J-Bog

How often do you find yourself misting your trees?

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"It is said that you should never leave anything to chance; but, in operating like that, chance never leaves anything to you."

Prowler

J-B
It depends on the time of year, winter when i screw up the heating i mist a lot, but in summer if it is cloudy and raining then they don't need so much.
You get to know your trees after a while, if the leaves look sort of dull and lifeless i give them a blast.
Remember, inside they get dust and all sort of stuff on their leaves, i put them in my bathtub every two weeks and turn the shower on them, just tepid water, this perks them up no end. Merry Xmas.

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Its hell out there, give them hell back.

J-Bog

Wow, thats actually a great idea. My trees don't usually get dusty though I tend to mist them well once a day during these winter months.

When you put your trees in the shower doesn't it tend to get gravel and dirt all over? It seems like the shower might be a bit too powerful for some trees.

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"It is said that you should never leave anything to chance; but, in operating like that, chance never leaves anything to you."

Kansai

You mean my little five-dollar hygrometer is a fancy do-dad? Hmmm....

You either give it to them or you don't, and you're either sure that you're giving it to them or you're not sure. Why in the world would someone be advised not to acquire a simple, inexpensive tool that could provide useful information?

DR

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Bonsai is easy! All you have to do is stare at a little tree until drops of blood form on your forehead.--paraphrased from Gene Fowler

Prowler

Kansai
If you looked at the pic. i posted its the largest one that will fit my window, it does not matter how much humidity it is supplying.
I cant turn it off or on like a set of lights, so it does not matter if i had 10 gauges telling me the humidity is to low or to high, nothing i can do about that.
Between the tray and regular misting that's all i can do. Merry Xmas.

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Its hell out there, give them hell back.

Phil

Well, you don't actually place your trees in the shower! What you do is this. Close the door and the shower curtains and place them on the side of the bathtub and run hot water out of the shower head. Do not by any means let the hot water touch the plants. Running hot water out of the faucet will do absolutely no good. It must go through the shower head so as to disperse the hot water and cause steam. Let the hot water run for about five minutes and keep the curtains and the door shut until the steam/humidity is gone. Do not by any means place them in the bathtub and let hot water run on the plants themselves unless you wish to end up with something that may look more like potted boiled spinach!

As for the humidity meter that is simply a tool that will tell you what (obviously) the humidity is. Same as a thermometer. It simply tells you what the temperature is. Its up to you to provide both by whatever means it takes. By far the best investment would be a humidifier but in lieu of that a large humidity tray, misting and the occasional shower treatment will breath a little life into a Ficus and give them what they are in need of aside from good lighting......humidity.

~Phil

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Please, always keep in mind that the typewritten word does not always convey what you wish to say, and to always treat others as you would have them treat you. Think twice-submit once.
I started out with nothing....and still have most of it.
"Its hell out there, give them hell back." ~ Prowler/Victor Gray 12/31/1943 - 11/24/2008

centaura

It depends a lot on the types of trees that you're growing, and how much humidity that they want. I would really reccomend the next time you had $10 to spare to go to a local pet store that sold lizard supplies and buy a cheap little hygrometer (mine were less than $10, I can't recall how much exactly though). It will really help you in monitoring your environment - you will be able to tell what your trays, misting and humidifier are doing - run each one seperately and see what the humidity that day is in the room. Best way to find out what works best for you.

I use a full-room humidifier that runs 24/7 during the winter when the furnace is running. Even then I can only keep my growing room around 50% humid, which is the bare minimum for some of the tropicals that I grow. A ficus will tolerate a bit less, though they're happier in higher. Misting does raise humidity, but only for a very short period of time, which is why I like the full room humidifier. It is also beneficial to your health, as the dryness of heated homes is hard on skin and sinuses.

-Centaura

Rick Moquin

... a simple way to tell what the humidity is. If the tray is large enough a couple inches all around your pot, the humidity at the rock level is 70% and humidity rises around the pot and the tree. What is that value? A moot point, the tree is surrounded by humidity as it rises.

Humidity at soil level after you have watered your trees is 70%, dissipating as the soil dries.

The only other way to really control humidity (at a set level) is to have your trees in a conservatory where the humidity can be controlled at whatever you want, providing this room is isolated from the rest of the house. Maintaining the proper temp and humidity levels in such an establishment is an expensive proposition. I believe Prowler can chime in on this if I'm not mistaken, although he did not have a conservatory perse, if I remember he was running a green house of some sort.

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Bonsai is the journey, not the destination
Bonsai Wonders

centaura

It depends on your set-up and your environment, which is why I reccommended him getting an inexpensive hygrometer. In my condo in Minneapolis, when I put humidity trays under my trees, it only raised the ambient humidity around the trees by about 10%. So if the humidity in my condo was 20%, then it was 30% around the trees above the trays, which is desert-dry conditions. When I ran a whole-room humidifier in the condo, I could get the ambient humidity up to 60%, which was a vast improvement for the trees. Things in my new house are different, because of the different micro-climate in my grow room. I had to re measure everything with the new set-up. But he'll never know if he's at a good humidity unless he measures it.

If his trees are happy right now, then he might not need to worry about it. For me, I have specific species that I am trying make an acceptable environment for, and I know that my outdoor winter temps make my indoors terribly dry, so I am concerned about my ambient room humidity. It all falls down to how much effort you're willing to expend for your trees, or the specific species that you're growing.

-Centaura

BonsaiRic

Hi all,

I built an inclosure to deal with several issues in my house. Poor window lighting, no basement to set up a humidity tent, etc.

Check it out here. The designcould be modified to accomodate different house settings.