Are you trying to increase the humidity in your home? Misting houseplants will not work and it can cause more harm than good. When you’re asking yourself should you mist your houseplants, there are a few things to understand.
The most common plant myth is that misting will raise the humidity for your plants. It is not a good way to increase humidity. It will raise your humidity an insignificant amount for a few minutes. Then it will go back to whatever dry room you had before. You could compare it to using a toothbrush to sweep your floor. It is really not worth your time.
What is humidity
First of all, we need to understand what humidity is. Humidity can be best described as how much water vapor there is in the air. Is the air very dry like a desert? This is likely low humidity. Fresh air after morning rain with dew drops on leaves? This is likely high humidity.
But wait, why doesn’t misting work if morning dew is a sign of high humidity? Let me explain.
Misting can cause a lot of damage to your plants. You should look out for:
- Leaf damage
- Mold growth
- Mineral stains
Leaf Damage
Depending on your plant, you could also damage new growth. I have a Monstera Deliciosa that was producing two new leaves. One of the leaves I misted daily, the other I left alone
With daily misting I was able to permanently damage the foliage on my plant. It is also important to know that once a leaf is damaged it will not heal. Some plants, like certain dracaena, can be cut to hide damaged tips but this isn’t the case for most other houseplants.
Mold Growth
Misting your houseplants can also cause mold growth. This is caused by standing water on your plants. If you mist your houseplant and the water does not evaporate fast enough this will promote mold growth on your plant. Especially if you’re watering at night. Lack of sunlight, and colder temperatures will have the water staying there longer.
Mineral Stains
Most people who mist their plants use tap water. Tap water has different levels of minerals and when you spray your plants the minerals stay on your leaves. Minerals do not evaporate from water, they are left as solids and will continue to stay on your leaves until you wipe them off. This makes your plant look dirty and will make it harder for the leaves to absorb sunlight.
In the wild, due to higher humidity and more air flow, like wind, water doesn’t sit in the plant’s leaves for very long. Part of the reason why I got this leaf damage is from this standing water. Airflow helps water evaporate faster. So you might be asking, “Well should I just get a fan?”, that doesn’t solve your humidity problem.
Getting a fan to help with airflow is an excellent idea. Fans can promote stronger stems on plants especially if you’re gardening or growing seeds. But there are a few things you should do to effectively increase the humidity in your space.
Increase your humidity: what works
- Get a humidifier
- Humidity cabinet
- Position your plants correctly
The best way to increase the humidity in your home is to get a humidifier. I use two humidifiers, one in my bedroom and one in my living room. I keep my most sensitive plants near my humidifier.
In my main room I use the Levoit 6L humidifier in my living room. This is my humidifier of choice because I can auto adjust the humidity levels to keep my space at a constant humidity level. I try to maintain 35% humidity in the winter and around 65% in the spring and summer. Using the Levoit humidifier in my living room is great because of the dual directional nozzle. I can direct the steam of water to both sides of the humidifier. This is great because most of my plants are in this space and are placed on both sides of the humidifier.
I use Orgtoy Cool Mist Humidifier 6L, in my bedroom. The nozzle is quite narrow, which is perfect for placing it low to the ground in a corner. The mist stream goes quite far even on low settings which will help save your floors and walls from growing mold.
Something many new plant enthusiasts are exploring is humidity cabinets from IKEA. They are adding weather stripping, fans, and grow lights to the MILSBO cabinets to create a space for their plants that can reach humidity over 90%! This can be quite costly and may not be practical for the average plant parent.
Position your plants correctly by avoiding heat sources. In the winter when we heat our homes, warm air from vents lower the humidity. If your houseplants are getting a direct blast of this warm air, it will lower the humidity around them further. If you want your plants to thrive, consider moving them away from those heat sources or place a humidifier nearby if that is not an option.
Increase your humidity: what doesn’t work very well
- Humidity tray
- Grouping plants together
- Misting
In my testing a humidity tray can raise the humidity levels in a small space near one plant between 7-10% This pales in comparison to the increases you can see with using a humidifier. I think humidity trays are more trouble than they are worth. They rarely look good, and unless you are going down to your local park and stealing rocks off the playground finding something that looks nice can cost you. This money would be much better spent on a good humidifier. If you’ve ever accidentally overfilled a humidity tray it is an absolute nightmare bringing it to the sink to dump out the excess water.
The thought process behind grouping plants together is that plants release their own moisture through something called guttation. Water droplets come off the plants which make their own humidity. While this can work in a sealed greenhouse environment with enough plants, it doesn’t work in your home the same way. Grouping plants together in an unsealed environment like your home is not an effective way to increase humidity. You also have to consider how easy it should be to water your plants, and grouping plants together can really make things difficult.
Misting doesn’t work. Don’t do it. The only reason someone should be misting their plants is while spraying insecticides for pests. Check out this continuous mister or decorative mister you can use to spray your houseplants for common pests like spider mites or mealy bugs.
The one positive side of misting my plants was building a stronger connection with your plants, having a daily task like misting forces you to take a closer look at your plant. You can see if they’re growing, and if they’re struggling it’ll make you realize much sooner than you would if you’re only looking at your plants when you water once or twice a week. So if you’re a daily mister you’ll have to find a new way to check on your plants. What do you do to increase the humidity in your home?