Most indoor plants come from rainforest environments. They enjoy warm temperatures and high humidity between 75% and 90% in their native habitat. This goes for all common favorites, like Philodendrons and Pothos.
Although our indoor environments correspond to these conditions in terms of temperature, the humidity is not always adequate. Adaptable houseplants will be happy around 40% humidity, but generally do best in conditions of 60% or more.
What happens when indoor air is too dry? The leaves of your houseplants begin to rustle and turn brown around the edges. If the conditions persist, the plant will likely stop growing until the air humidity increases.
The most commonly recommended solution for improving humidity around houseplants is misting. Indoor growers claim that these drops of water around the plants increase the humidity in that area, dramatically improving conditions.
However, there has been controversy and heated debate over whether this practice provides all the benefits that people say it does.
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Does nebulization really work?
Some indoor growers swear by misting, while others claim it has absolutely no effect on humidity. The real answer lies somewhere in between.
Misting the air around houseplants has a measurable effect on humidity. And it’s not hard to see why. Adding water vapor to the air obviously adds more moisture, increasing the humidity in that area.
Unfortunately, this effect does not last very long. Thanks to the diffusion principle, the extra moisture does not just stay around the plant. It spreads throughout the rest of the air in your home and has little impact on overall humidity.
To have a lasting impact on humidity, you will need to stay next to your plant all day and mist the air every 5 minutes to maintain the same level. You can even do your own experiments with a hygrometer to see how short-lived the effects are.
I’m sure there are very few people who have the time to spray their plants 100 times a day. Increasing this time to a few times a day, or even once a week as some suggest, also has little to no effect and essentially wastes your time. Not only that, but incorrect spraying can also have negative side effects.
Negative Side Effects of Nebulization
To properly spray houseplants, spray the air around the plant, not the plant itself. Water droplets sprayed directly on leaves stick and attract a variety of diseases to which houseplants are susceptible and which can promote rot.
Even if you use the correct technique, much of this mist will inevitably fall on the leaves of the plant, causing the same problem. Because evaporation is much slower indoors than outdoors, this water stays around much longer than the plants are used to.
Excess humidity is also likely to attract pests, especially fungus gnats. Once these creatures enter your houseplant’s soil, they are difficult to eradicate and they spread quickly. If you don’t want endless little critters crawling around your head every day, it’s best to put the sprinkler down and find other ways to increase the humidity in your home.
4 Ways to Increase Humidity Instead of Fogging – wikiHow
Fortunately, misting isn’t the only way to improve humidity. There are a number of other options, each with their own level of effectiveness. In fact, methods that are only marginally effective are even less harmful to plants than misting.
Choose a room with high humidity
One of the old tricks, especially when it comes to ferns, is to place the plants in a room with naturally higher humidity.
The bathroom is a classic destination, where the steam from the shower increases the humidity just enough to keep the plants happy. Kitchens are also recommended, where plants are close to the sink and generally have better lighting conditions than dark bathrooms with small windows (or worse, no windows at all).
Technically, for the safety and longevity of your home, humidity should not stay too long to prevent mold and damage to walls and furniture. But even if you turn up the humidity for an hour or two a day, your plants will be happier than if they stayed dry all day.
When arranging your plants room by room, always keep your other environmental needs in mind. Plants need plenty of light to support growth, with temperatures not dropping below 60F. Also, don’t choose rooms where the curtains are often drawn or rooms you don’t enter often so you don’t forget about them completely.
group your plants
If you have a lot of houseplants, the second option is to simply group them together. This will only slightly improve the humidity, but may affect conditions when the air is not extremely dry. Keep the plants well watered to maintain this level of humidity.
There are a few considerations to keep in mind when grouping plants, regardless of how they look. Plants need enough space for air to circulate between the leaves, thus preventing the spread of diseases. And by grouping plants together, you risk quickly spreading pest or disease problems to all the plants in the area, not just one.
If you choose to group them together, watch more closely for signs of anxiety to address them as soon as possible.
Use pebble bins
Houseplants are often placed in drip trays to catch the dripping water and prevent it from damaging your furniture or floors. But these containers can also be used to maintain the humidity level.
Take a container and fill it with pebbles. Then fill the container with water so that the water line is below the top of the pebbles. Support the plant on the pebbles so the base doesn’t touch the water, and continue filling as the water evaporates.
This is another trick that doesn’t have much of an effect on humidity. You can test for yourself how much the humidity improves, but usually it will only be a few percent.
If your humidity level is well below 40%, pebble pans will not solve the problem. However, they provide small improvements and don’t leave foliage wet and at risk for diseases like sprays.
humidifiers
For a drastic change in humidity, the only real option is to invest in a humidifier. If kept running and placed in the right room, humidifiers have a much greater impact, bringing humidity levels closer to what plants are used to in their native habitat.
Some humidifiers even let you set the exact humidity level and automatically turn it on and off as needed to maintain consistent conditions. This is great for delicate plants like fiddle-leaf figs that experience stress when environmental conditions suddenly change.
Humidifiers should not be placed too close to your houseplants or you risk the same problems as with misting. Keep them away from plants, but in a room where the overall humidity can be successfully controlled, increasing humidity throughout the room and not just around the plants.