Maintaining High Humidity Levels In Home

[AdamD]

Over the past few weeks I have decided to convert a corner of my basement into a winter grow room. I have the lights already, space is picked out, I'm a carpenter by trade, that's all worked out. The only problem I have is humidity. The humidifier I have is a good one the can pump out 4 gal. of water a day.

The only thing is, it has a humidistat that cannot be bypassed, and the max setting is 65%. Also, the humidistat has it's own idea of what 65% is that doesn't agree with my other 2 humidistats. The humidity hangs around 50%, which isn't bad, but also not ideal, especially for small seedlings.

Does anyone have any suggestions for tricking the humidistat or for raising the humidity another way? It seems all humidifiers now have built in digital humidistats. Technology is not helping me in this instance. Thoughts?

 

[mrhappyrotter]

I'm not sure if this is applicable or practical for you and your plants, but these are my techniques, some may be helpful to you. I'm sure other folks will chime in as well.

I grow in a small room and keep the humidity ranges from, on average, 50% - 65%. At times it goes a bit higher and I don't believe I've ever seen the humidistat fall below 45%.

Since the plants are in a somewhat confined space, a small ultrasonic humidifier is good enough for my purposes. It does have to be refilled daily and cleaned weekly. I honestly don't bother with RO/distilled water in it, and haven't noticed any of the white buildup on leaves and surfaces that people talk about.

For the small stuff, I raise the humidity locally with a two pot method. I find a pot that's a couple inches or more bigger than what the plant is potted in. I fill the bottom of the bigger pot with styrofoam or pebbles, set the plant in, and fill the gap with sphag or rockwool. Then I set the whole thing in a saucer of water. The trick is to use the pebbles/foam to keep the bottom of the smaller pot out of the water, and let the wicking media in the bigger pot draw the water up. You do have to use care to make sure you don't over water, but overall, it seems to help. It's basically a zeer pot method, but it's not to cool the roots, it's to raise the humidity around the plant.

 

[Justin]

what kind of orchids are you growing? Can you create a vapor barrier around the grow area to keep the humidity in?

I grow indoors too. I'm not the best grower, but for in-home growing, I call 50% in the winter a win.

We just bought a new house and are growing the orchids inside. I would love to have the humidity at 70% for the plants, but I have to balance the good of the plants with the good of the house. So this winter I am going to set the humidifier at 40% and the thermostat at 70 degrees F. Hopefully I won't get too much condensation dripping off the inside of the windows or behind the drywall.

 

[Erythrone]

I grown in the basement in an isolated room.

I have several humidifiers. Small vaporizers from drugstore are helpfull because I can control them with timers of with the thermostat of the air extractor. I also like to use a fogger I bought from a petshop.

 

[ALToronto]

Place a 25 W lightbulb as close as possible to the humidistat sensor.

 

[AdamD]

Place a 25 W lightbulb as close as possible to the humidistat sensor.

Brilliant! I tried wrapping it in toilet paper. It had the opposite effect.

Justin- the bulk majority of my collection is mulifloral paphs and catasetum types. I plan on the room being a year round seedling nursery if I can get the humidity right...

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm planning on building the room next weekend. We'll see... Right now mist of the plants are down there waiting out the heat wave for just a few more days.

 

[gonewild]

Use a humidistat and fog nozzles.

A control like this:
Humidistat/Solenoid Control for SS700

 

[The Orchid Boy]

In my growing area (bedroom), I have 60%-75% RH. I don't have mold or condensation problems. I have a cheap-ish cool mist humidifier from Walmart and lots of air movement. I always have my window open in summer and am in the basement.

 

[naoki]

I also thought of building indoor grow cabinet from lumber, but I decided a grow tent is easier/cheaper. 4x4' is like $130, and 8x4' is $200 (e.g. from amazon). With well sealed grow tent, I don't have to worry about damage to the house, and I can keep 65-70% day 90% night RH easily. Mine is a smaller one 2x4', but it require active humidification only in the summer time when thermostatically controlled ventilation kicks in. In the winter, trays with water at the bottom is all it requires. Even in summer, I don't have to fill out the 1 gallon humidifier more than once in every 3 weeks.

Can you detach the sensor, and put it in a bag with silica gel? If it is evaporative type, you can bypass the sensor, and wire it to run the fan all the time.