Safety of a Misting System in a Grow Tent?
 

Hi All:

I'm a newer member of the Orchid Board who has been growing an ever-increasing collection of orchids for about 5 years, mostly under LED lights year-round. I focus mostly on intermediate- to warm-growing orchids and have become more and more drawn to mounted orchids as time goes on.

I recently moved to a very dry area at a fairly high altitude, and have been relearning my orchid care routines to adapt to the new conditions. I am especially concerned about how quickly my mounted orchids dry out, as I am currently watering by hand.

I have been growing my orchids in a 3x3x5 grow tent to help control conditions, especially humidity. I settled on a grow tent mostly due to budget; my research indicated a grow tent can fit a fair amount of orchids and costs far less than a glass enclosure orchidarium design.

I would love to set up an automatic misting system, such as a MistKing to lessen the hand watering burden and keep my mounted orchids happier. However, I am concerned about running such a system in an enclosed space that includes fans for internal circulation and LED grow lights, since water and electricity do not mix. I've seen plenty of glass orchidarium designs that include automatic misting systems with most of the electronics running outside of the case, but no grow tent setup with automatic misting systems that address my safety concerns (and perhaps there is my answer!) Does anyone have experience or suggestions with/for running an automatic misting system in an enclosed grow tent with electronics such as fans and LED lights?

For those interested, here are some of the details on my setup:

• 3x3x5 Grow Tent
• HLG 60 V2 LED Light
• HLG 100 v2 LED Light
• 2 SOTOP IP55 Axial Fans for internal circulation
• VIVOSUN 4 Inch 190 CFM Inline Ventilation Fan for air exchange (located externally to grow tent)
• Inkbird humidity controller connected to the ventilation fan to maintain humidity between 70-80% (located externally; the probe is located internally)

Unless noted, the above items are housed entirely in the grow tent. As I mentioned earlier, I am concerned about condensation that may result from a misting system building up and shorting out the electronics, potentially causing a fire. Does anyone have experience setting up a similar system, or suggestions for how to do it safely?

Thanks!

First, welcome to the Orchid Board!

I did a quick Google search for "grow tent mister" and quickly found an idea that might just work for you - a piece of towel, with bottom in water, in front of the fan.
At any rate, do a little poking around on the web with that search... our cannabis-growing friends have explored the grow-tent concept pretty thoroughly, a lot more people thinking about this than just in the orchid world. There's more than one way to accomplish most things!

hi drip,
I have had an led light stop working due to condensation getting into the unit. That was without a mister.

I can't see a mister working well long term but maybe someone does it.

Can't you use a pump drip irrigation system that just waters the pots and collects the runoff?

Humidity will be high due to the tent anyway so misting won't add any benefit over watering

Before I moved, I had a 6' x 3' "orchid incubator" set up in my basement. It contained two Philips Greenpower 4' LED strips, two 110V muffin fans for air circulation and a Mist King system for irrigation.

The pump, timer and water tank were outside of the chamber, and the fans were suspended from the ceiling above the level of the misting nozzles, but the LED strips were not.

The misting came on twice a day (5 am and noon) and soaked everything down quite well, and in several years I never had an issue with anything.

If you go with more misters and place them closer to the plants - under the lighting and fans - I seriously doubt you'd have an issue, but it might not hurt to find a way to cover the light drivers - I'll bet a 12" piece of 4" PVC pipe, cut in half lengthwise would do the trick.

I'll start by saying I have only very basic knowledge about electricity. I only have a few phals mounted right now, but have a bare root Vanda and quite a few Tolumnia. Have had mounted ones doing same setup in the past. I have a MistKing system, and keep all of them on the bottom shelf in my basement grow area in the winter. So no electric below them, just above. Mister is timed to go off three times a day. It's a very fine mist, can be easily directed. Haven't had a problem in the four or five years I've been doing it.

If your humidifier is controlled by a probe, it'll likely just run less and your humidity should still stay around the same target range.