help with humidity

[imgliniel]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Have you considered closing the heat vent to your room? You could use a portable electric space heater, an ultrasonic misting device and an air purifier. If you did this it would also be a good idea to put some tight weatherstripping on the door and any windows. This might also help your asthma since a lot of central heating blows dust and allergens that can be trouble for asthmatics.

Is there enough light in your room for a Dendrobium nobile plant? Do you have an outdoor area in which you can grow? I think it will do fine outside all year for you, so long as you water it enough in summer and bring it inside on nights when frost threatens.

I have the heat vent only half open. I have considered closing it entirely as I do have a small space heater. But managing the electricity bill is a consideration. Power is NOT cheap out here. The house heater runs on natural gas, which is less expensive. How much electricity a humidifier uses, vs using that less and a space heater, etc, is probably going to be a matter of experimentation and watching the electric bill.

She didn't bring the den home for me specifically haha. She bought that for herself. She has a pretty green thumb and plenty of a collection of her own. That one will go downstairs on the plant stand in the dinning room most likely, where there is one of those hexagon round areas with 5 full length windows all around. And no, there is probably NOT enough light in my room for a den. She handles the outside, being stay at home, and she has an herb and vegetable garden. She grew watermelon and squash and pumpkin too. The squirrels got to the sunflowers sadly

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[Zindaginha]

Originally Posted by imgliniel

Generally speaking my room is closed off from the rest of the house. Door closed most of the time. While I am at work all day, and overnight. Open maybe a few hours a day while I am home doing chores, etc, and perhaps a bit more on the weekends.

Roberta is probably right, I don't need to get to 60% in my entire room. But as I mentioned, even my own respiratory system is not happy with single digit forced heat. So keeping things up around 40% to even 50% is probably more then fine. Sadly, I do not have enough space in just my bedroom to get a grow tent type set up. Although something along those lines somethere else in the house may be an eventual edition.

SOMEONE **cough, girlfriend, cough** walked in yesterday evening with a huge healthy dark puple nobile dendrobium, that apparently had just come in on a shipment at a good garden center, and they hadn't priced them yet, so it was um, not as expensive as it should be, haha

In that case, I'd invest in a nice, large humidifier, one that is adustable, like iTvanilla or something. If you are trying to go from single-digit RH to 30-40%, you'll probably burn through a gallon of reverse osmosis water every couple of days, but places like Whole Foods let you fill your own jugs for 50 cents a gallon or so.

[Arizona Jeanie]

A small word of caution--some people with asthma actually get worse with more humidity. That's one reason asthmatics were once told to move to Arizona, the dry air here seems helpful to some. Increasing humidity is great for sinuses and eyes and cutting down on static electricity, but can make some respiratory conditions worse.
That said--I use a small room cool mist humidifier in the bedroom in the winter. I buy r/o water for 35 cents a gallon, and go through about 3 gallons a week. Brings the humidity up to about 24%. It's relatively inexpensive and low tech, provides a little white noise, and isn't enough to get any mold growing.
My phals don't seem to be particularly bothered by the low humidity. If they look dry, I just water them more often and/or give them a soak. They're doing well, spiking nicely right now, and have never had any fungal problems. In my opinion, they're pretty tough and adaptable plants, and some stress actually makes them flower better.

[bdublyou]

I am also in Orange County and we have had the heater on every night since January! The phals are in a north facing bay window in the kitchen and yes, right in front of the heater vent. They don't seem to care, got one with two compound spikes and flowering, one growing a spike and another putting out new leaves like crazy...all turgid and green. I guess I'm agreeing with the others that perhaps, alot of hybrid phals aren't as fussy. They may be benefitting from some ambient steam from cooking and washing dishes but, I think it is negligable. They are potted in terra cotta with orchid mix and about 10% sphagnum in the total mix. I water every other to once a week. Actually, I think I'm a pretty lazy orchid grower and they are doing fine...

[Orchid Whisperer]

Cool mist humidifier Walgreens has a good one that will handle a whole room. Walgreens Cool Mist Humidifier | Walgreens

Also, keeping your orchids with leafy plants that use a lot of water will help (example, peace lily /Spathiphyllum).

[imgliniel]

Thought I would drop by and give a little update to this. I ended up buying a stand up, front filling, evaporative humidifier (VS an ultrasonic mist one, we have super hard water, and if you don't know what white dust is, google it). It has a built in humidistat and control, and three settings. It was about $70 (I'll find an amazon link if anyone wants one). While high is loud, it will crank the humidity in the room from under 20% up to 50% in an hour or two. The low setting is not even noticeable, and medium, which I use the most, is gentle white noise similar to a fan in the window in summer.

I absolutely LOVE IT!!! OMG I feel so much better (heck, plants or not, **I** was waking up in the middle of the night with my throat so dried out and in pain, and coughing like I have been a smoker for 20 years). For the first time ever, I am the only one in the house **NOT** coughing. No cough, no uncomfortable sinuses. Sleeping well.

Oh yeah, the orchids seem to like it too BAHAH!! The african violets REALLY LIKE IT and are blooming haha.

Overall generally a very good outcome and totally worth it purchase