The Rug Trick

[skirincich]

I remember reading on the AOS site about a grower who covered his/her bench with carpet and had very good results with the growth of their orchids. If true, I would assume that the rug retained moisture and perhaps elevated the local humidity.

Has any else read about this? Is this total BS?

Thanks,
Steve

[estación seca]

If it stays moist it will soon grow all kinds of mold. I would not do it.

[Leafmite]

If it was in a greenhouse, the grower likely had good air circulation which helps prevent mold. In a home, though, the same is not true. Humidity trays, other plants, small humidifier (the type used for aromatic oils), etc. might be a better choice if growing in a home.

[Ray]

I have heard of folks using carpet padding as a temporary way to provide longer-term moisture to plants when they go away on vacation.

If you have any air movement, the humidity is readily dispersed, making the “localized humidity” be that of the room.

[Diane56Victor]

Would a sand bed work? I've seen YTube videos where a shallow container is filled with sand, these videos are using a heat coil embedded in the sand to give gentle heat but if the heat coil was left out and the sand was kept damp if might work for increased humidity.

Depending on the size of the tray used, this could work in a home situation too.
I use black trays sold as cat trays to hold a number of pots so I might have a go at this method this year with a few Oncids when Spring gets here.

[Leisesturm]

Originally Posted by Diane56Victor

Would a sand bed work? I've seen YTube videos where a shallow container is filled with sand,

Sounds messy and horrible. And passive. In a thread I posted on the same subject @Dimples mentioned a 'pond fogger' and I have been down that rabbit hole. I've spent days researching this. HOH is the real deal. I have no affiliation. I didn't even know what a fogger was until last week.

You can also just buy an ultrasonic or water wick home humidifier if you don't want to DIY. These active methods of humidification WILL work. The water filled stuff MAY work, but often the water just refuses to evaporate and you are left with a gungy mess to clean periodically.

[Ray]

Originally Posted by Leisesturm

… active methods of humidification WILL work. The water filled stuff MAY work, but often the water just refuses to evaporate and you are left with a gungy mess to clean periodically.

The differences between active and passive methods are temperature and/or surface area. In the home, temperature is a more-or-less “constant”, so surface area for evaporation is the key.

A 10’x10’x10’ room @ 74F and 50% RH (chosen for calculation simplicity) has about a cup of water dissolved in the air. A glass of water only has about 7 square inches of surface area for evaporation to occur. Pout that water into a standard nursery tray, and that is increased to about 250. Add pebbles, and it increases again. Even with that, the rate of evaporation is very low, rendering such passive attempts relatively worthless.

If we atomize that cup of water however, the surface area increases drastically. If dispersed as 1 mm droplets - a lot larger than misters and foggers do - that cup of water gets a surface area of almost 22 million square inches!

[Dimples]

I’ve had a great experience with my Levoit LV600HH humidifier. Enough features to satisfy any need and it looks nice without being obnoxiously tech-y. Our one level house is 1,100 square feet and it’s capable of raising and maintaining the humidity from 15-30%RH to 50-70%RH a lot faster than the specs suggest it could. It can take the humidity higher but I don’t want to encourage mold growth.

The tank cracked within the warranty period (I suspect it was my fault) and the customer service process was super easy. They asked for proof of purchase, asked a few questions about usage, and sent me a new replacement unit with 2-3 day shipping and told me to keep the old one for parts or to recycle it.

My first humidifier was a Crane unit shaped like a penguin. Super simple, no humidistat or other features except auto-off when the tank was empty, just a single dial to set the mist output. It worked great for 9 years and it was adorable.

[Diane56Victor]

Originally Posted by Leisesturm

Sounds messy and horrible. And passive.

I agree with you about a sand bed being passive way to add humidity.
However the messy and horrible part is debatable.
The YT videos Ive seen were in greenhouses and while it looked easy, there would be a of a bit of hard work to set up, once completed it looked neat and tidy and no different to having plant pots on benches.
Didn't look in any way messy.
I'll see if I can find and link a video later today.

https://youtu.be/wwkGXEatKSk