temperature/humidity gauges

[rallygirl]

hello!

i am curious about toys/tricks for monitoring temperature and humidity. i suspect that i have orchids that require more knowledge/skill than i have at the moment and i am looking for something that will generate numbers so i can be more specific about cultivating the ideal environment for my new pals.

especially for humidity. it's easy to read that 40-60% is needed... but what does that mean?

jd

[Shadow]

I bought my temperature/humidity and light meters here Carsten's Orchid-Depot and Orchid Shop

Extremely happy with service.

[Greenorchid]

The percentage of humidity demanded from the several orchids, refers to the water particle suspended in the air. Normally in our houses it varies from 30% to 50%, instead many orchids needs of a higher humidity, around to the 70-80%, like phals and Vanda, as an example. There are many ways to raise the humidity, as an example to put the pots of your orchids on one layer of dump expanded clay, or to use a humidifier. In order to control the level of humidity, you can acquire a hygrometer

[markr]

Originally Posted by rallygirl

hello!

i am curious about toys/tricks for monitoring temperature and humidity. i suspect that i have orchids that require more knowledge/skill than i have at the moment and i am looking for something that will generate numbers so i can be more specific about cultivating the ideal environment for my new pals.

especially for humidity. it's easy to read that 40-60% is needed... but what does that mean?

jd

You can get the details on Relative Humidity here, more details than you probably want. Another interesting discussion from a meteorologist's point of view is here.
Basically, RH measures the amount of water vapour in the air at a particular temperature compared to the amount that would be present if the air were saturated at that temperature. There's more to it than that but that's essentially all a grower really needs to know.

At many hardware stores and some nurseries you will find relatively cheap devices which measure temperature and relative humidity and keep track of the maximum and minimum levels recorded. They are very useful and not expensive.