Humidity tray question

[Becca]

Okay I am just full of questions today! I have a question about humidity trays. I have a round plastic tray like kind you can by at Home Depot filled with pea gravel. I fill this with water and my clear pot with slits on the sides and bottom sit on the gravel. I have noticed that if I get the water level up to high in the tray, that the potting medium wicks the moisture up so I try and not fill the water tray to high. I noticed if I lift the pot up that it seems the rocks are wet looking on top. This tells me that the evaporation or moisture is going into the bottom of the pot. Is this good, bad, or something I should be doing differently?

[Sharry]

I had that happen to me also with humidity trays. Now I put the plants on small saucers to keep them elevated above the pea gravel.

[smartie2000]

I think you are fine. The gravel should have a wet look

[justatypn]

I use like sausers and pea gravel, also using 1-1 1/2 size gravel just under the pots to keep them above the water level. It appears to be working perfectly keeping the pot just above the moisture.

[dennis]

you can go to hd or lowes etc.etc. and pick up a flourescent light grid comes in 2' x 4' most of the times you can get a broken one pretty cheap with enough left to use. if you really want to get creative with one you can make it look like this

[cb977]

Dennis, I love that set-up!

[Tindomul]

I usually take three or four flat rocks and put them under the pot on top of the gravel. This lifts the pot above the gravel, so if the top of the gravel is wet, the pot is not touching the water and does not wick. Try that.

[Sharry]

On the other hand, I gave some Cattleya-type plants and a very tough Phal to my mom a while back -they did fine without humidity trays at all. And she was a person who liked her climate cool and dry. Depending on the plant maybe they don't need humidity trays at all.

[Ross]

Since I have a small computer fan running 24/7 across the orchids, I don't believe a "humidity" tray will do anything. My trays serve to catch drip water and grow algae

[Becca]

Ross,
You said you have a small fan running across your orchids, does this fan blow directly on them? I was told that it was okay for a fan to blow past my orchids but not directly on them, even with an osculating fan because the breeze blowing on them would dry them out and cause the pseudobulbs to shrivel. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Thanks!