food at home
We’re going to be looking at a couple of different recipes for making flower food, and you can choose the one that you think works best for you. Or, you can choose which one you want to make based on what ingredients you have in your home right now. You could even make all of them and see which one works best for your flowers, so it’s entirely up to you!
Post of these ingredients can be found around your home anyway, so they shouldn’t be too difficult to get your hands on. Whatever you don’t have right now can be bought in a store near you.
We do want to mention that these recipes do contain bleach, so you must be careful when you are making and handling the solution. Ensure that it stays out of reach of children and pets at all times, including when it is being used in the vase. If you get some on your hands it may burn a little and you need to wash your hands as soon as possible. It is possible in extreme cases that it can cause some scarring, and if the burning doesn’t ease, seek medical attention as soon as possible. Also be careful about the fumes that you are inhaling. NEVER add bleach directly to any of the other ingredients without first having mixed them with water as this is extremely dangerous.
Recipe 1
To make this flower food, you are going to need a 12 fluid ounce can of non-diet citrus soda, 36 fluid ounces of water, and 1.2ml of household bleach. Regular soda contains sugar already, so it’s not something that you are going to need to add which is helpful! The reason that you can’t use diet soda is because it contains artificial sugar which is not going to provide for your flowers the way normal soda does.
To make this, you need to add the soda to the water, and then add the bleach afterwards. Mix it all together and then add to your vase full of flowers. You should notice that your flowers last significantly longer than if you weren’t using any food at all. If you’re going to test out which recipe works best for you, then keep an eye on how long these flowers last.
Recipe 2
For this recipe, you are going to need just under a litre of water, 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon or lime juice, 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar, and half a tablespoon of household bleach. To create this flower food, add all the ingredients together in the order that they are listed above. Mix all the ingredients together well, and then fill your vase with the solution that you have just made. Once you have done this, you can add your flowers and be sure that they are getting everything they need from this mixture.
With this type of food, you want to make a fresh mixture every day. If you do decide you want to keep some from the day before, make sure that you have labelled it as toxic and dangerous due to the bleach content.
Why these ingredients?
You might be wondering why these are the ingredients that are used to create flower food. Well, the sugar from the second recipe is the food part for the flowers, and the same is true for the first recipe, the only difference is that the sugar is in the soda in recipe one. The water is because flowers need water in order to continue to grow and bloom. The lemon juice will lower the overall pH value of the solution, ensuring that the bleach doesn’t cause any unwanted effects.
Finally, the bleach is there to stop the growth of bacteria and fungi. This is important as you don’t want your plants to get sick, as most of the time when this happens, there isn’t a cure. Some plant diseases are able to be treated, but for the most part the only solution is to get rid of them and hope they don’t impact any other plants that you might have. Or, if the disease is not too bad and hasn’t gone too far, you might be able to cut off the infected leaves and leave the rest of the flowers as they are.
Remove the lower leaves
Now that you know how to make the food, there are some other things that you can do to keep your flowers healthy, and lasting for longer than usual. One thing that you do not want is mould, which is why you need to get rid of the lower leaves. Due to the lower leaves sitting in the water for a long period of time, they will quickly deteriorate and promote the growth of mould. As such, before you even think about putting your flowers in a vase, you need to get rid of all the leaves that would end up below the waterline.
Trim the stems
One of the things that you should be doing is cutting off the dried parts at the bottom of the stems. The reason that you should do this is because it opens the stems up to water. You want your plants to take in as much water as they possibly can to aid them with their growth, which is why you need to do this before they go in the vase for the first time. We know that a lot of people do this, but after that they forget all about trimming the stems and just leave the flowers.
The issue with this is that the ends can get gummy and close up, meaning that the flower is not getting the water and the nutrition that it needs, which will ultimately cause it to die. As such, we recommend that you trim the ends of the flowers every couple of days, no more than three, and keep it to around an inch. This should be more than enough to allow the water through and get rid of anything that is on the bottom.
We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now see how you can make flower food at home. We also hope that you understand more about why you don’t need the flower food packets that typically come with the flowers that you buy in a store.
