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Humidity help please. I’m in Arizona and started collecting cactus… | Equipment & Materials | Planta-Community

MicAZ

Humidity help please. I’m in Arizona and started collecting cactus and succulents. Now I’ve added tropical. Hoyas, Calatheas, and some others. I adore them and thinking they are doing pretty well with grow lights at about 30%. I thought I could add humidity just by misting daily, but I keep reading that’s questionable whether it actually helps. Aside from adding a humidifier, which I don’t want to do, what are better options? I do find crispy edges on some leaves, so I’m worried the humidity is a problem.

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5 Likes 15 Kommentare

15 Kommentare

  1. Wolfen 🐺

    I disagree that misting doesn't help. I have humidifiers and noticed a big difference when I started misting. I only mist once a day, but I'd probably do it twice or 3x in a desert humidity. You could also use pebble trays, like bonsai growers use. It's just a tray with pebble's, you place the plants on, and fill with water, it slowly evaporates and humidifies the plants.

    4 Likes
    • MicAZ

      Thank you! Nice to hear someone had a differing opinion. I’m looking at pebble trays now. Think I’ll try that. Just need to figure out what rock and how to manage it. That standing water concerns me, but I’m probably just being paranoid, lol.

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    • Wolfen 🐺

      Yea, I've been seeing that go around a lot lately, and It honestly seems like most people saying that have never actually misted, they just heard on Reddit or TikTok that it's pointless. But even with the humidifiers I was having issues, and misting stopped all of them. The pebble trays are really shallow, like most are barely an inch and hold a cup of water, if that

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  2. MikeNeedsMorePlants

    Sorry to provide you an opposing opinion, but my belief is misting isn't enough. Some advice though: Invest in a good hygrometer to measure the humidity around your plants ($20-30). You should aim for relative humidity/RH levels (that is, the moisture in the air that surrounds your plants) between 50-60% for high humidity plants. RH of 45% is acceptable, but I have a humidifier so I aim higher. Nice thing about hygrometers is you can test your own humidity methods (misting, pebble tray, grouping plants, etc) to see if they're actually working. At the end of the day though, you and your plants know what's best, so experiment and see what works for you! Good luck :)

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    • MicAZ

      I know the humidity in the house on average is about 30%. I honestly never thought to check the specific areas with the plants after misting and I think I have one of those meters! I think I’m going to order the trays and mist. And find my meter! Thank you!

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    • MikeNeedsMorePlants

      For misting, you're only providing temporary moisture on the leaves of your plants. This moisture evaporates and doesn't change the relative humidity of the room (the value we want to change) I think same goes for pebble trays, too. Doesn't change relative humidity. Misting DOES help with unfurling leaves, though. If you've noticed new leaves open up with brown marks, it's probably because friction damaged the leaf as it was trying to open up. But misting releases that friction. This is definitely something I noticed with my plants because, even though the humidity in my room aims 55%, new leaves were still opening up damaged. The misting was a game changer for that

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    • MicAZ

      Ahh, thank you again!!

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    • Wolfen 🐺

      My 'resting humidity' with no humidifier on is around 50%. Misting brings it up to mid 70s-80s dependingon how heavy I mist. I highlyrecommend these Govee hydrogemeters if you plan to get one. They have an app and you can set highs or lows for both heat and the humidity %

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    • MikeNeedsMorePlants

      Yeah, high humidity plants will struggle at 30%. But you never know because, like people, plants have genes and certain individual plants might better adapt to conditions that are normally unfavorable for their species :) One thing that could help is grouping your high humidity plants together in close clumps. Plants release water into the air through transpiration, so you'd effectively be creating a microclimate where your plants benefit off each other's transpired water. Haven't tested this myself, though. Also, a temporary fix is to just open up a window and circulate air, especially after it rains. It looks like (via google) Arizona's average annual RH is around 40%. Maybe you're house runs at 30% because it has a dehumidifier running? Not sure. :)

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  3. Amy B

    I have pebble trays and i mist. I think it made a big difference. The pebble trays don’t hold water long enough for it to be a problem.

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    • MicAZ

      Good to know! Thanks!

      1 Like
  4. Abbi

    I def agree that if you're having leaves unfurling with brown on them, misting will help. Otherwise, idk, becuz I've read that it can be hard for plants to have the humidity spike for a bit and then go back to normal. Before I got a humidifier I misted as often as I remembered to, and now that I have a humidifier I still mist leaves that are uncurling. So if you have plants that need high humidity it would def be better to get a humidifier but misting will pry help.

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