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Dried & Pressed Flowers

Silica isn'y drying

14 years ago

Hello All,

I have been drying flowers using silica for about 5 years now. I have about 50 lbs of Auctiva brand silica in the large cans from Michaels Craft Store. Over the years I have dried my silica for reuse maybe once a year. The silica is no longer turning colors to indicate moisture but I dried it anyway in the oven after having a bad experience with some roses molding and not drying. Immediatly after drying the gel in the oven the last time I tried to dry another batch of roses and the same thing happened. The silica clumps like snow on the petals and the flowers rot inside the silica rather than dry. I haven't changed the canisters that I use or the location in which I place them. I followed the instructions for reactivating it. Do you have any ideas? I am really at a loss here and I would hate to lose any more flowers or this much silica. Thank You!

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Comment (1)

sylky00
14 years ago
That seems very odd; I know some of my silica gel is 5 yrs. old, or older. The color crystals don't show in mine anymore either, but other than that, I haven't noticed any difference. I usually dry my gel in the microwave, but I'm not using the large amts. that you are. I use glass containers and full power in an 800 watt oven. If you are doing a lot of flowers, I think you may need to dry your gel out more often than once a year. I usually dry mine after 4 batches or so, but that may not be feasible for lger. amts, and I'm in a pretty humid area.
Maybe you could try microwaving a small amt. and testing a bloom in to see how it does. I don't know what container you're using in the oven, but I would use the shallowest one possible to be sure all the gel is getting heated.
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