Humidity Trays
 

Has anyone else had issues with these trays? I just dont get that much of a raised humidity from it. The kitchen is at 50% and it only raises it 2-3%. Just does not seem like its working correctly. I put some pebbles on it and then poured some water in it, and the water from the plants drip in there too. How often do you clean them out?
Need :twocents:

Don't think humidity trays have any hope of working except in a minor way. I have a large tray under mine, but more to catch the runoff. I even tried a room humidifier and only saw a 2-3% rise. I no longer worry about humidity. There are a few species that absolutely must be kept humid (Angraecoides are one group) and those need to be in a Wardian case IMHO.

I agree, and even have some science and logic to back that up:
Humidity and Evaporation

Get a good humidifier. I use a Air-o-Swiss 2 gallon model. Mainly during winter. Excellent humidifier.

So far I don't think I'm getting any particular use out of trays either. I've used them briefly in the past, but unless it's in a fairly warm room and it's enclosed in some way, nothing happens really happens.

What I've done is that I've placed an inch or loose but moist moss over the surface of the medium and anywhere the aeriel roots are going. In 2 weeks, the results have been amazing. Growth on the orchids seems to be quicker, and the aeriel roots are growing like mad.

As I havn't got a tumble drier, I also dry all my clothes on a clothes airator thing. I enclose the tall shelf with two of these and every morning I hang out wet clothes. This is just under a ceiling window. This encloses the area a little, and there's constantly evaporating water off the clothes.

we've had great success with three ionic 1 gallon humidifiers (they are below the plants and shoot their clouds up vertically)...we only use filtered water and use light UV on the source. Every AM from 6 to 9 the plants get a boost up to 75 % humidity, and since we have allot of mounted plants, they have really thrived on their morning "bath"...it seems to augment the misting of our mounts excellently.

oh definately. This is something I've experienced myself, but Dr Hessayon's new book about orchids suggests that relying on one method of raising humidity inside a normal home is not really worth it.

I personally mist every morning, have started to put the atomiser on every morning before i go to work (creates clouds of mist), mist when I get home, spray the sides of the terracota pots and have humidity trays in place.

And mine's just a book shelf under a window in a flat. Seems to be working!

Misting may be good for certain orchid roots, but doesn't do anything practical as for humidity.

hmm....i'm not sure you see. because i mist all my plants in the morning. I can see water on leaf surfaces of foliage plants and water droplets on the thick aerial roots of my zygo for ages.

definately has no effect i'm sure on the humidity around foliage. But i never mist the foliage of the orchids anyway.

That's an interesting technique that I hadn't considered!

I just keep my humidifier on all the time at a constant rate. But it might well do, to up the humidity in the morning to 75-80%, lowering it back down to 60% or so for the remaider of the day. :scratchhead: