10 ways to raise the humidity in your house
Several methods are available to help you raise your humidifier’s level in order to keep your plants happy and healthy. The biggest issues with humidity levels usually occur in wintertime when the central heating is running overtime. When this happens, you’ll probably see some dehydration damage on your plants, which is why this guide can give you insight into how you can raise humidity levels.
Here is a quick guide to 10 things you could do to raise the humidity:
- Mist your plants as often as you can
- Put bowls with water next to your plants
- Make a stone tray to put your plant onto
- Get a humidifier
- Keep the door open while you’re taking a shower
- Let clothes dry next to your plants
- Have a fishbowl close to your plants
- Get a desk waterfall
- Put plastic bags over your plants
- Put your plants close together
Let me explain the differences between each one and how they work. You can use these things alone, or you can perform a combination of them to raise humidity to the ideal levels. This may require a bit of trial-and-error on your part.
Mist your plants as often as you can
You can raise the humidity around your plants by misting your plants – this is the easiest and most interactive way to do it. I like to mist my plants to inspect what they need at the same time. You’re a passive bystander with many of the other solutions on this list, but by misting your plants, you’re directly contributing to their success. Misting exposes plant leaves and soil to water molecules, which evaporate, raising humidity.
Put bowls with water next to your plants
Watering your plants simply by set out bowls or cups with water in them effectively evaporates the water, increasing the humidity levels in the air. This is a common solution on this list. There are several variations on this concept, all of which involve exposing the surrounding air to water. This is a combination of this and water propagation. I placed jars filled with water around my spider plants to encourage their roots to grow out.
Make a stone tray to put your plant onto
A stone tray is a good solution, but you’ll need space for this one. A stone tray is a device like a serving tray but it can also be a plate that contains rocks and is filled with water. This will keep the water between the rocks and slowly evaporate it. For best results, you can put your pot right on top of this tray so it will benefit from this technique. Please be careful not to put too much water in the tray if you are going to put a plant on top of it as it may cause root rot.
Get a humidifier
For instance, you can use a humidifier to keep your house at the right humidity level in the winter. You can also use a humidifier to provide a humid environment for your plants. Place your humidifier next to your plants and just turn it on. Humidity from a humidifier near the plants will benefit them, as well as the humidity from any humidifier in the room. If you have a good humidifier, you may be able to place it anywhere in the room to benefit the plants.
Keep the door open while you’re taking a shower
If you leave your shower door open while you’re taking a shower, you’ll get similar results to using a humidifier in that you’re using water vapor to create humidity in the bathroom. When you shower, you may choose to put all the steam in the bathroom and then open the door once you’re done to let it out. If you don’t want to do this, you can leave the door closed while you shower. By doing this, you’re helping both your bathroom by allowing everything to dry properly and your plant by providing it with much-needed humidity.
Let clothes dry next to your plants
If you have ever done this during the winter months, you’ll know that after a while, condensation will form on your windows. If you dry your clothes in the same room when you keep your plants, you can enjoy the benefits of evaporation cooling your clothes. Drying your clothes indoors helps to increase the humidity in your house. The closer you place your clothes next to the plants, the more the plants will benefit. Just be careful not to touch the plants because not all plants love it when they get touched.
Have a fishbowl close to your plants
While it may seem strange to put a fishbowl next to plants, it’s very similar to placing cups and bowls of water around them. As the water in the bowls or cups is exposed to the air, the humidity in the room will be raised. You’ll also have a nice looking fishbowl with some well kept water plants, which provides an added bonus. You may choose to add fish to the fishbowl or you may leave it and enjoy the decorative fishbowl. Not everyone keeps pets, so this is entirely your choice.
Get a desk waterfall
The benefits of a desk waterfall are twofold-it could be therapeutic and it could raise your humidity levels. Because the water in your desk waterfall is constantly moving, it raises humidity more quickly. This could be a convenient solution for when you need to increase in humidity quickly but don’t have the space to install a desk waterfall on the desk. They actually don’t look that bad, but I don’t have the space to place them on my desk or around my plants, so I don’t really want them. I didn’t know this existed before seeing them.
Put plastic bags over your plants
This method should be used for propagation and particularly for fiddle figs as it hides your plants. There will be no way to see your plants under the bag, and you should know that this isn’t meant to be a permanent solution. You can use it to give your plants some crisis humidity, but don’t expect to use it long-term, because your plants will not like it and neither will you. Instead of seeing your beautiful plants, you won’t be able to maintain the humidity for more than a few days.
Put your plants close together
The sweat of plants means that water evaporates from the leaves and soil. This means that it is possible to utilize this evaporation to increase the humidity of nearby areas if the plant is used in combination with other plants. It is possible for multiple plants to create their own ideal environment when they’re close to each other, with each plant’s leaves and soil evaporating water. Obviously, this will not always be enough, so you can supplement the humidity with any of the methods listed here. By doing this, you’ll be able to ensure you’ve got plenty of humidity in the air to satisfy your plants.
I hope this has given you some inspiration on how to raise the humidity in your house. It’s not as difficult as you might think. Now go out there and raise the humidity for the plants that need it and make them happy.