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Humidity!
Good Point!
Happy New Year to you too. "kenty ;-)" wrote in message ... 40% will probably be at the lower end of the scale, the humidity ,will obviously rise at night.I grow in a loft on a largish tray with clay pebbles for humidity,at the end of the day when the heating has been on humidity falls to around 40/45% rising upto around 60% sometimes higher.I spray every morning with a fine mist,which instantly raises the humidity & by the end of the day the plants have dried off for the night .This is obviously harder to do when you grow on a windowsill or similar.Humidity is hard to maintain were ever you grow,once you know how low & high humidity gets in your situation you tend to stop worrying about it & get on with your routine. Happy New Year to Everyone:-) Kenty "Bolero" wrote in message u... Again, didn't know I was dealing with people who couldn't grow outside and that the question was targetted at only those people. It is still less than ideal...... Are you saying that those that own a greenhouse are more than mere mortals? I paid hardly anything for mine, but then again my climate allows for it. "John M. Gamble" wrote in message ... In article , Bolero wrote: FIne for what? Getting the air above winter-dry and making the orchid less uncomfortable. 40% is below the ideal in any sense of the word. Ideal, yes, "achievable by mere mortals who don't own a greenhouse", no. Humidity trays don't work in my opinion either. This is flatly untrue. One can reach %40 humidity given humidity trays and some pebbles (which help with the surface area that exposes the water). -- -john February 28 1997: Last day libraries could order catalogue cards from the Library of Congress. |
Humidity!
Good Point!
Happy New Year to you too. "kenty ;-)" wrote in message ... 40% will probably be at the lower end of the scale, the humidity ,will obviously rise at night.I grow in a loft on a largish tray with clay pebbles for humidity,at the end of the day when the heating has been on humidity falls to around 40/45% rising upto around 60% sometimes higher.I spray every morning with a fine mist,which instantly raises the humidity & by the end of the day the plants have dried off for the night .This is obviously harder to do when you grow on a windowsill or similar.Humidity is hard to maintain were ever you grow,once you know how low & high humidity gets in your situation you tend to stop worrying about it & get on with your routine. Happy New Year to Everyone:-) Kenty "Bolero" wrote in message u... Again, didn't know I was dealing with people who couldn't grow outside and that the question was targetted at only those people. It is still less than ideal...... Are you saying that those that own a greenhouse are more than mere mortals? I paid hardly anything for mine, but then again my climate allows for it. "John M. Gamble" wrote in message ... In article , Bolero wrote: FIne for what? Getting the air above winter-dry and making the orchid less uncomfortable. 40% is below the ideal in any sense of the word. Ideal, yes, "achievable by mere mortals who don't own a greenhouse", no. Humidity trays don't work in my opinion either. This is flatly untrue. One can reach %40 humidity given humidity trays and some pebbles (which help with the surface area that exposes the water). -- -john February 28 1997: Last day libraries could order catalogue cards from the Library of Congress. |
Humidity!
Thank you everyone!
I must say that I grow all my plant in S/H culture and I`m wondering if humidity is an issue with that method of culture. My pots are on wooden shelve with fluorescent light. During the day, the humidity goes aroud 40 to 45 % and at night goes up to 55 %. Should I be concerned? Should I put all my pots on trays with water knowing they are already in S/H culture???? Thanks Claude Happy New Year to all! Bonne et Heureuse Année à Tous! |
Humidity!
Thanks Ray!
My Phals are in active growing and they have all new growth of roots, leaves or spikes. I did add a console humidifier in my appartement to raise the relative humidity at first for myself, then I was just wondering about my phals. This morning, I just misted my phals with some water and the RH went up to 60 %. I think I will add some trays under my pots, just to give them a boost! Thanks again Happy New year Claude |
Humidity!
Thank you everyone!
I must say that I grow all my plant in S/H culture and I`m wondering if humidity is an issue with that method of culture. My pots are on wooden shelve with fluorescent light. During the day, the humidity goes aroud 40 to 45 % and at night goes up to 55 %. Should I be concerned? Should I put all my pots on trays with water knowing they are already in S/H culture???? Thanks Claude Happy New Year to all! Bonne et Heureuse Année à Tous! |
Humidity!
"Bolero" wrote in message
u... I couldn't tell you what "home" growers get because in this country most of us grow our plants outside and try to maintain ideal conditions. Oh, where are you from, Bolero? Me, I dream of someday in the future owning a house with a garden and being able to afford a greenhouse within commuting distance of Washington, DC (US) / Northern Virginia. For now, my orchids will have to be satisfied with 4 north-facing windows supplemented by grow lamps in a rented 1.5 bedroom apartment. And they are doing well, not ideal, but well enough to be a great joy in my life. Happy New Year! Joanna |
Humidity!
"Bolero" wrote in message
u... I couldn't tell you what "home" growers get because in this country most of us grow our plants outside and try to maintain ideal conditions. Oh, where are you from, Bolero? Me, I dream of someday in the future owning a house with a garden and being able to afford a greenhouse within commuting distance of Washington, DC (US) / Northern Virginia. For now, my orchids will have to be satisfied with 4 north-facing windows supplemented by grow lamps in a rented 1.5 bedroom apartment. And they are doing well, not ideal, but well enough to be a great joy in my life. Happy New Year! Joanna |
Humidity!
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." Copying an Orchidsource.com post by Todd Zimmerman: "I am sorry, but "Hmidity trays add 10% to 20% humidity to your room humidity." is just not possible unless your room is an aquarium. I have been distressed about this bit of published folk lore ever since I began growing. Without going into the physics of it.... I have sat in a small, room with no ventilation, taking readings every five minutes (trials of ten readings) from a hygrometer suspended 10" above an open seedling tray of water (leaf height), and found no difference (statistically significant or even imaginarily noticable) when compared to readings taken above the same tray when it was dry. The hygrometer was tested between trials and the room allowed to vent fully. In addition to the vapor input to the room from the tray (surface areas about 1.5 square feet), my lungs (surface area coparable to that of a tennis court) were actively pumping warm air, at a humidity of 95%, into that same room. Even that did not increase the humidity readings more than 2% from the beginning of a trial to the end (equally for both wet and dry trays). Pots over the tray would reduce the effective evaporative surface area of the tray. Plants will increase humidity by transpiration and by slowing air movement. Fans will move water vapor away from the plants. Someone said that there was a similar study published in Orchids magazine several years ago (with the same conclusions)." -- Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info! .. . . . . . . . . . . "John M. Gamble" wrote in message ... In article , Bolero wrote: FIne for what? Getting the air above winter-dry and making the orchid less uncomfortable. 40% is below the ideal in any sense of the word. Ideal, yes, "achievable by mere mortals who don't own a greenhouse", no. Humidity trays don't work in my opinion either. This is flatly untrue. One can reach %40 humidity given humidity trays and some pebbles (which help with the surface area that exposes the water). -- -john February 28 1997: Last day libraries could order catalogue cards from the Library of Congress. |
Humidity!
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." Copying an Orchidsource.com post by Todd Zimmerman: "I am sorry, but "Hmidity trays add 10% to 20% humidity to your room humidity." is just not possible unless your room is an aquarium. I have been distressed about this bit of published folk lore ever since I began growing. Without going into the physics of it.... I have sat in a small, room with no ventilation, taking readings every five minutes (trials of ten readings) from a hygrometer suspended 10" above an open seedling tray of water (leaf height), and found no difference (statistically significant or even imaginarily noticable) when compared to readings taken above the same tray when it was dry. The hygrometer was tested between trials and the room allowed to vent fully. In addition to the vapor input to the room from the tray (surface areas about 1.5 square feet), my lungs (surface area coparable to that of a tennis court) were actively pumping warm air, at a humidity of 95%, into that same room. Even that did not increase the humidity readings more than 2% from the beginning of a trial to the end (equally for both wet and dry trays). Pots over the tray would reduce the effective evaporative surface area of the tray. Plants will increase humidity by transpiration and by slowing air movement. Fans will move water vapor away from the plants. Someone said that there was a similar study published in Orchids magazine several years ago (with the same conclusions)." -- Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info! .. . . . . . . . . . . "John M. Gamble" wrote in message ... In article , Bolero wrote: FIne for what? Getting the air above winter-dry and making the orchid less uncomfortable. 40% is below the ideal in any sense of the word. Ideal, yes, "achievable by mere mortals who don't own a greenhouse", no. Humidity trays don't work in my opinion either. This is flatly untrue. One can reach %40 humidity given humidity trays and some pebbles (which help with the surface area that exposes the water). -- -john February 28 1997: Last day libraries could order catalogue cards from the Library of Congress. |
Humidity!
On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 16:20:05 -0500, "Claude"
wrote in Message-Id: : What is the best percentage of humidity to grow Phal and Paph! I just bought an hygrometer and it shows 40% of relative humidity. Is this good? Increasing the relative humidity in your indoor grow area is going to require a whole house humidifier, or you're going to have to enclose the grow area with some clear/translucient impervious material such as plastic film or plexiglass. If you are using free standing shelving, you can make a plastic sheet cover for it and put an ultrasonic fogger inside. This amounts to an inexpensive Warden Case. Here's a link to commercially manufactured units: http://www.carter-and-holmes.com/cgi...or+Greenhouses Ultrasonic foggers http://www.mainlandmart.com/foggers.html will raise the realtive humidity in such an enclosed area to 100% very quickly. I find Phals grow fine in my home without suplemental humidity. However providing a growing environment of 70% to 80% realitive humidity seems to prevent wrinkled/pleated leaves, bud blasting, etc, and encourage lush new growth in other genera. |
Humidity!
Claude,
The same applies to S/H pots effect on humidity as it does for trays - they are adding some humidity, but you're in effect, humidifying the entire room and home or apartment. In other words, the effect is minimal. Minimal plus minimal is still minimal. I suppose that a phalaenopsis with its leaves spread out flat over the medium are seeing a localized boost in RH, but as little as a few inches above the medium and the effect pretty much vanishes. Two more comments: 1. How are your plants doing? If the answer is "well," then don't fret. If the answer isn't that positive, 2. Consider getting a console humidifier with sufficient capacity to raise the RH to somewhere in the 50% - 60% range. Not only will your plants like it, but you will, as well. -- Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info! .. . . . . . . . . . . "Claude" wrote in message .. . Thank you everyone! I must say that I grow all my plant in S/H culture and I`m wondering if humidity is an issue with that method of culture. My pots are on wooden shelve with fluorescent light. During the day, the humidity goes aroud 40 to 45 % and at night goes up to 55 %. Should I be concerned? Should I put all my pots on trays with water knowing they are already in S/H culture???? Thanks Claude Happy New Year to all! Bonne et Heureuse Année à Tous! |
Humidity!
Claude,
The same applies to S/H pots effect on humidity as it does for trays - they are adding some humidity, but you're in effect, humidifying the entire room and home or apartment. In other words, the effect is minimal. Minimal plus minimal is still minimal. I suppose that a phalaenopsis with its leaves spread out flat over the medium are seeing a localized boost in RH, but as little as a few inches above the medium and the effect pretty much vanishes. Two more comments: 1. How are your plants doing? If the answer is "well," then don't fret. If the answer isn't that positive, 2. Consider getting a console humidifier with sufficient capacity to raise the RH to somewhere in the 50% - 60% range. Not only will your plants like it, but you will, as well. -- Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info! .. . . . . . . . . . . "Claude" wrote in message .. . Thank you everyone! I must say that I grow all my plant in S/H culture and I`m wondering if humidity is an issue with that method of culture. My pots are on wooden shelve with fluorescent light. During the day, the humidity goes aroud 40 to 45 % and at night goes up to 55 %. Should I be concerned? Should I put all my pots on trays with water knowing they are already in S/H culture???? Thanks Claude Happy New Year to all! Bonne et Heureuse Année à Tous! |
Humidity!
Thanks Ray!
My Phals are in active growing and they have all new growth of roots, leaves or spikes. I did add a console humidifier in my appartement to raise the relative humidity at first for myself, then I was just wondering about my phals. This morning, I just misted my phals with some water and the RH went up to 60 %. I think I will add some trays under my pots, just to give them a boost! Thanks again Happy New year Claude |
Humidity!
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." Copying an Orchidsource.com post by Todd Zimmerman: "I am sorry, but "Hmidity trays add 10% to 20% humidity to your room humidity." is just not possible unless your room is an aquarium. I have been distressed about this bit of published folk lore ever since I began growing. Without going into the physics of it.... I have sat in a small, room with no ventilation, taking readings every five minutes (trials of ten readings) from a hygrometer suspended 10" above an open seedling tray of water (leaf height), and found no difference (statistically significant or even imaginarily noticable) when compared to readings taken above the same tray when it was dry. The hygrometer was tested between trials and the room allowed to vent fully. In addition to the vapor input to the room from the tray (surface areas about 1.5 square feet), my lungs (surface area coparable to that of a tennis court) were actively pumping warm air, at a humidity of 95%, into that same room. Even that did not increase the humidity readings more than 2% from the beginning of a trial to the end (equally for both wet and dry trays). Pots over the tray would reduce the effective evaporative surface area of the tray. Plants will increase humidity by transpiration and by slowing air movement. Fans will move water vapor away from the plants. Someone said that there was a similar study published in Orchids magazine several years ago (with the same conclusions)." -- Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info! .. . . . . . . . . . . "John M. Gamble" wrote in message ... In article , Bolero wrote: FIne for what? Getting the air above winter-dry and making the orchid less uncomfortable. 40% is below the ideal in any sense of the word. Ideal, yes, "achievable by mere mortals who don't own a greenhouse", no. Humidity trays don't work in my opinion either. This is flatly untrue. One can reach %40 humidity given humidity trays and some pebbles (which help with the surface area that exposes the water). -- -john February 28 1997: Last day libraries could order catalogue cards from the Library of Congress. |
Humidity!
Claude,
The same applies to S/H pots effect on humidity as it does for trays - they are adding some humidity, but you're in effect, humidifying the entire room and home or apartment. In other words, the effect is minimal. Minimal plus minimal is still minimal. I suppose that a phalaenopsis with its leaves spread out flat over the medium are seeing a localized boost in RH, but as little as a few inches above the medium and the effect pretty much vanishes. Two more comments: 1. How are your plants doing? If the answer is "well," then don't fret. If the answer isn't that positive, 2. Consider getting a console humidifier with sufficient capacity to raise the RH to somewhere in the 50% - 60% range. Not only will your plants like it, but you will, as well. -- Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info! .. . . . . . . . . . . "Claude" wrote in message .. . Thank you everyone! I must say that I grow all my plant in S/H culture and I`m wondering if humidity is an issue with that method of culture. My pots are on wooden shelve with fluorescent light. During the day, the humidity goes aroud 40 to 45 % and at night goes up to 55 %. Should I be concerned? Should I put all my pots on trays with water knowing they are already in S/H culture???? Thanks Claude Happy New Year to all! Bonne et Heureuse Année à Tous! |
Humidity!
Thanks Ray!
My Phals are in active growing and they have all new growth of roots, leaves or spikes. I did add a console humidifier in my appartement to raise the relative humidity at first for myself, then I was just wondering about my phals. This morning, I just misted my phals with some water and the RH went up to 60 %. I think I will add some trays under my pots, just to give them a boost! Thanks again Happy New year Claude |
Humidity!
On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 16:20:05 -0500, "Claude"
wrote in Message-Id: : What is the best percentage of humidity to grow Phal and Paph! I just bought an hygrometer and it shows 40% of relative humidity. Is this good? Increasing the relative humidity in your indoor grow area is going to require a whole house humidifier, or you're going to have to enclose the grow area with some clear/translucient impervious material such as plastic film or plexiglass. If you are using free standing shelving, you can make a plastic sheet cover for it and put an ultrasonic fogger inside. This amounts to an inexpensive Warden Case. Here's a link to commercially manufactured units: http://www.carter-and-holmes.com/cgi...or+Greenhouses Ultrasonic foggers http://www.mainlandmart.com/foggers.html will raise the realtive humidity in such an enclosed area to 100% very quickly. I find Phals grow fine in my home without suplemental humidity. However providing a growing environment of 70% to 80% realitive humidity seems to prevent wrinkled/pleated leaves, bud blasting, etc, and encourage lush new growth in other genera. |
Humidity!
On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 16:20:05 -0500, "Claude"
wrote in Message-Id: : What is the best percentage of humidity to grow Phal and Paph! I just bought an hygrometer and it shows 40% of relative humidity. Is this good? Increasing the relative humidity in your indoor grow area is going to require a whole house humidifier, or you're going to have to enclose the grow area with some clear/translucient impervious material such as plastic film or plexiglass. If you are using free standing shelving, you can make a plastic sheet cover for it and put an ultrasonic fogger inside. This amounts to an inexpensive Warden Case. Here's a link to commercially manufactured units: http://www.carter-and-holmes.com/cgi...or+Greenhouses Ultrasonic foggers http://www.mainlandmart.com/foggers.html will raise the realtive humidity in such an enclosed area to 100% very quickly. I find Phals grow fine in my home without suplemental humidity. However providing a growing environment of 70% to 80% realitive humidity seems to prevent wrinkled/pleated leaves, bud blasting, etc, and encourage lush new growth in other genera. |
Humidity!
Thanks again Ray!
I didn`t ask for that much info :-) I will let my plants the way they are now! they seem happy! I think we do care too much for them! thanks Claude |
Humidity!
I agree trays don't raise the humidity that much ,but they make it easier to
maintain your plants when misting & watering + raising the humidity slightly.I personally think it is going overboard sectioning off orchids in the home,this can only look unsightly and will possibly lead to other problems with pests & diseases.Especially if it is a very small space that is being sectioned.It would need constant monitoring. kenty "Larry Dighera" wrote in message ... On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 16:20:05 -0500, "Claude" wrote in Message-Id: : What is the best percentage of humidity to grow Phal and Paph! I just bought an hygrometer and it shows 40% of relative humidity. Is this good? Increasing the relative humidity in your indoor grow area is going to require a whole house humidifier, or you're going to have to enclose the grow area with some clear/translucient impervious material such as plastic film or plexiglass. If you are using free standing shelving, you can make a plastic sheet cover for it and put an ultrasonic fogger inside. This amounts to an inexpensive Warden Case. Here's a link to commercially manufactured units: http://www.carter-and-holmes.com/cgi...or+Greenhouses Ultrasonic foggers http://www.mainlandmart.com/foggers.html will raise the realtive humidity in such an enclosed area to 100% very quickly. I find Phals grow fine in my home without suplemental humidity. However providing a growing environment of 70% to 80% realitive humidity seems to prevent wrinkled/pleated leaves, bud blasting, etc, and encourage lush new growth in other genera. |
Humidity!
I agree trays don't raise the humidity that much ,but they make it easier to
maintain your plants when misting & watering + raising the humidity slightly.I personally think it is going overboard sectioning off orchids in the home,this can only look unsightly and will possibly lead to other problems with pests & diseases.Especially if it is a very small space that is being sectioned.It would need constant monitoring. kenty "Larry Dighera" wrote in message ... On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 16:20:05 -0500, "Claude" wrote in Message-Id: : What is the best percentage of humidity to grow Phal and Paph! I just bought an hygrometer and it shows 40% of relative humidity. Is this good? Increasing the relative humidity in your indoor grow area is going to require a whole house humidifier, or you're going to have to enclose the grow area with some clear/translucient impervious material such as plastic film or plexiglass. If you are using free standing shelving, you can make a plastic sheet cover for it and put an ultrasonic fogger inside. This amounts to an inexpensive Warden Case. Here's a link to commercially manufactured units: http://www.carter-and-holmes.com/cgi...or+Greenhouses Ultrasonic foggers http://www.mainlandmart.com/foggers.html will raise the realtive humidity in such an enclosed area to 100% very quickly. I find Phals grow fine in my home without suplemental humidity. However providing a growing environment of 70% to 80% realitive humidity seems to prevent wrinkled/pleated leaves, bud blasting, etc, and encourage lush new growth in other genera. |
Humidity!
"Claude" wrote in message .. . Thanks Ray! My Phals are in active growing and they have all new growth of roots, leaves or spikes. So therefore you're doing well, and there is no pressing need to change anything except the size of your collection, and the size of your growing area if it is too cramped. :-) I did add a console humidifier in my appartement to raise the relative humidity at first for myself, then I was just wondering about my phals. This morning, I just misted my phals with some water and the RH went up to 60 %. I think I will add some trays under my pots, just to give them a boost! I wouldn't bother with them, except to catch surplus water from watering them. That is, unless you are going to enclose your growing area. As Ray pointed out, the effect of humidity trays is rarely measurable. The fact is that if YOU can't measure the effect of a tray on humidity, your plants aren't likely to either, so unless you take extra steps to reduce the loss of moisture from the air around your plants, they won't get an extra boost from it. The only way you will get a measurable effect is if you create growing area that has a small volume (such as that inside a terrarium - just take a decent size aquarium, put a few cm of gravel in the bottom and put in enough water to come just below the surface of the gravel. And then, with a canopy on the aquarium, perhaps modified to accomodate a small fan to keep air flowing (whether you recycle the air or not), you will see RH inside the terrarium much higher than it is in the rest of the house. (yes, if you don't recycle the air in the terrarium, you will have to add water more frequently, but the loss of water will be controlled by the fan size and speed, and unless you go overboard with the size and speed of the fan, the loss of moisture from the growing area will be much slower than if you just use a tray.) Now, I am not saying that humidity trays can't be made to work. Rather, the way most people end up using them will likely have no more than a 2% improvement, and this is far smaller than the acuracy with which most people can measure RH. This is effectively the same result that Ray described in his report of his experiment with humidity trays. To make them work, you have to go the extra distance to make the volume of air that the tray must affect as small as is practicable. There is a huge difference in trying to humidify a third of a cubic metre (the volume of a modest aquarium) and trying to humidify 50 cubic metres (the volume of air in a modest sized room). The other idea I see often floated for improving RH near the orchids is to place plenty of other plants near them. This IS a sound idea, but again, its effectiveness will depend on the details of what you do. You have to use plants that transpire a lot, which usually means one native to a rainforest area and which grows rapidly (growth rate and transpiration rate tend to be rather strongly correlated - transpiration is the combined effect of the transport of water up the plant, primarily for the purpose of transporting essential nutrients but also for maintaining turgour pressure, and respiration, which produces water and CO2 as by-products, and both tend to be high in rapidly growing tissues). I doubt you'd see a measurable effect if you used cactus. A modest, densely planted herb garden, OTOH, probably would have a measurable effect (depending on the herbs used). But I could be mistaken in this, as I haven't taken the time and other resources to do my own experiments on this. Cheers, Ted |
Humidity!
"Claude" wrote in message .. . Thanks Ray! My Phals are in active growing and they have all new growth of roots, leaves or spikes. So therefore you're doing well, and there is no pressing need to change anything except the size of your collection, and the size of your growing area if it is too cramped. :-) I did add a console humidifier in my appartement to raise the relative humidity at first for myself, then I was just wondering about my phals. This morning, I just misted my phals with some water and the RH went up to 60 %. I think I will add some trays under my pots, just to give them a boost! I wouldn't bother with them, except to catch surplus water from watering them. That is, unless you are going to enclose your growing area. As Ray pointed out, the effect of humidity trays is rarely measurable. The fact is that if YOU can't measure the effect of a tray on humidity, your plants aren't likely to either, so unless you take extra steps to reduce the loss of moisture from the air around your plants, they won't get an extra boost from it. The only way you will get a measurable effect is if you create growing area that has a small volume (such as that inside a terrarium - just take a decent size aquarium, put a few cm of gravel in the bottom and put in enough water to come just below the surface of the gravel. And then, with a canopy on the aquarium, perhaps modified to accomodate a small fan to keep air flowing (whether you recycle the air or not), you will see RH inside the terrarium much higher than it is in the rest of the house. (yes, if you don't recycle the air in the terrarium, you will have to add water more frequently, but the loss of water will be controlled by the fan size and speed, and unless you go overboard with the size and speed of the fan, the loss of moisture from the growing area will be much slower than if you just use a tray.) Now, I am not saying that humidity trays can't be made to work. Rather, the way most people end up using them will likely have no more than a 2% improvement, and this is far smaller than the acuracy with which most people can measure RH. This is effectively the same result that Ray described in his report of his experiment with humidity trays. To make them work, you have to go the extra distance to make the volume of air that the tray must affect as small as is practicable. There is a huge difference in trying to humidify a third of a cubic metre (the volume of a modest aquarium) and trying to humidify 50 cubic metres (the volume of air in a modest sized room). The other idea I see often floated for improving RH near the orchids is to place plenty of other plants near them. This IS a sound idea, but again, its effectiveness will depend on the details of what you do. You have to use plants that transpire a lot, which usually means one native to a rainforest area and which grows rapidly (growth rate and transpiration rate tend to be rather strongly correlated - transpiration is the combined effect of the transport of water up the plant, primarily for the purpose of transporting essential nutrients but also for maintaining turgour pressure, and respiration, which produces water and CO2 as by-products, and both tend to be high in rapidly growing tissues). I doubt you'd see a measurable effect if you used cactus. A modest, densely planted herb garden, OTOH, probably would have a measurable effect (depending on the herbs used). But I could be mistaken in this, as I haven't taken the time and other resources to do my own experiments on this. Cheers, Ted |
Humidity!
Humidity trays if large enough will raise the humidity in the whole house.
Two winters ago I was still growing in the basement. I had several large trays like those used for under washing machines filled with small stones. I used these under the plants I was growing under HID and MH lighting. I had several fans moving the air around the basement. I also have a residential humidifier on the gas furnace. In the winter when it was cold my windows in the house would fog up. I never thought much of it then. Last winter (and so far this winter) I haven't seen any condensation on the windows. The difference is that all the plants have been relocated into the greenhouse. I never realized how much water I was putting in the household air when I had the plants in the basement. So my point is that humidity trays must be very large to humidify the entire closed space. In my case it was the entire house. Good growing, Gene |
Humidity!
I live in Australia........paid $80K for a home 10 minutes from the centre
of a city where I work. Climate here is admittedly different to yours. "J Fortuna" wrote in message ... "Bolero" wrote in message u... I couldn't tell you what "home" growers get because in this country most of us grow our plants outside and try to maintain ideal conditions. Oh, where are you from, Bolero? Me, I dream of someday in the future owning a house with a garden and being able to afford a greenhouse within commuting distance of Washington, DC (US) / Northern Virginia. For now, my orchids will have to be satisfied with 4 north-facing windows supplemented by grow lamps in a rented 1.5 bedroom apartment. And they are doing well, not ideal, but well enough to be a great joy in my life. Happy New Year! Joanna |
Humidity!
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. |
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