Humidity for indoor orchids in winter..

[HollyMStewart]

I am wanting to make sure my humidity is staying high enough for my orchids for the winter. I live in Tennessee, so it is cold and dry this time of year, especially with the heat running. Everyone in the house has been getting dry bloody sinuses, so I know the orchids could probably use a bit more.

I don't have the orchids on humidity trays yet, hopefully I can get that in the works next. I just now got all my orchids on one stand in a central location. For the past few days I have been running a humidifier in the room. Is this a good way to give humidity to indoor orchids. Could there be any chance it could cause harm (fungus, bacteria, etc?) It seemed like a good idea to me.

I need to get a gauge for that room, but if I had to guess the overall humidity in the room is about 50-60 at best.

I am currently growing a handful of phals, cattleyas and cat hybrids, 1 paph, an oncidium and dendrobium kingianum. Everything is in spike except a couple of the phals, and I have one cat hybrid in bloom.

Here is a picture of my orchid shelf.

(The aquarium below the plants houses our orchid guardian - a solid white female corn snake. LOL)

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

The setup with the humidifier is fine.

You have pics of your corn snake?

I got some snakes myself.

2 Keeled Slug Eaters (Pareas carinatus)

2 African Green Bush Snakes (Philothamnus sp. - probably Philothamnus punctatus)

The African Green Bush Snakes are relatively fresh imports from a person who imported them from Africa and I'm currently working with them the best I can to get them going properly. I had no idea I would inherit such sick snakes. It's as if I imported them instead of this other guy. I just lost 1 Philothamnus punctatus to a little drowning incident when I had to soak it in warm water and some Chlorohexadine for a bad shed and for a possible infection. I originally had 3.

[boytjie]

I do the same for my setup in winter. I have a warm-mist humidifier set up in front of the shelf, which keeps the humidity in the room around 45-50%. I also run a fan from across the room to disperse the mist and keep the air moving over the plants. Works great!

[Merlyn]

Yes, I also have a humidifier on 24/7 BUT I also have the ceiling fan on 24/7 ! It's just as important to have the air moving around them !

[camille1585]

Humidity trays really are not very good at raising the humidity levels, a humidifier is really the best thing. I don't know how your low your RH is without it, but 50-60% is a good minimum for the orchids that you have

[HollyMStewart]

Good info. Thanks! I have a spare fan I may put on low in there to help give them good circulation.

[Vanda lover]

I agree that 50 to 60 is fine for those orchids. Humidifiers work fine. I used to use a large humidifier because I hated constantly filling it. There are some that can hold quite a bit of water.