Before you bring new houseplants into your home, they probably spent weeks or even months in a warm, humid greenhouse. Compared to a greenhouse environment, the conditions inside most homes are quite dry, especially in winter when the furnace is running. For this reason, it is important that you learn and practice appropriate humidity houseplant care to ensure the longevity and health of your beloved plants.
Humidity for Houseplants
Indoor plants need humidity levels between 40 and 60 percent, and suffer from stress when the humidity for houseplants is outside that range. If you don't have a hygrometer to measure the humidity inside your home, watch your houseplants for signs of stress. Consider raising humidity levels when your houseplants exhibit these symptoms:
- Leaves develop brown edges.
- Plants begin to wilt.
- Flower buds fail to develop or drop from the plant before they open.
- Flowers shrivel soon after opening.
How to Increase Humidity
Increasing humidity levels in the home is not difficult and will prove beneficial in the long run. Misting plants, growing them in groups, and using water-filled pebble trays are the most popular methods for raising humidity. Misting plants with a fine spray of water raises the humidity around the plant, but the effect is temporary. You should not mist plants with hairy leaves, such as African violets, however. The “hair” on the leaves holds water in place, encouraging diseases and leaving unsightly spots on the foliage. Placing houseplants in groups not only looks terrific from a design perspective, but it also creates a pocket of humidity. You can increase the humidity even more by placing a dish of water in the center of the cluster. Keep a container of water nearby to make it easy to replenish the water in the dish. Another way of increasing humidity levels around your plants is to set them on a tray of pebbles and water. Place a layer of pebbles in the tray, then add water until the pebbles aren't quite covered. The pebbles hold the plant above the water so that the roots don't become waterlogged. As the water in the tray evaporates, it increases the moisture in the air around the plant.
Humidity Houseplant Care
Rooms where you use a lot of water are often very humid. If a plant in a kitchen, bathroom, or laundry room shows symptoms of stress from high humidity, move it to another part of the house. On the other hand, plants that show symptoms of low humidity will benefit from spending some time in the humid parts of your house. Most houseplants originate from humid jungle environments, and moisture in the air is essential for their health. You'll be surprised at the way your plant will respond to adjustments in humidity, and you'll have the satisfaction of enjoying lush, thriving plants.
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FAQs
How can I increase humidity for my plants? Buy a room humidifier to put in your plant space that gradually adds moisture into the air and raises the humidity of a room. Spray the area around your plants with warm water using a humidifier weekly. Make a humidifier tray!
How do you increase humidity in indoor plants? ›
Create a humidity tray.
For this, all you'll need is a drip tray, enough pebbles or rocks to fully cover the base of your tray, and water. Once your tray's base is covered with pebbles or rocks, fill it with water just to where the water rests on top of the pebbles, and you'll have a humidity tray for your houseplants!
How do you increase humidity in air plants? ›
Using a Humidifier to Create the Perfect Air Plant Habitat
Clean mist is critical to air plants since they absorb nutrients from the atmosphere. Our humidifiers' auto sensors also ensure the humidity levels are properly balanced, so you don't have to worry about excess moisture that can saturate the plants.
Does misting increase humidity? ›
In the book, he states: "Misting plants with water spray is a common way to raise humidity, although its effects are very shortlived: droplets settle on leaves and gradually evaporate, briefly increasing the humidity around them, before the moisture dissipates into the room.
How to increase humidity for plants without a humidifier? ›
Make some pebble trays
You typically don't want a plant's roots sitting in water, so to prevent that from happening, add clean pebbles in a shallow water-filled tray. Place the plant on top of the tray. The water will gradually evaporate around the plant, boosting humidity.
What humidity do most indoor plants like? ›
Humidity is a measurement of water vapor in the air (and is usually the culprit of bad hair days), but it's very important to plants, especially houseplants. Houseplants appreciate a humidity level between 60 and 80%, which would be difficult to maintain for an entire house—even more in the winter when the heat is on.
Why is my indoor humidity so low? ›
During winter, indoor air often becomes dry. Cold air, which carries less moisture than warm air, enters the house and is heated, lowering its relative humidity. Low humidity can also occur in arid climates during summer as a result of excessive air conditioning, which removes moisture from the air as it operates.
How to put humidity in your house without a humidifier? ›
Place Bowls of Water on Registers
Place metal or ceramic bowls full of water on heat registers or radiators to push humidity into the air.
How to increase humidity for monstera? ›
Humidifiers are your go-to for parched air. They're like oasis-makers for your Monstera's microclimate. But hey, don't dismiss the old-school tricks. A bowl of water near a radiator or a wet pebble tray under the pot can work wonders, too.
How to create humidity indoor? ›
Fill a spray bottle and walk around your home, misting water into the air. You can also lightly spray bedding and furniture that won't get damaged by water. The water sprayed into the air will evaporate quickly, thus increasing your home humidity levels. Leave the bathroom door open after a hot shower.
Cacti, succulents, fiddle leaf fig (Ficus lyrata), and other plants that prefer dry environments are among them. Although they prefer humidity, watering fuzzy-leaved plants like African violets and piggyback plant (Tolmiea menziesii) is not recommended since the water droplets will mark the surface of the leaves.
What is the best humidity tray for plants? ›
Pebble trays are great for increasing the humidity around a plant. Get a humidity meter and record the humidity level in the area around your plant to see the effect of the pebble tray.
How to keep indoor plants moist? ›
How to Properly Water Indoor Plants
- DO Use a Watering Can. ...
- DON'T Use Softened Water. ...
- DO Water Indoor Plants as Needed. ...
- DON'T Follow a Watering Schedule. ...
- DO Soak the Soil Thoroughly. ...
- DON'T Let Indoor Plants Sit in Water.
Place an individual plant or group of plants, such as your prize orchid collection, on a shallow tray filled with a layer of clean pebbles or glass beads. Fill the tray with water until its surface is just below the bottoms of the pots. As the water in the tray evaporates, it will create humidity around your plants.
Where to place a humidifier for plants? ›
Where do you place the humidifier? It would help if you placed the humidifier a few feet away from your plants, preferably in the center of the room. Placing it too close to the plants could cause too much water to condense on the leaves and soil. Too much water on the leaves is an invitation for mold and fungus!
What is the best humidity for indoor grow? ›
Ideal indoor relative humidity levels can range from 70% in the seedling stage to as low as 30% during the flowering stages. That's why it's important to deliver a wide range of indoor humidity throughout the growing process. This requires easy control over your grow room's humidity levels.
