Mist King Systems

[WaterWitchin]

Okay Joshy...

LED strip is just underneath front of shelf mounted from below. I've also had them mounted underneath shelf in middle, but not right at the moment. The copper tube holding misters used to be in the middle where you see a piece of PVC currently, and that's about 4" below bottom of shelf. Now it's been moved to front of shelf and is about 6" from top of shelf.



Here's a picture with them on, but mist is so fine you can't really see anything other than a bit hazy.



My fan doesn't move it much, but I forgot it's summer and I have a ceiling fan on in there right now. My other fan is elsewhere at the moment.

---------- Post added at 04:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:06 PM ----------

Originally Posted by estación seca

I haven't used humidistats. My engineer friend tried several, then gave up, saying they aren't reliable. Have others here used them? MistKing sells one that integrates with the misting system.

Rather than a humidistat you could run the thing every X minutes while you're home some day, and observe how long it takes for the humidity to drop to where you want the mister to come on.

If you go to MistKing.com you can read the ST-24 seconds timer or RCT-24 repeat cycle timer programming instructions. The ST can have up to 9 different programs, on any combination of days of the week, for any length of time. So, yes, you should be able to do periodic brief mistings for humidity and longer mistings for watering.

That's what I did when I relied on the mister to also raise humidity. You can do many multiple settings at different times for X seconds or minutes. I just started it running then checked humidity gauge and dialed it in.

Now I use a fogger instead.

[Ray]

I had a humidistat on my greenhouse flogger, and it worked quite well.

If you want to control by humidity and on a schedule, you’ll need to control circuits set up in parallel.

Water supply > pump > splits to two lines, each with its own controller, one RH, one timed > joined into a single line to the nozzles.

[K-Sci]

Originally Posted by estación seca

If you go to MistKing.com you can read the ST-24 seconds timer or RCT-24 repeat cycle timer programming instructions. .

Read the manuals! Now that's something I can do. I didn't know they were available.

-Keith

---------- Post added at 05:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:25 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Ray

I had a humidistat on my greenhouse flogger, and it worked quite well.

If you want to control by humidity and on a schedule, you’ll need to control circuits set up in parallel.

Water supply > pump > splits to two lines, each with its own controller, one RH, one timed > joined into a single line to the nozzles.

That's what I was thinking would probably be necessary. Being in Mississippi, I only have a humidity concern in the winter, and the interval misting is for December vacations. If I start now, I should be able to have both done in time.
-Keith

---------- Post added at 05:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:28 PM ----------

Originally Posted by WaterWitchin

Now I use a fogger instead.

Would I be wise to go straight to a fogger, rather than stop at misting along the way?
-Keith

	Mistking Looking for a misting system? Look no further. Automated misting systems from MistKing are used by multitude of plant enthusiasts and are perfect for Orchids. Systems feature run dry pumps, ZipDrip valve, adjustable black nozzles, per second control! Automatically mist one growing shelf or a greenhouse full of Orchids. See MistKing testimonials

[WaterWitchin]

Originally Posted by K-Sci

Would I be wise to go straight to a fogger, rather than stop at misting along the way?
-Keith

It would depend on your grow space, and how enclosed or not enclosed it is. You could easily get a fogger or two and try before you buy two systems, since foggers are cheap. My setup isn't fancy... I just have them sitting in my open top reservoir. Another member followed that idea and built a real fancy one. I'll see if I can find it.

---------- Post added at 07:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:32 AM ----------

Found it! It was Clawhammer who took my idea and added all the bells and whistles. 50 Gallon Humidifier

And if one fogger isn't enough, use two. They're cheap.

	Mistking Looking for a misting system? Look no further. Automated misting systems from MistKing are used by multitude of plant enthusiasts and are perfect for Orchids. Systems feature run dry pumps, ZipDrip valve, adjustable black nozzles, per second control! Automatically mist one growing shelf or a greenhouse full of Orchids. See MistKing testimonials

[Ray]

Originally Posted by K-Sci

Would I be wise to go straight to a fogger, rather than stop at misting along the way?
-Keith

As WW asked - how large of an area/volume are you humidifying?

My Seedling nursery/ICU had a 3' x 6' ebb and flow tray as a base. I added an enclosure that was 3' tall, made from aluminized foam insulation panels, painted white. There were LEDs and circulation fans suspended from the ceiling, and heat mats on the floor, under nonwoven polyester pads.

I bought a Mist-King Starter kit, and had two, dual-nozzle foggers also suspended from the ceiling. It ran for one minute at 5 am for watering, then for 30 seconds at 1 pm. The RH was near 100% and I had to put a drain in the tray to dump the excess water.

In my 18' x 14' x 12' greenhouse, I had a Jaybird Hydrofogger.

	Mistking Looking for a misting system? Look no further. Automated misting systems from MistKing are used by multitude of plant enthusiasts and are perfect for Orchids. Systems feature run dry pumps, ZipDrip valve, adjustable black nozzles, per second control! Automatically mist one growing shelf or a greenhouse full of Orchids. See MistKing testimonials

[K-Sci]

Originally Posted by WaterWitchin

It would depend on your grow space, and how enclosed or not enclosed it is.

Fully enclose. Here's a picture of Keith Land. My 44 gallons R.O. water reservoir (trash can) is visible to the right of the exterior door.

You could easily get a fogger or two and try before you buy two systems, since foggers are cheap.

My setup isn't fancy... I just have them sitting in my open top reservoir. Another member followed that idea and built a real fancy one. I'll see if I can find it.

Hmmm, I've been assuming that a fogger would cost more. But can they be used to keep plants "watered" for a 2 week vacation. Perhaps it doesn't matter if the humidity is kept high enough. In the summer with powerful ventilation and 60% daytime humidity I water Sundays and Wednesdays.

---------- Post added at 07:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:32 AM ----------

Found it! It was Clawhammer who took my idea and added all the bells and whistles. 50 Gallon Humidifier

And if one fogger isn't enough, use two. They're cheap.

Thanks for the info.
-Keith

---------- Post added at 12:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:35 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Ray

As WW asked - how large of an area/volume are you humidifying?

12'x13' A picture was posted above.

My Seedling nursery/ICU had a 3' x 6' ebb and flow tray as a base. I added an enclosure that was 3' tall, made from aluminized foam insulation panels, painted white. There were LEDs and circulation fans suspended from the ceiling, and heat mats on the floor, under nonwoven polyester pads.

I'm not sure I fully understand your description, was it fully enclosed, or did it have an open top?



Your use of added heat from below is interesting.

I bought a Mist-King Starter kit, and had two, dual-nozzle foggers also suspended from the ceiling. It ran for one minute at 5 am for watering, then for 30 seconds at 1 pm. The RH was near 100% and I had to put a drain in the tray to dump the excess water.

In my 18' x 14' x 12' greenhouse, I had a Jaybird Hydrofogger.

Which Jaybird Hydrofogger model did you use. I don't see prices on their site, but they look very expensive.

-Keith

[WaterWitchin]

Yes, the kind of foggers Ray's talking about are what I would consider expensive. Depends on what expensive means to the individual.

The foggers I'm talking about (and as shown on the links in Clawhammer's thread) run around $20-25 per setup. They aren't built for plant or greenhouse use. They're used in pond water features, which is how I started using them back when I still had my store before retirement. I run one in summer (and probably don't need to as I have open windows in summer) and run two in winter at opposite ends of a 16x10 sunporch. Summer humidity runs around 80% +/-, and in winter around 65-75% with windows of course closed.

No, the foggers I'm talking about don't water plants; just keep humidity up. I water once a week to every ten days, and sometimes top off in between when it's really hot; however, I'm all in semi-hydro other than mounts under the Mist-King and those never get anything other than the Mist-King.

That's a sweet setup, Keith. You don't have nearly enough plants!!

[Ray]

Keith,

The ICU was totally enclosed, save for a sliding glass front with two overlapping doors.

I had a Jaybird SS700 direct feed fogger. After building, buying, repairing and replacing many other models over the years, I decided “no more BS”, and bit the bullet. It would have saved me a bundle had I bought it right from the start.

I am not a fan of the ultrasonic transducers, as they just didn’t have the output volume.

When I had a smaller greenhouse, I built a humidifier out of a 5-gallon bucket.

Water was pumped to the top of the LECA, which would keep it saturated. The blower sucked air down through the moist LECA, saturating it, then pulling it up the central pipe for dispersal throughout the structure.

[K-Sci]

Originally Posted by Ray

Keith,

The ICU was totally enclosed, save for a sliding glass front with two overlapping doors.

Okay, with a 12' ceiling in your greenhouse, I was wondering, but I see that I misread. The enclosure wasn't that tall. Thanks for clarifying.

I am not a fan of the ultrasonic transducers, as they just didn’t have the output volume.

I have some experience with them, but not in this application. What I've found is that they foul fairly quickly unless the water is demineralized, as with RO.

Thanks for the info!

-Keith

[estación seca]

I just spent some time away from home, with a few trips back to check on the plants. This time of year I normally open sunroom doors at night so my sunroom gets air circulation and the evaporative cooler does night-time cooling. With me gone I shut the whole thing so I could lock my house and keep the humidity up. The evaporative cooler runs all the time, but doesn't cool when relative humidity is high.

With relative humidity above 80% and temperatures at a near-constant 80-85 degrees F / 26-30C most plants remained moist for over a week. Exceptions were larger Paphs, Phrags and some rapidly-growing Cattleyas.

I had a few plants rot from the high humidity. I found one NOID Phal in S/H with what looked like Erwinia rot on the distal portion of a leaf. I took it into the house, cut off the leaf, and left it in my kitchen sink where it would get bright shade but much lower relative humidity. It has survived and is growing normally.

Ideally I should get some locking screens so I can leave my sunroom open to air circulation but lock it when I am not home.