How do I keep humidity trays clean?

[Orchid126]

If you don't have coppe wire, copper pennies do the same thing.

[Country Gramma]

OH NO!!! Did you say that carniverous plants need distilled water (Pinguiculas)??? Maybe that's why mine are dying . I just got 2 and they don't look so good. I water all my 'chids with distilled water but never thought of it for them. What else do they need???

Karen

[stefpix]

My Pinguiculas are thriving, blooming, reproducing.
Mostly I have mexican species and a couple of hybrids.

mine are in peat moss that is no prefertilized.
that is important. and sitting in a tray with an inch of water or 2". i refill the tray but never water the soil.
i think it would be good to mix the peat moss with some gravel or perlite [but the perlite i have is pre ferilized].
grow them on a shelf under a 25 W CFL and it is enough for blooming.
i put all the pots in a home depot 1$ clear storage box.
sometimes if i need to increase humidity i put the clear lid on overnight.

it is a basic for most carnivorous plants distilled water.

some people recommend rain water as well but i think with all the pollution over urbanized areas rainwater may be contaminated by pollutants.
after all 1 years ago everyone was talking about acid rain now no one mentions that.

[flyfishdoc]

Originally Posted by Sun rm.N.E.

Hi Karen

Just to remind everyone, measurements of the benefits of "humidity trays" to raise humidity show that, in most circumstances, they do not raise humidity significantly for the plants.

There was an article in the orchid society magazine years ago about this, but did not seem to make much of a dent on the popularity of this myth. A better name would be drip tray.

I had placed my humidity monitor on top of the medium of one of my phals in semi hyroponics this morning (after watering so it is topped up). In my dry winter air it read 32%. I moved it across the room, which is a well vented sun room, and it still read 32%

I agree, it can't add much humidity if there is air circulation in a room. It would seem to have to be contained to do any good

[stefpix]

I keep my carnivorous plants in a clear storage box with one inch of water - if i put the lid on it - even not totally closed for sure I can see the humidity increases and the plants respond well in periods where humidity is low. condensation on top.

humidity tray to mee seems just a breeding ground for bacteria, mold, bugs. better save the $ and get a humidifier.

i get at this time 40 to 55 %

[Ray]

For those of us living in colder climates, maintaining decent humidity is a problem because of nature.

Cold air can hold less water than can warm air, which is why we see rain and snow. As nature hates a gradient, that dry air surrounding our homes tries to suck the moisture out of the air in our homes, in order to make the interior and exterior absolute humidity (mass of water per mass of dry air) levels equal. As our homes are warmer than the outside, a lower absolute humidity translates to a much lower relative humidity (percentage of the maximum the air can hold at that temperature).

As we supplement the interior humidity in our growing areas, nature (aided by air movement) wants to spread it evenly throughout the room, but is not satisfied with that, so tries to spread it to other rooms, and ultimately to the air outside.

If you want to "beat the system", you have to put more moisture into the air than mother nature can take out to "share" with the rest of the world, and passive evaporation from a humidity tray just doesn't cut the mustard, unless your growing area is particularly well sealed-off from the rest of your home.

I go into this (and hand misting) further, here: Evaporation

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[Country Gramma]

I read your article Ray and I have gotten a cool mist ultrasonic humidifyer. It is aimed toward the orchids and I've gotten their humidity up to about 50%+-. Thats real good for me at this time of the year. Usually 20-30% now. I know that the trays don't add hardly any humidity there're mostly there for drip trays but I might as well use them for water too as it makes ME feel better. Silly, huh???
Karen

[stefpix]

The only way I noticed an increase of humidity in a tray is only when the try has higher walls than the pots and especially when I put a lid on top of it. non necessarily closed. I do this for carnivorous plants that need to sit in water.
I think standing water in a tray can lead to fungus/ mold.
I think the evaporation rate on a humidity tray is too slow to affect the humidity. the water will sit there for days if not weeks.
If you put a pan with a few inches of water on a radiator, it will dry overnight or in a day - so actually the humidity in the room will increase some how.
i checked the humidity %s.

One way to increase humidity on a windowsill is to mist the window especially on a sunny day.
That water will evaporate quickly and increase the humidity of the windowsill.
Probably if you had a heated humidity tray that would increase the humidity but cook the plants as well.
proban

[Viperalus]

Originally Posted by Sun rm.N.E.

There was an article in the orchid society magazine years ago about this, but did not seem to make much of a dent on the popularity of this myth. A better name would be drip tray. So the simpler to clean the better. For this reason, I do not put gravel, leca or anything on the bottom, since it would require more harsh poisons or boiling to kill most of the bacteria and fungi hiding in it after a while. An empty tray can be kept clean with simple detergent. You can even get trays that are dishwasher safe. A lot of people use a grid, like the common ones made for fluorescent lights, on top of the trays to keep the pots out of the water.

I hope this helps.

Addendum: I just noticed there are links to previous posts on this topic on the bottom of this page.

Originally Posted by RosieC

The main problem with humidity trays as I understand it is that the water vapor that forms is heavier than air and so drops to the floor from the edge of the tray, rather than rising up to the plants. As the edge of the tray where the humid air can escape from is lower than the plants it just falls away and is lost in the size of the room or house, or even larger area.

I've just set up a humidity tray with a lid for a couple of my sick Phals and I'm hoping the lid will mean a better raise in humidity because it is a much smaller space and the only exit for the more humid air is above the orchids not below them.

Thanks a lot for your contribution since young hobbyists as me I can find a lot for the best care of my orchids.

Rosie, as I see that photo with the orchids inside the closed box I think you have won a battle but you maybe loose another one, that with the circulation of the air. From what I have read, an adequate air flow is very essential for the growth of orchids without problems.

High humidity with no adequate oxygen I believe it leads to fungi.

From a Greek board a member gave me the idea for the humidity trays but since I am reading this and since in the Netherlands we have adequate humidity I think I won't mess up with humidity trays.

[stefpix]

a tray with a lid works ok for me to grow some keikis from a couple of shriveling dendrobiums. I put them flat on coco coir. same for a phal i had no hope for.

and a bulb of arundina that did nothing for months.

I think coco coir is less prone to fungus than bark or soil.

lid or dome is the only way to increase humidity if you use an humidity tray. basically it is like a seedling box.