How to Add Moisture to a Room With Plants
Most indoor plants need a relative humidity level between 40 and 60 percent to thrive. If the room where your plants are growing is low in humidity, they may become stressed, wilt, stop blooming and in general, not grow well. Several ways exist to increase the humidity in your overall home, or just in the room with the plants. Another option is to increase the humidity directly around your plants. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Humidifier
- Indoor-vent dryer kit
- Caulk, sealer or weather stripping
- Plants
- Trays
- Rocks, gravel or sand
- Spray bottle
Instructions
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Choose a humidifier appropriate for the size of your room, then place the humidifier and add water.
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Lower the temperature during cold weather when the heat is on. While warm air holds more moisture than cold air, artificial heat dries out a home. Put on an extra layer of clothes and lower the thermostat by several degrees.
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Vent your dryer indoors rather than outdoors, which can add 5 pints of water per load to your home. Purchase and install an indoor vent dryer kit to safely vent your dryer indoors. However, if it raises the humidity level too much, go back to venting your dryer outdoors so you don't end up with a mold problem.
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Seal your windows and doors, if necessary, with caulk, sealer or weather stripping to raise the humidity during the winter. Drafts of cold air from the outdoors is dry. It also makes your heat turn on more often, which lowers the humidity of your home. However, in the summer, drafts usually raise humidity levels in the home, so open the windows and doors on occasion.
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Buy more plants to add to your room. Plants create moisture and, therefore, will increase the humidity level in the room where they are placed. You can also set plants near one another to help increase the humidity directly around them.
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Fill trays with rocks, sand or gravel, then fill the trays with water. Set your plants on top of the rocks, sand or gravel -- not in the water -- to add moisture around where your plants are grow. Also, mist your plants daily to increase the humidity around them.
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Tips & Warnings
As instructed in the owner's manual, clean the humidifier on a regular basis.
References
Resources
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