Humidity

[starwhiz]

I just lost my miltonia. I still have my phals, paph, spider, oncidium that I
bought in May.
Humidity is always been a problem here in Colorado (high elevation, dry air). I have a tray of water under my orchid plants (Do I really need to put pebbles on the tray?) I already have a 4 gallon himidifier and humidity stays between 40-48%. Maybe I should not turn on the portable fan all day so I can get more humidity. I am turning the central a/c - fan on and off too(average temp in the house is about 82 F at this time).
Should I wrap the orchid shelving with a plastic? Any comment, suggestion, I appreciate.

[Diane]

The rocks in the hymidity trays are a definite must! Otherwise your plants are sitting in water and that WILL kill them. There are humidity trays available for sale that have plastic grids on them so you don't need rock, but they aren't cheap. I live in So Cal, but reasonably close to the ocean, our humidity is about 60. But I still use humidity trays and mist in the morning becuase the AC does dry out the air. As does the heater in winter. You may want to check to see if your plants are either too wet or too dry, I believe recommends sticking a toothpick or cu-tip swab into the pot to see how wet the medium is down a couple inches. I will admit I just stick my finger down in to check... not terribly sanitary, but I do rinse and dry my finger between plants to avoid spreading disease..

[starwhiz]

Ok. the plant pot is sitting on a wire grid on a plastic tray with water. the plant is not wet wet. but the humidity stays between 40-48%. I think, without the humidity tray and humidifier, humidity is at 35%.

[mde]

I personally keep my humidity above 50% year around, and right now it is averaging 60-75% in the day, and higher at night (sometimes 85% when I first get up in the morning and go downstairs). But this is easier in the Midwest, Central South and Southeastern parts of the country where humidity is not hard to come by. In the winter, when the heating system dries the interior out relative to the cold outdoor humidity, I keep two large humidifiers running, one right by the fresh air intake for the furnace, and the other right in the middle of the growing area. If I had a larger house or one that wasn't sealed as tightly as this one (I'm in 1250 square feet right now) I would definitely invest in a whole house humidifier hooked up to the heating and cooling system and water line. It requires no filling of tanks, and is self regulating. They are not that expensive from what I've heard, so you may want to look into this.

BTW, if you keep the humidity as high as I do, you should periodically let it dry out, and keep fans running fairly consistently, to prevent your walls from turning to algae and mold!! I have oscillating fans on timers that come on and off throughout the day/night.


Matt

[ATester]

Since my orchid area is on the bottom floor (not really the basement) of my apartment my humidity stays pretty pretty stable during the warmer months...around 55%-60%. Right now it is about 70° F inside and about 85°F outside. I know that I will have humidity issuse a little later in the year when it gets cold, but what I have done in the past to combat the issue is wrap the area in plastic (kind of like what you see on TV in the hospital shows). I would suggest doing this, just remember, don't seal off anything tight to allow for air movement. You might want to try placing your fan outside of the plastic, it shouldn't dry anything out too quickly then.

[Gin]

Hi , Sorry about your Milt. one of the things about them is they will rot fast if water is trapped between the leaves most soft leaf plants are that way . I did have mine in the house and ran an Ultra Sonic cool mist humidifier that creates a fog, it was sitting on the floor with a fan behind it to scatter the fog . The humidity stayed up to at least 50% / 60% ,air movenment is important , Just thought I would add this to the good info. you have recieved Gin

[starwhiz]

Thanks for all the tips, the toothpick check, adding more humidifier, importance of fans,wrap in plastic but not too tight for air movement, tips on miltonia leaves getting wet, a no-no, ill check on mist humidifier...THANKS