In article ,
Ray wrote:
Sorry, but humidty trays do very little good in an open room.

Copying from my own page on humidty:

"A general caveat about all of the humidity-enhancing methods described for
in-home growing: remember that unless your growing area is sealed off from
the rest of your home, any effort to raise the humidity level around your
plants is actually trying to raise the humidity of your entire house!
Because of that, especially if there is air circulation due to fans or
forced air heating, the less active methods like the humidity trays appear
to be of very limited value."


Hmm, my orchid area is not separated from the rest of my condominium.
I think "microclimate" has to be taken into account here. Granted,
my humidity trays would be hopeless at raising the humidity of the
entire home, but locally, where the plants are actually sitting, it
is measurably better (and i have measured it).

Please note, i have also done other things to make sure that the
plants get every advantage, including replacing the windows, which
used to leak like a sieve (and in fact, this was more important at
*maintaining* humidity than anything else). Also, the plants sit
on the humidity trays themselves, my heating system uses radiators,
and i don't turn on the fans in the winter.

Humdidity trays are worthwhile, in my opinion. At the very least,
they are good drip-catchers.

--
-john

February 28 1997: Last day libraries could order catalogue cards
from the Library of Congress.