Humidifiers: make or break

[Bulbofett]

For those of you without the privilege of a greenhouse (I'm extremely jealous for those of you that do btw) how necessary, or beneficial do you feel humidifiers are?

I have considered getting one this past week since humidity levels in my home have drastically been reduced to 20-30%. My only drawback is that I don't know if there is really any much benefit to getting one. 99% of the time South Carolina has enough humidity that it feels like walking around in pea soup. January and February are really the only months we get a break.

So hit me with your advanced knowledge on humidifiers and their effect on orchids.

[Ordphien]

Eh.... my orchids do fine without one. And we drop to that for the same amount of time here.
Sometimes lower.
Also depends what your growing and how your growing it

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[Paul]

Originally Posted by Ordphien

Also depends what your growing and how your growing it

Very much the case in point.

My catts do just fine, for example, and my winter RH is 30% with a humidifier running 24/7. I have others ... mainly of the Pleurothallid alliance that seem to have a rougher time of it -- especially if they are trying to bloom. When RH is really low, they tend to abort their blooms/buds.

Mounted plants will tend to suffer more than potted. Many of the micro minis will have a very hard time with extremely low RH.

That said, I do run a humidifier in my apt 24/7 -- because without it my winter RH would fall to single digits. And when the RH gets much below 30%, I itch constantly.

[Subrosa]

Your growing conditions are similar to mine, albeit a bit warmer. I have some orchids in a paludarium that really need the humidity, but many are on a lit shelf and go outside as soon as it's warm enough. For these I try to concentrate on orchids which require a dry winter rest. I don't know my relative humidity inside, but I did hear yesterday that the dewpoint was -3 F. That's DRY!!!

[Bulbofett]

I'm just worried because both my Masdevallia coccinea and my angraecum magdalenae are showing signs of stress. They both have scrunching around the newly forming leaves indicating not enough humidity to break the sheath. I have trays of water set around them to increase humidity, but according to my humidity gauge, that's not doing jack.

I'm most worried about my bulbos. My lasiochilum is particularly upset with me so I placed it inside a tupperware (open, no lid) to hopefully increase humidity around it. Not sure that is helping any, but worth a shot.

[Brooke]

For everyone who thinks a g/h has magic humidity, it doesn't. We are having an extremely cold winter and the heater runs a LOT. My humidity for the last few weeks is running 30%.

When the outside temps are under 10F, my heater does not shut off. All pots are bone dry in 4/5 days and the mounts are bone dry daily. The one thing I don't want when it is cold IS high humidity or it will be fungus city inside the g/h.

Hopefully this next round of below zero temps will end very soon and my heater can get a little rest......as can my wallet.

Bulbofett your orchids will be fine until your humidity shows up again. I bet your 'chids enjoy more warmth in your house than mine are experiencing.

Brooke

[Bulbofett]

Originally Posted by Brooke

For everyone who thinks a g/h has magic humidity, it doesn't. We are having an extremely cold winter and the heater runs a LOT. My humidity for the last few weeks is running 30%.

When the outside temps are under 10F, my heater does not shut off. All pots are bone dry in 4/5 days and the mounts are bone dry daily. The one thing I don't want when it is cold IS high humidity or it will be fungus city inside the g/h.

Hopefully this next round of below zero temps will end very soon and my heater can get a little rest......as can my wallet.

Bulbofett your orchids will be fine until your humidity shows up again. I bet your 'chids enjoy more warmth in your house than mine are experiencing.

Brooke

This makes me feel a whole lot better. I always go into the greenhouses at Lowe's or Home Depot and it seems so nice and humid in there for their orchids. I guess I assumed that was the benefit of having a greenhouse, you didn't need to worry about dry winters.

@WhiteRabbit: I've actually been watering my angraecum 3 times a week. I keep getting nervous I'll overwater it. I usually don't water my orchids this much, but I guess I'll have to see how much water they can really handle (first year keeping a Masdevallia and angraecum).

@Subrosa/Ordphien: Ok so everyone agrees to water more and to find a way to trap the humidity. I'll try all of these things and see if that helps. Thanks!!

[Leafmite]

What helps in a greenhouse is all the other plants, if one grows plants other than orchids. I don't have a greenhouse but I do have decent humidity most of the time. I've found that my orchids benefit greatly from being grown around the other plants. There are a few that I do grow in a terrarium: haraella rectrocalla and my new aerangis. This has been an especially cold winter and the furnace is working overtime.

[Ordphien]

I'm not familiar with bulbos.... they need lots of water and high humidity right?
If so a humidifier may be what you need.
Try watering more as well. Low humidity is often combated by more water in my house.
Ive found water trays don't do much. Try creating a temporary mini greenhouse of sorts.
The tray will do a whole lot of there's no where for the humidity to escape to.

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[WhiteRabbit]

Remember that low humidity leads to media drying faster ... perhaps you just need to water a bit more ... ?