help with humidity

[imgliniel]

Originally Posted by Ray

It is important to realize that humidity is not a localized thing unless you're working with a closed volume.

Nature "hates" gradients. That's why a high pressure system adjacent to a low pressure one creates wind - nature's effort to evenly distribute the molecules of air.

When you try to boost the humidity around your plants, unless they are enclosed in a tent or tank, you have to try to boost the humidity of that entire room, and if that is not closed off from the rest of your home, all of it must be humidified.

Generally speaking my room is closed off from the rest of the house. Door closed most of the time. While I am at work all day, and overnight. Open maybe a few hours a day while I am home doing chores, etc, and perhaps a bit more on the weekends.

Roberta is probably right, I don't need to get to 60% in my entire room. But as I mentioned, even my own respiratory system is not happy with single digit forced heat. So keeping things up around 40% to even 50% is probably more then fine. Sadly, I do not have enough space in just my bedroom to get a grow tent type set up. Although something along those lines somethere else in the house may be an eventual edition.

SOMEONE **cough, girlfriend, cough** walked in yesterday evening with a huge healthy dark puple nobile dendrobium, that apparently had just come in on a shipment at a good garden center, and they hadn't priced them yet, so it was um, not as expensive as it should be, haha

[Zindaginha]

Originally Posted by imgliniel

Generally speaking my room is closed off from the rest of the house. Door closed most of the time. While I am at work all day, and overnight. Open maybe a few hours a day while I am home doing chores, etc, and perhaps a bit more on the weekends.

Roberta is probably right, I don't need to get to 60% in my entire room. But as I mentioned, even my own respiratory system is not happy with single digit forced heat. So keeping things up around 40% to even 50% is probably more then fine. Sadly, I do not have enough space in just my bedroom to get a grow tent type set up. Although something along those lines somethere else in the house may be an eventual edition.

SOMEONE **cough, girlfriend, cough** walked in yesterday evening with a huge healthy dark puple nobile dendrobium, that apparently had just come in on a shipment at a good garden center, and they hadn't priced them yet, so it was um, not as expensive as it should be, haha

In that case, I'd invest in a nice, large humidifier, one that is adustable, like iTvanilla or something. If you are trying to go from single-digit RH to 30-40%, you'll probably burn through a gallon of reverse osmosis water every couple of days, but places like Whole Foods let you fill your own jugs for 50 cents a gallon or so.

[Arizona Jeanie]

A small word of caution--some people with asthma actually get worse with more humidity. That's one reason asthmatics were once told to move to Arizona, the dry air here seems helpful to some. Increasing humidity is great for sinuses and eyes and cutting down on static electricity, but can make some respiratory conditions worse.
That said--I use a small room cool mist humidifier in the bedroom in the winter. I buy r/o water for 35 cents a gallon, and go through about 3 gallons a week. Brings the humidity up to about 24%. It's relatively inexpensive and low tech, provides a little white noise, and isn't enough to get any mold growing.
My phals don't seem to be particularly bothered by the low humidity. If they look dry, I just water them more often and/or give them a soak. They're doing well, spiking nicely right now, and have never had any fungal problems. In my opinion, they're pretty tough and adaptable plants, and some stress actually makes them flower better.