Humidity

[nross]

I. Was thinking of buying a small humidifier to use for the orchids in my bay window. They are fine most of the year but the air around is dry in the winter. I do have a couple of humidity trays there but they don't help much. There are some plants on the sill and I have some on clear shelves behind. want to give them any advantage I can. It would have to be small. see some with warm or cool humidity. Not sure what to get.

[cbuchman]

Be sure to check your water. Using hard water in a humidifier makes a big mess on everything. (speaking from experience! )

[nross]

live in Brooklyn, ny. Not sure, but we probably have hard water here.

[cbuchman]

Actually NYC water is some of the best anywhere. I suspect that you are fine (I'm in Northern NJ and we have Ridgewood water which is one of the worst!)

[naoki]

How big is the room? You are humidifying the entire room, so the volume of the room is the determining factor of the humidifier. If it is not big, here is my recommendation.

I've checked out many humidifiers and I like this one:
Amazon.com: Crane Drop Shape Ultrasonic Cool Mist Humidifier with 2.3 Gallon output per day: Health & Personal Care

The price varies quite a bit depending on the color.

This is the ultrasonic type, which is super quiet. There are a couple of trade-off. Warm mist type consumes more electricity. Evaporative type could be noisier. Some ultrasonic ones don't last, but the one I recommended hasn't had an issue (it's also recommended by Consumer's Report, I believe).

If you can spend a little bit more, I recommend this humidistat to control the humidifier:
Amazon.com: Zoo Med HygroTherm Humidity and Temperature Controller: Pet Supplies

[nross]

Not sure of the room dimensions and unfortunately in this house the living room and dining room are open with no door, so it's pretty large. My only concern though is the plant area, right by the bay window. No experience with humidifiers so would it be adequate in the immediate area of the plants? Would be right under the shelves, no worrying about humidifying anywhere else in the room.

[naoki]

It is difficult to humidify only the plant area because you can't easily limit the air diffusion. That's why humidity tray has minimum impact. If you can enclose the plants, you can provide the optimum humidity (80%) without causing house troubles. Small indoor greenhouse (e.g. plastic around small shelving units), aquarium, grow tent etc.

If you have only 1-2 plants, you could directly blow the output of humidifier onto the plant by attaching some tubings. But if you do it too much, it will probably cause problems (e.g. the leaves become too cold due to evaporative heat loss, or too wet).

[Tindomul]

I would use foggers, because I could point the fog in the direction of the plants. Keep it running most of the day.

[RandomGemini]

I have the crane drop shaped humidifier. I like it a lot, it does a great job, one problem with it though. You have to turn the reservoir upside down in order to fill it and then flip it back over to put it back into the unit. This is annoying, because it drips all over the place. I use this in my office with the door closed on about half power, think the room is approximately 10x10 and it works pretty great. Keeps my mounted orchids pretty moist. The other drawback with this unit, is that you can't set it on the floor, or on any wood furniture. If you have a metal shelving unit, I use a plant stand for mine, that you don't mind taking out and spraying down with a coat of clear rustoleum once a year, you should be set.

Hope this helps!

[Tindomul]

I use a similar operation.