You have stunning indoor plants, but the air is too dry. To increase humidity for them, you need to know how to use a humidifier for plants.
If you have tropical indoor plants for your home, they need the right humidity to thrive. You need to know how to increase humidity for plants.
So, how do you use a humidifier for plants? During winter, we switch on the heat, which sucks in the damp air and blows out dry warm air. Dry air is not good for plants. Therefore, the months of November, December, January, and February, or whenever the heater is on, are good for humidifying the air around indoor plants.
Since 2019, indoor plants have been a trendy habit for interior décor. If you do not have a few indoor plants, then your interior décor is missing quite a lot.
Along with buying the best indoor plants, you need to sustain them in the best conditions possible. This is why you need the best humidifier for plants.
Luckily, there are several such humidifiers on the market. Check out the best humidifiers for plants that you can buy on Amazon.com.
How to use a humidifier for my plants in winter!
The most important thing is to know when to use a humidifier for my plants. So, here goes:
1. Know when to use the humidifier for plants
In winter, the low outside humidity affects the indoor humidity. It is when we need to use a humidifier for plants.
When the cold season kicks in, we switch on the heating system. With increased heat, there is less humidity in the air.
Your plants start looking wilted. It is time to know how to increase humidity for plants using a humidifier.
There is a reason why not all plants thrive in deserts. One of them is that there are few resources, such as water. Therefore, plants need water, both in the air and in the soil or medium in which you are growing them.
2. Set the right humidity for plants
Indoor plants need different humidity levels. For example, if you have a desert plant, it may require humidity levels of 40 to 50%.
Are you considering getting a humidifier for tropical plants? Indoor tropical plants need a good humidity level of between 50 and 60%.
However, some plants may need even more than 60%. However, if you increase the indoor humidity level to more than 60%, it will damage your paintings and walls, and it can cause mold.
3. Check signs that you need more humidity for plants
One of the ways to increase humidity for indoor plants is to get a humidifier for plants. However, do not crank up the humidity yet.
First, you need to see that, truly, your indoor plants need some humidity. Here are the main indicators to watch out for before you increase humidity for plants:
a) When your indoor plant leaves start developing brown edges
One surefire sign that your plants need more humidity is when they start to develop brown edges on their leaves.
According to a site called Gardening Knowhow, when plants start to develop brown edges on their leaves, it means they are not getting enough water.
Thus, you can consider increasing the watering frequency as you also consider cranking up your humidifier.
Be careful not to make the humidity too high. You see, the browning on the leaves can be due to other factors as well. For example, if the soil has too much salt content, the leaves can start turning brown.
Therefore, use a hygrometer to check the humidity level in the room where you are growing your plants. If humidity is between 40 and 60 percent, it is fine for plants. You can therefore check out other possible causes of brown edges on the leaves.
b) When plants wilt
Definitely, it is not best to wait for plants to start wilting so that you can tune on the humidifier.
All the same, check for signs of wilting in your plants. But first, what really causes wilting, and how is it connected to dry air?
4. Know the best position for the humidifier for plants
Never place it too close or too far from the plant. You need to place the humidifier between 3 and 6 feet from the plants.
If you place it too close to the plant, they will find it hard to breathe because the air will be too moist. In fact, they might even close the stomata.
If you place your unit too far away, the plants might not benefit from the mist. The right positioning is everything.
How does low humidity affect plants?
When you water your plants, they take it through the roots. Then the plant will lose the water as vapor in a process known as transpiration.
I guess this is a way to try and keep the air around the plant as humid as it should be. It is the plant’s cooling mechanism.
Therefore, since the plant is trying to regulate the surrounding area, if the air is too dry, the process of transpiration will be reversed.
Instead of opening its stomata to let out transpiration gases and water, it closes them! It chokes on its gases and vapor, and it starts failing.
Can you then water the plant much more than you need to? Sorry, but this too will not prevent wilting. The most helpful thing would be to turn on the humidifier and increase the level of humidity in the grow room.
When you water the plant more than necessary, you will waterlog the roots, which hinders their absorption ability.
Low humidity causes stunted growth
When you have given your plants everything they need, such as fertilizers, water, and protection, and they still do not grow, there is a problem. Low humidity is most probably the culprit for the slow, stunted growth.
Keep checking your plants. If they are late bloomers when they should not be, and you are sure you have done everything you should, check the humidity. Know how to increase humidity for indoor plants.
Another thing that you need to check is when the flowers fall off as soon as they open. Check also whether the buds fell off just as they were about to open.
Is humidity good for plants?
Firstly, you should know the optimum humidity for plants recommended for a certain plant. Some plants need more humidity, and some need less. Read up on some botany information!
Secondly, always remember that high humidity for plants is bad for your home, your furniture, and even your health. Too much humidity is not good for them. It has to be just the right percentage.
Thirdly, all that you want to do is create a habitable environment for the plants, the same as they would find outdoors in their natural habitat.
To clarify this further, a cactus plant would need less humidity than an orchid, which requires a humid environment to thrive.
How high humidity affects plants
Considering the effects of low humidity that we have discussed above, you might be tempted to make the air more humid than necessary.
Bad idea!
Knowing how to create humidity for indoor plants requires you to know the right level of humidity for your indoor plants.
Let me explain why. When the plant senses too much humidity in the air, it does not take enough water from the medium (soil or other).
This also means that it does not take up enough nutrients from its surroundings, which eventually hampers its growth.
When the plant lacks important nutrients such as iron and calcium, it becomes emaciated, and will not flower well.
Conclusion
As we have seen here, high or low humidity in your grow room can affect how plants grow. Therefore, you need to stay on top of the humidity level in the room. You need to know the right humidity for plants.
Luckily, even if you have low humidity, reversing the situation should not cost you much money. You can buy a humidifier like the Everlasting Comfort Ultrasonic Cool Mist Humidifier on Amazon.com. It is portable and very effective at increasing humidity.
Likewise, if the humidity is too high, reversing that is not too expensive either. You just need a dehumidifier. You can buy the 70-pint Frigidaire FFAD7033R1 dehumidifier on amazon.com. It will do a very effective job of keeping the humidity in your grow room under control.
