Create a Moist Microclimate for Your House Plants with a Humidity Tray
My home contains multiple aquariums and house plants and I have a humidifier, so you’d think I have plenty of moisture in the house but even I would like a little more humidity to help my dry skin and other irritations that only happen in the winter. Many of our house plants, if they are not succulents or cacti for example, come from humid tropical climates and if you have those type of plants you might want to increase the humidity in their environment. Adding moisture to the whole home has some benefits but if you add too much you could have condensation issues. The house I grew up in always had rivers of condensation coming off the windows in winter (or blocks of ice). We did what we could to soak up the moisture with towels if it was excessive but those kind of conditions can be destructive to the area around your windows and cause mold to grow.
One way to help your plants without making the whole house into a rain forest is to create a tiny microclimate by filling a waterproof tray with gravel, moistening the gravel and setting your humidity loving house plants in it. Keep the bottoms of the pots above the water level so they don’t sit in water. Moisture will come up from the tray and if you group the humidity-loving plants together they will help keep each other moist with their transpiration. A boot tray from Schnarr’s is a great size and shape for a plant tray. We also have some small bags of decorative rock if you need some.
