To Scott Minor: We grow about 2000 orchids in 4 basement rooms that are all at different controlled environmental conditions. One of the rooms is our 3cool room2 which runs at about 650F during the 15 hour day, and 550F during the 9 hour night period (Mainly for Pleurothallids that require low temps and high humidity.).
Humidity is maintained above 90% RH and is controlled with a humidifier that has a plug-in humidistat connected to it which senses the humidity level and turns the humidifier on and ofF as necessary. The humidistat operates with about 150 human hairs that serve to sense humidity level. The system works fine for us, and although this is a small room (8x15 feet), it has two oscillating fans to mix the room air and distribute the humidity more or less evenly throughout the room. This is important. Another important factor is the quality of water you use. We have our our humidifier hooked up to the float (similar to the mechanism that keeps a toilet tank from running over). We use Reverse Osmosis water, just as we do for watering the orchids. The RO unit is fed soft water rather than hard water from the city water tap because the filters in the RO unit will last longer. This method of connecting the water supply to the humidifier makes the system automatic and you do not have to keep refilling the tank every few hours. Do not use tap water OR soft water directly in the humidifier. If you do, you will find a layer of what appears to be dust accumulating on the leaves of the orchids. That is a salt deposit from the soft water. This is an instance in which which the mist dries and drops onto the plants. It came as a surprise to us. Feeding the soft water through the RO system solved the problem immediately. We have two kinds of humidifiers: 3Herrmidifier HR502 and Charley9s Strato Fogger. The Herrmidifier is sold by Charley9s Greenhouse and Garden Supplies (Check through Google on the Web), and Charley9s Strato Fogger, which used to be sold through Charley9s but is no loinger listed. I personally like the Strato Fogger best. It is quieter and much less expensive. One word of caution. Do not get the humidifiers that are made for bedrooms, living rooms, etc. They don9t go to a high enough humidioty level. I think they may go to 60% RH but that is about all. Good luck. I hope you are successful. Be sure to get one that is big enough for the room you want to humidiofy. Cheers. Charles Dr. Charles Bracker [EMAIL PROTECTED] These are generally easy to install and set. Just because a Humidistat is set at 73% doesn9t mean that the relative humidity in the room is going to be 73%. They have to be calibrated if you want an accurate reading. However, an approximation is good for mos people. You should have a good quality humidity meter on the wall.
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