humidity trays

[tfields]

I have been doing a lot of reading lately on how to grow orchid's some say you need to use humidity trays but a lot of the pictures I see I don't see them. The relative humidity hear very seldom gets below 50%. Should I buy them or not.

[Tindomul]

I would not bother. There are those who would argue that humidity trays don't really do anything. Ray has more info on that. Besides, your humidity is very high. My phals manage to survive and bloom in humidity below 30%!

[justatypn]

't' being in St. Pete your a hop skip and a jump away from the ocean as well as the ICW, surrounded . If your getting 50% without even trying your doing well. It's a bit dryer in the winter though summers end as well and if 50% is the norm, I wouldn't go through the expense. I have humidity trays (river rock and saucers) and when I "water" the rocks the humidity raises no more than 10-15% and stay time is merely 10-12 hours on a good day. Misting (my opinion) is the way to go, keeps the humidity at a higher level and if consistant keeps it to a level without high/low variables. My analogy when it comes to humidity, if you keep it high, than when there is a continual low the stress shows on our plants, if it's at even (within 10%) the orchids learn to acclimate to the humid level with less stress. I have seen this with my orchids when I first started raising them. I thought it was such a big deal to have the humidity high but here in Fl and being an indoor grower, spending less time at home than one would like, the stress shows on a mere daily humidity high and lows, if your comfortable your orchids will be as well.

[tfields]

Thanks for your comments there are very appreciated.
More questions to come Thank you, Tony in St Pete.

[20jlr]

I like to use them, mainly becouse I grow in s/h in my home. They are great to catch the water when watering.

[Ray]

Here's an excerpt from my article on Humidity

The use of "humidity trays" is another common recommendation, but one with which I do not concur. With those, waterproof trays containing pebbles are half-filled with water and placed under the plants. The theory being that as the water evaporates, it raises the localized humidity. The reason I do not recommend them is explained below.

A general caveat about all of the humidity-enhancing methods described for in-home growing: remember that unless your growing area is sealed off from the rest of your home, any effort to raise the humidity level around your plants is actually trying to raise the humidity of your entire house or apartment! Because of that, especially if there is air circulation due to fans or forced air heating, the passive methods like the humidity trays appear to be of very limited value, if any, and room-type humidifiers might offer only a minimal improvement. If you really want to do this right, consider closing off the growing room, or find a means to humidify your entire home, and remember that for many plants it is not necessary to have tropical humidity, but that we are shooting for a sufficient humidity to keep the plants from desiccating. As a reference point, at 70°F, it takes about a gallon of water "dissolved" in the air to maintain 75% RH in 1000 square feet of a typical home.

[tfields]

Thanks for the for the quick response. Your comments make very good sense,good advice.Ill just buy more Orchids.They seem to be multiplying.

[Ross]

That's always the correct response! :-)