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A couple weeks ago I set up a large (2.5ft wide x 5ft long x 7.5ft tall) grow tent in my apartment for lowland Nepenthes and picked up my exotica plants preorder (~20 plants) from a local nursery here in the northeast. I use an 8-tub, 4ft. long T5 HO fixture, and my light levels and temperature (Day: 80-90, night: 65-70) have so far been ideal.

On problem I have found is that the lighting system seems to really dry out the air in the grow tent during the day. Nighttime humidity is 70-85%, but by the afternoon, humidity can drop to 30-40%. The nursery I got my plants from keeps their greenhouse very humid with a huge misting system (80-99% humidity), so about half my plants are having difficulty acclimating (the other half, particularly my N. (kampotiana x ventricosa) x alata and N. thorellii x aristo, don't care at all and are growing happily). I am planning on getting a small hydrofogger unit so I can set my grow tent to a constant 75%-90% humidity. The hydrofogger I want costs $300, so I won't be able to get one for a couple months.

In the meantime, I am misting my plants 3-4 times a day and watering every day. Should this be okay? None of my plants really look to be declining, just stressed from the move and growing sluggishly. A couple aborted traps. I feel like most Nepenthes can acclimate fine to low daytime humidity well, but about half my plants are bellii and merrilliana hybrids, and these tend to be really picky about humidity.
 
Misting will not suffice. You need to add humidifying technology. One of those sonic mist humidifiers should do the job in a small space like yours. Do NOT assume the plants will adapt to 30% humidity - fix the problem before it becomes acute. Many of those plants will NOT pitcher in those conditions.
 
In my grow chamber, I have one of these little mini foggers.
I have it set in a styro-foam bucket on the bottom rack of my 4 tier greenhouse chamber.
alpine-single-jet-fogger.jpg



It actually does pretty well with maintaining the humidity, and it will raise it,
but only VERY slowly. The chamber must be sealed airtight for it to keep the levels up/increasing.
These work well to maintain humidity throughout the day, but I also have a secondary
humidifier to dump the humidity in there every few hours or so if it drops below 80.(Which is pretty rare)
 
While waiting on getting a humidifier, you can put plastic baggies over the smaller plants, and likewise cover larger plants. That is what I do while moving plants
 
I've found a fogger is the only way to keep my grow tent humid enough. It helps if it has a fan built in or a fan next to it to distribute the fog, otherwise it'll just give you a floor cloud.
 
I will go ahead and order a hydrofogger this week. In the meantime, I've found that misting (while not ideal or a long term solution), allows me to keep daytime humidity up to 50-60%
 
I will go ahead and order a hydrofogger this week. In the meantime, I've found that misting (while not ideal or a long term solution), allows me to keep daytime humidity up to 50-60%

Still a tad low and inconsistent for newly purchased plants to adjust to.
 
Is it a poly house or shade cloth, or something else, I used to have a small polyhouse (6ft tall/3wide/3deep) and to maintain a high humidity I had a storage container that took up the entire bottom shelf and filled it with aquatic utrics (and obviously water), because they where so dense it resulted in a huge evaporation and increased humidty by over 40%, but I also had a small CPU fan running off a motor cycle battery and a 5W solar panel.

Alternatively I would imagine basalt or gravel in a water tray would have a major evaporation effect.

I still use the utric method in my outside poly house (12ft/10/8) but have a few short storage containers, as well as an array of water trays and the occasional misting (once every 3-4days by hand with a 100ml sprayer).

Otherwise in such a small setup a chead $5-8 fogger off ebay will work fine, I use 1 in my 3foot tank, and they are so cheap you can buy 3 so you have spares, I tried a fogger from the local pet store (some reptile thing that was $120) and it didn't make it 6months, but in 3years I have only used 2 cheap ones and have 3 spare.
 
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