No one likes a humid environment in the house. But the same does not go with the plants you have in the home. Plants need some constant moisture; after all, it’s their food. We are not talking about all of them, but some which come from tropical regions need moisture more than others which grow in a comparatively drier environment. Some of the most loved house plants like English ivy, orchids need a humid and misty environment to grow.
Here are some ways to maintain humidity for house plants, without getting bothered yourself. But make sure beforehand that your plants actually need high humidity content. Otherwise instead of helping the plant grow higher humidity would have a reverse effect on the plant growth in the form of leaf stress and breakage, brown leaves.
More the merrier
Keeping all your plants together in groups helps the retain moisture for a longer duration. The process is called transpiration. This creates a comfortable niche for humid plants. It is better if you keep the plants requiring similar growing conditions together. You can group your ivy’s, orchids and other house plants. It would not be a great idea to keep the succulents or cactus along with these plants. These grow in arid climates and don’t care much about humidity.
Keeping a tray underneath
Below the pot keeping a water tray can help the plant remain moist. If you place the pot directly in the water tray, it would eventually clog the root pores. So, what you can do having a layer of pebbles, then pouring water about an inch and then placing the pot in it. The roots won’t rot out while they would remain moist and thus humid. One thing you must be very careful about is to keep the tray clean and not let it become a breeding place for insects and company.
Misting helps
A quick fix for increasing the humidity is to use a spray bottle and spray the water onto the plant leaves directly. You can do this when the air becomes dry. This is usually the period of summers and when winter is at peak. Too much misting can clog the leave pores and increase the chances of leaf disease. Let the house plants also breathe by misting them appropriately.
Humidifiers on the go
If you are too busy to follow any of the ones as mentioned earlier, then go buy a humidifier. Set the humidity levels that suits your plant best. The one drawback about humidifier set up is that it is not very likely that your plants and you can exist in similar humidity levels. So you have to figure out a way to make that happen and co-exist.