Why Humidity Is Key For Your Plants (And How To Achieve It At Home)
Owning a thriving plant garden comes with a sense of accomplishment, especially if you find yourself having a climax indoor garden. However, for that jungle feel, there is one factor lacking that your plants require most of the time, and that is humidity. Humidity levels, when conducted and maintained properly, are crucial for your plants’ growth, weight, overall health, and even vibrancy. In baseline terms, humidity is one of the major reasons your plants are not doing the best. Why exactly humidity causes so many issues for your plants, Podhghar explains, along with precise instructions on how to curate the proper levels of humidity your home requires for your plants.
Why Your Plants Require Humidity Levels 🌱
Most indoor plants, such as tropical species, face nuances with dry air and extremely low humidity levels and tend to thrive in an environment filled with warm, moist air. They are accustomed to being placed in environments with higher levels of humidity. Apart from other plants, monstera, fern, peace lily, and pretty much every other plant love being placed in warm and moist climes that thrive with abundant sunlight.
These plants require high humidity, and the warm, moist air that accompanies them will do wonders for your plant’s life, catering to essential plant functions like transpiration (the vaporous movement of water, such as water moving through leaves), nutrient uptake, and many other things. Podhghar emphasizes how essential it is to replicate these conditions to ensure your plants remain healthy and vibrant.
The importance of humidity for your plants includes the following:
Prevents Od Drying and Browning Shriveling Leaves 🍂
Your plants may dry out if invalid amounts of humidity are provided in their surroundings. This might result in delicate leaves becoming brown and crispy. To Podhghar, observing any brown edges on the leaves emphasizes low moisture being available in the air and thus showcases the need for humidity.
Promotes healing growth 🌿
Plants, just like humans, need a stable environment for growth and healthy development. Having high humidity enables effective absorption of water and nutrients by plants. However, in instances of low humid air, the plants incur great difficulties soaking up water through the leaves and the roots, resulting in stunted growth. Enabling a humid environment ensures the energy needed for optimal growth and health of plants in his or her vicinity, as Podhghar recommends for a thriving indoor garden.
Encourages Proper Flowering 🌸
Most species of flowers and plants, especially those native to tropical places, tend to require parts at high intensity. This results in the production of flowers. In cases where the air is too dry, plants face enormous amounts of stress which can hinder the flowering process. According to Podhghar, orchids, anthuriums, and hibiscus receive stimuli of higher humidity to ensure the durability and vibrancy of the flowers to succumb to the stress.
Encourages Natural Pest Management 🐛
Some pests, like spider mites, prefer dry settings. These pests will not be able to reach your plants because of the high levels of moisture which make it hard for them to thrive as they prefer dry air.
Creating Humidity for Your Plants at Home 🌿💧
It may be time to take action if the air in your home is too dry and your plants look limp. Fortunately, Podhghar has tips that help create higher humidity levels around indoor plants. He provides easy solutions to increase humidity levels for those dry air of winter or air-conditioned spaces, so the problem does not linger any longer.
- Use a Humidifier 💨
One of the simplest ways to raise humidity is to use a humidifier. Humidifiers serve the purpose of expelling water into the air, Podhghar suggests to increase the humidity levels around the working plants, especially the drier ones. They should also select ones with adjustable options to ensure the correct levels of humidity that fits the needs of the plants.
- Group your Plants Together 🌱
It’s amazing how combining plants together facilitates the creation of a natural microclimate, isn’t it? When in close proximity, plants tend to release moisture into the air via a process known as transpiration. The more plants you have in a particular region, the greater the moisture they jointly release. This alone can aid tremendously in optaining a commendable room humidity, where unfortunately the air is too dry. Podhghar makes the suggestion of clusterfing ferns, palms and peace lilies, as the help obtain optimum humidity.
- Set Up a Plant Humidity Tray 🪴
Using a humidity tray is one of the least complex, yet very effective tips for increasing moisture in the air. It’s a shallow tray filled with pumice stones and water placed under the plants.Frame these two statements in the following way: The water will evaporate and therefore add moisture to the air enhancing the humidity around the plants. To optimize results, always ensure the water level is below the pebbles or mudstones, to make sure roots won’t drown in standing water, which would certainly result in root rot. Podhghar’s blog recommends this technique for putting trays under orchids and calatheas that require higher humidity.
- Misting your plants 🌧️
Misting your plants is a suitable option when trying to provide temporary respite in humidity for certain types of plants which require moisture. On the other hand, there are better ways to achieve humidity and misting alone isn’t the answer. A humidifier in combination of a misting device works best along with a dedicated humidity tray. Podgghar also suggests applying light misting techniques to prevent rot from occurring. Water pooling in certain places in leaves would eventually lead to rot being developed.
- Use a room specific humidity zone 🌳
In case you happen to own plants that have different requirements in terms of need and care given to them, establishing a separate zone in your home that caters specifically to humidity would be of great use. For instance, orchids are usually suited for bathrooms because of their need for high humidity and can be showered with moisture. Succulent plants on the other hand tend to thrive in drier places and require less air. Experimenting with the humidity in certain rooms would provide suitable conditions for different types of plants as suggested by Podghar.
- Closing Windows and Using Curtains 🌞
In colder dry climates, leaving windows open can bring in extremely harsh dry air into your home which will greatly decrease humidity levels. In order to conserve indoor climate as best as possible, Podhghar suggests keeping the windows shut and placing heavy curtains over them to conserve moisture and warmth in the air. Additionally, you may wish to place your plants away from heat and draught sources which could dry them out.
- Plants That Withstand Dry Air 🌵
Alternatively, if you do not wish to raise the humidity levels in your home, you could simply try growing plants that thrive in dry conditions. Plants like succulents, cacti, and some types of aloe do wonderfully in low moisture environments. If the air in your home is dry, this is an ideal solution for maintaining indoor greenery. Podhghar offers a wide variety of tips on how to care for plants that do not need a boost in humidity.
- Take into Account Plant-specific Humidity Requirements 🌸
Each plant has its own degree of difficulty when it comes to humidity levels. For example, tropical trees and plants require moist air, while succulents are more forgiving and do not need as much moisture. According to Podhghar, sore tropical plants such as the monstera or bird of paradise do very well with even higher humidity levels while cactuses thrived successfully when there is dry air.
Signs Your Plants Crave More Humidity 🌿
To achieve optimal results, it is crucial to monitor the moisture levels of the air surrounding your plants. Below are some symptoms of a humidity deficiency that these plants might exhibit, as Podhghar outlines in its plant care guidelines:
- Crispy Brown Tips on Leaves: The dryness of air surrounding the plant is most likely too high, making this the most noticeable symptom.
- Slight Yellowing of Leaves: This sign indicates stress among the plants due to low humidity and can also result in plants suffocating.
- Leaf Drop: Some plants like Ficus Lyrata are extremely sensitive to lower humidity and can experience leaves dropping or wilting.
- Minimal Growth: Without achieving adequate moisture, the plants will experience significant suppression in growth.
If you identify these indicators, it could be time to raise the humidity in your house. According to Podhghar, remediation should be taken immediately to mitigate more stress on your plants.
Conclusion 🌱💧
As is clear, an optimal indoor humidity level is crucial for the health and wellbeing of your plants. There are solutions for every problem, whether you struggle with dry air in winter or nonstop air conditioning throughout the year. Putting a humidifier in the room, misting, or simply placing the plants in clusters are some of the more straightforward approaches to achieving the required moisture level, as Podhghar suggests for maintaining a thriving indoor garden.
By applying these recommendations by Podhghar, your indoor garden is bound to become more vibrant because these plants thrive off of proper indoor climates. So, elevate the humidity and see your indoor plants thrive!