If you are not having problems with mildew or mealy bugs do you have to worry about circulation?
I would like to build up a little humidity in the plant room during the day. The AC is on at night back here so we can sleep better. I thought I might spray some water in the air to add humidity. The fan would defeat the purpose.
What do yall think?
Another question
Do any of you spray your plants? I don't mean water them down. Just a light mist once or twice a day.
I think air circulation is always an issue, more so when you add hummidity. I know that my grandfather's greenhouses were very humid but there were always fans going, huge fans- if you have trays w/ those grids for wicking, and there is water/fert in those trays you are adding hummidity to the air.
I don't think misting your plants would necessarily be a bad thing- of course I live in Houston and the air is naturally misted, LOL. but if I were going to mist I'd mist early in the day so that there wouldn't be any water sitting on your leaves/crown over night. I think a fan is a good thing, it doesn't have to blow directly on the plants and if you have the tray/grid/wick set up, the fan is helping to "spread" the hummidity around.
There, that's my two cents; ok, maybe my two cents is only worth 1.5 cents.
April
Hey, I think it was 3 cents worth. Thanks so much. Made total sense to me.
I do spray - actually foliar feed with very dilute seaweed fertilizer. I do it in the morning, and not enough that I get puddles of water in the crowns. Actually, most of what I have these days are episicas, codonanthes, siningias etc - not AVs, but a few AVs do get the same treatment.
I am playing with fire, however, as I don't have air circulation. Air circulation is always good (well, okay, if it is desert-dry air, maybe not)
The best thing would be to combine humidity and the fan. This is done by pointing the fan at a piece of cloth that is hanging with one end in water. This is way too much work for me, even though I have orchids mounted on wood! and they would love more humidity and air circulation. Ah well.
Actually, if you have a spot that is sunny/bright enough, a mound of diatomite in a puddle of water will do wonders to raise the humidity. I suppose lava rock would do it too - so long as it wicks water up and the light makes it evaporate..... A little waterfall would have the same effect.
Or you can grow some butterworts in saucers of water :-)
Of course, you could just open the window....
Thanks Kerying. I really appreciate all the input.
My 2 cents... Hehe
I don't open windows as pest can get threw the screen.
Nanna do you really feel your Humidity is this low ?
You may be surprised.
What April said Air circulation is important. Plants not touching helps ~ Even people walking threw the room helps.... I do have a fan now mounted on the wall in my garden room . Our A/C runs 24/7 .
If you spray your plants use distilled water, and you can not put them under lights until their dry or you'll get spots. You don't want to get it in the crowns. Without good air curculation you may cause damaged rotting foliage and more problems.
Plants that are wicked are getting humidity. Moist pebbles, few little cups of water around plants also helps humidity .
Most Plant, Av books give ideas to increase humidity.
Your plants with 40-50 percent humidity they will be fine !
They may be fine. The plantlet are doing so well under the dome. I thought a little extra would help the mature plants. They are probably fine. I lost so many plants this year. The replacement plants are really doing well. I don't want to loose them.
I just worry too much. Bill is always telling me, "Lighten up"
Thanks Allison for your suggestions. I think I will give them a little extra spray in the mornings before the light go on.
Ok but they must dry before lights come on. And have to dry natural not good to dry plants or leaves with paper towels or towels.
why can't they be dried with paper towels? I do that for some of my orchids - a bit of kitchen paper touching the crown sops up the water. Just curious why you couldn't do it for AVs......
It can bruise and damge the leaves ..I'm in bed here packing but will find info on it when I can ! I've read it many places.
ah... maybe it's not so easy to sop up on fuzzy leaves. With the orchids, all you do is place (gently) a small piece of kitchen paper on the crown so that a corner of the paper touches water, and voila!, capillary action does the rest with no pressure or rubbing or anything. Probably not so easy with AVs.
Allison same here, we run our AC 24/7 for at least 8 mos of the year- and it's humid outside so we are all trying to keep hummidity out and not in. I have my orchids sitting on pebbles and I mist them sometimes. I think they can handle more hummidity than AVs - most orchids are planted in mix that does not hold moisture but like being misted and then AVs like to be in mix that holds more moisture while at the same time we are routinely admonished to avoid getting AV leaves wet; not that that's exactly true, but in general it's not a bad rule of thumb. Even if you don't follow that particular rule, none of us apply the same amount of water to AV leaves as we do to other plants and we take greater precautions w/ them. I don't know what it would be like to grow AVs in a dry place, I guess if that was what I was faced w/ I'd make sure that I was using the tray/grid/wick method.
Nanna,
Here's my 2 cents, for what it's worth.lol
I'd check the daily averages of the humidity level in the AV room first.
Another question I have for you, is why do you feel they need more humidity??
I checked the weather info to see what your normal humidity level was before posting but didn't find any useful information just at a glance, except you are getting rained on pretty good.;)
If you aren't having any problems related to lack of humidity, then I would NOT invite any by adding it. You could potential get into a battle of adding humidity, ( treating for mildew) then having to adjust by adding circulation, etc...
Now saying that, I DO mist my AV's now in my new home with average 10% humidity and back home in Texas where the humidity was always 50% or greater.
I also take my Violets to the kitchen sink for a nice warm bath every so often. They get their lil heads washed with a mild dish soap & rinsed with plain water, then patted gently dryish with a shop towel (the blue paper towel for shop work). Then,I set the plant back under the lights to finish drying. I personally haven't had any scorching of leaves, but maybe my set up is different .
I have on occasion intentionally let a bit of the soapy water run down into the pot and then tilt it to drain out. (self watering pots) This helps remove fertilizer salts that build up. Bugs don't tend to like the lil bath either..lol
You've seen the pics of my plants, shiny leaves, nice blooms, nice size plants.They aren't show winners by any means but they seem happy enough to me. It is amazing that these little plants can & do survive a wide variety of types of care!
Another thought to add to this discussion is that I do know that I get twice the bloom and they last longer on my AV's that are in a holding pattern in my lil terrariums. Even the big guys blooms were bigger after being enclosed in the terrarium type containers during our move.
The only problem I've had so far, is I needed to add some circulation to that one stand that sat too close to the wall & a corner.
Hope we helped...let us knwo what you decide!
MsC
I ditto what MsC said ..
One things I gave my 2 cnets worth posted above lol was "Nanna do you really feel your Humidity is this low ?
You may be surprised. " :))
And this is where I mean... Nanna your plants are Spectacular ! Your growing methods are sensational and you have beautiful plants. Your always bathing now ! This is where I say if it's not broken don't fix it could run into problems.
If you do want to change something do a few plants at a time.
Now where MsC lives there is like no humidity.
Good Luck !
Allison
You are all so wonderful and caring. I love being on this forum.