Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Humidity 101, 1 by hcmcdole

hcmcdole wrote:
How many years did you have your aquariums? It sounds like some serious acid etching to turn glass milky white. I've seen that on double paned windows where the seal breaks and the cycle of evaporation and condensation leaves mineral deposits on the inner side of the panes which makes them useless. You should be able to scrape deposits with a razor blade.

I have found that the very few begonias (3 to 4) that always stay indoors (and those are the ones that aren't in the basement) have turned out to do just fine without anything extra. I assume this is just from conditioning. The ones that stay in the basement are the ones in aquariums and do fine as well. The rest of them go outdoors from April to November but suffer terribly once moved back indoors for the winter. Extra humidity seems to be the best solution for the majority of rhizomatous types (that includes rexes).

Here is 'Shamus' that stays indoors year round because it is growing in (and now is growing over and out) of a glass bowl. I wish all of them did this well.