Episode 171: humidity
Play misty for me. (But don’t bother misting your plants if you’re trying to raise humidity for more than a few minutes…)
Transcript
Episode 171
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Jane: It's the podcast with the cheek, the nerve, the gall, the audacity and the gumption! Yes, it's On The Ledge! Welcome to the show, it's episode 171 and I make no apologies for channeling tastes from RuPaul's Drag Race UK this week because that queen is giving me life. In this week's show we talk about humidity. Is it moist in here or is it just me? And we hear from listener Teagen in Meet the Listener.
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Jane: A clutch of lovely messages has greeted me this week, so thank you for all of you who've been in touch, including Angela, who wrote me a lovely message about Sansevieria Bantel's Sensation and where she managed to track one down in the UK. I have now got one, but thank you for your kind offer, Angela! New Patreon subscriber Muffy, in Singapore, got in touch to say how much she's enjoying the show and, in particular, how useful she found the A-Z of potting mix ingredients episodes, so thanks for that Muffy! One of my OG Patreons, Anthony, got in touch from the US and his lovely long e-mail was full of good ideas for the show and also plenty of encouragement and he ended his email: "Your enthusiasm for the topic never seems to wane and your ability to help us, especially those of us in the not so United States, through the horrible things we do to each other, is life-changing and heroic". I don't feel heroic, I have to say. I just feel like a slightly harassed mum trying to hold it all together amid troubling times, but grateful also that I have my health, a job and a lovely family and a lovely dog. So, I take those words on board and I'm slowly learning, in my mid-to-late 40s, that I need to accept praise rather than rebuffing it, so I will just say thank you, Anthony, and I appreciate your message.
Two reminders: Houseplant Hour happens every Tuesday at 21:00 GMT. That's 16:00 EDT, work out your own time zone from there, on the wonderful platform that is Twitter. Did I say that already? @HousePlantHour is the account I use for that, so do check it out come and join us. It's just a chance to tweet about plants, ask questions, show off, commiserate and so on. It's a kind of a Twitter version of On The Ledge, so do come and check it out if you are on that platform.
I'm also running a competition with Ciara Long, the illustrator who did my last Patreon card, not this Christmas just gone but the Christmas before. We're running a joint competition to win one of her wonderful, personalised illustrations, that's the first prize, and the second prize is a houseplant print. It's open to anyone across the world, so do go and look at my Instagram @j.l.perrone to enter. You've got until the 31st January 2021 to enter, so good luck with that!
Thank you to Tito, from the Netherlands, who got in touch to show off his wonderful botanical throne and thank me for making the show. Tito suffered from the terrible super typhoon that hit the Philippines, I think it was the end of last year, and is still recovering from that, so extra good plant vibes to you, Tito, and glad to hear that the show is getting you through all of your domestic tasks and making them pass that much quicker.
Two reviews to note this week, Cediria, from the Netherlands, wrote a lovely review on Apple - what is it called - on Apple podcasts? Is it called Apple podcast? Or iTunes? Whatever the heck it's called! Lucy left a lovely review on Podbean, so thank you to you two. And a quick shout out to my new plant Patreons this week, Colin became a Crazy Plant Person, Judy, Muffy, the aforementioned Muffy, Sarah and Gina all became Ledge-Ends and San Francisco Plant Daddy became a SuperFan. Thank you to all of you and coming up, about half-way through the show, you'll hear a short trailer for a new podcast called Flora Funga. Sound interesting? Do listen out for that.
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Jane: Does that sound familiar? Well, it probably does if you grow any plants. It's the sound of a mister, but does this oft-quoted cure for dry air actually work to raise humidity? That's one of the things we'll be finding out in this week's show, with the help of a couple of extra guests.
So, humidity just means how much water vapour is there in the air? How many water droplets are there? And you might have heard of "absolute humidity". That just means the amount, literally, the amount of water in the air measured either by grams per cubic meter or grams per kilogram. But this doesn't tell us the whole story and that's where relative humidity comes in and this is the number that you get as a percentage. It tells us the degree to which the air is saturated with water, in other words, if relative humidity is 100% that means that the air is completely saturated with water vapour, as much water vapour as there could be at that temperature. And those last three words are really key because colder air holds less water than warmer air. So, I hope that makes sense. Basically what you need to know is, if you have the same amount of water in a very hot room relative humidity will be lower than if you are in a cold room.
What's the usual relative humidity of our homes? Well, it does vary. It depends what kind of climate you're living in, what kind of heating and cooling mechanisms you've got, but usually you'd find it roughly around the 40% to 50% mark. Of course, the million dollar question is, how much humidity does the average houseplant need? Well, it's hard to generalise, but generally somewhere between 40% to 60% is fine for an awful lot of plants. It's worth bearing in mind, that's the reason why these plants have lasted so long as houseplants, just because they can cope with the conditions in our homes. The test is usually just feeling those plant leaves. If they are thinner than a piece of very fine tissue paper then that's probably a plant that needs high humidity, we're thinking Maidenhair Fern and some of those members of the Maranta group here and the thicker you go on the leaf then the less they are going to be worried about humidity because they've got a waxy cuticle and that avoids the plant losing too much water to that dry air.
It's worth remembering the reason why plants need humidity in the first place is because they have these pores in their surface of the leaf, those stomata as they're called, and when the air around them is dry that means they tend to lose moisture out of those pores. So, relative humidity is one of the factors that affects what's called transpiration. This process of moisture being lost through the stomata is just one of the factors that can impact it though. Other factors include things like light and temperature.
So, that's the basics on humidity, but what can we do to increase humidity for those plants that need it? Kevin Espiritu, of the podcast Epic Gardening, joined me to discuss some of these finer points.
Jane: Kevin, thank you very much for joining me, today. We're talking about humidity. This is something that I get a lot of questions about. The first question I have for you is, do you mist your plants purely to boost humidity or is this one of these things that, like me, you deem this a task that's too much of a hassle for the benefit that it brings?
Kevin: I actually don't know where misting came from, as far as a popular practice. I never really did it. It didn't make a lot of sense. I just thought "Okay, well, if you mist your plants, there's some water on the leaves, the water will evaporate, it will raise the local humidity right around the plant." I guess that's the logic? But if you look at the studies, it really doesn't do much of anything at all, although I know a lot of people will do it. They find it a peaceful activity for their houseplants. Nothing wrong with that, but as far as raising humidity, it doesn't do much. So, I don't know about you, but I'm here to care for my plants in a kind of low maintenance way and doing something that doesn't really achieve the goal that I want to achieve doesn't really fit into that, so I don't mist them.
Jane: Me too and I just find that I'm really rubbish at aiming the mister and I end up getting it on the floor, on the sofa, it doesn't actually go on the plants anyway! The only time I really mist is if I'm spraying on some fatty soap spray to deal with a pest, really. It's not really ever just for water. Also finding a mister that actually works and the best mister that I have is an old, like, cleaning fluid bottle, spray bottle, that I just literally washed out about three times. That's the best mister I've ever had. All these fancy ones that you buy from fancy places always seize up after about five minutes, so that's my top tip to anyone who does want to use a mister - don't go for the high-end ones!
Kevin: Yes, there's a whole little sub-market of these sort of fancy, or bougie, misters, I guess, and it's an interesting little phenomenon.
Jane: Yes, I guess people like to buy houseplant accessories, which is fair enough. I don't know how humid it is where you are on the West Coast. Do you need to boost humidity in your house, or is it not really too much of a problem?
Kevin: It's not that big a deal. I think I sit somewhere around 40% to 50% just naturally, so it's not really that bad, but I do have a humidifier. Another way that I naturally boost humidity, is I have a really small house now and so most of my houseplants are in one area of the house and they're grouped together and that, actually, will increase the local humidity around that area. So, you've got all that soil, that soil is moist, it's evaporating, the plants are transpiring and you've got a little bit of a higher humidity level in that area.
Jane: One specimen plant on its own is the one that's going to be most vulnerable, if it's on its own in a room, isn't it? Because it just doesn't have his buddies alongside to create that micro-climate. What are your feelings about humidifiers generally? I haven't bought one because I just feel like it's another thing that I have to worry about, clean, fill and fiddle about with.
Kevin: I would say for the average houseplant owner, probably not necessary, but as soon as you get into having tons of them, or maybe you've invested money and some very fancy houseplants that you really want to give their most optimal environment, then I think it would make sense. A humidifier isn't too expensive. I think they're all under about $100 unless you go for a really big one, or a really fancy one. I would say for the average houseplant owner, not really necessary. Most of the time, the humidity in the house is adequate, maybe not optimal, but it's at least adequate: the plants will do okay.
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Kaitlyn: Hello! Who's ready to get down and nerdy? I'm Kaitlyn Kuehn, a plant biologist with a thirst for mycology. If you're into science and other interesting biology topics, listen to my new podcast, Flora Funga Podcast, releasing 10^th^February, where I dive into topics like how plants and fungi communicate with each other. I also cover how mushrooms can help save the world by breaking down plastics and radiation. Did you know that the smell of fresh cut grass is actually the plant screaming for help? Terrifying! Or that plants carry the same disease genes that humans do? What?! Learn more fun tidbits like these by subscribing to Flora Funga Podcast. I'll be releasing new episodes every other week. Check the show notes to find the link to my website: florafungapodcast.com. I can't wait to learn and grow with you. Hope to see you soon! Have a great week, my scientists, and go learn something new today.
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Jane: I hope you're looking forward to listening to that new podcast as much as I am! Back to humidity, I know that some of you are thinking, "Well, yes, it's all very well saying I don't need a humidifier, Kevin and Jane, but actually, I have a lot of plants and I really need a humidifier!" You see, I know your thoughts before you even think them, listeners! So, what kind of humidifiers are there and which one is the right one for you? Cool mist? Warm mist? What's the difference? I have no idea! Good job I have Jonathan Jarry on hand to provide an explanation. Over to Jonathan to introduce himself.
Jonathan: My name is Jonathan Jarry. I'm a science communicator with the McGill Office for Science and Society in Montreal, Canada.
Jane: I'm a bit confused. I don't have a humidifier because my house is old and damp, so it kind of is a natural humidifier. But I hear from loads of listeners, particularly people living in apartments where the air is very, very dry, saying they desperately want one to help with their plants. But I hear some horror stories about maintenance, cleaning, refilling them, not really working. It's a bit of a minefield, isn't it, this area of humidifiers, it seems to me?
Jonathan: There are lots of health claims that are being made about what humidifiers can do to improve your health as a human being and a lot of them are unfounded. There's just no good evidence behind them. It is true that, and I experience it every winter, the air gets very, very dry because cold air can retain water vapour much less so than warm air and so it can be very uncomfortable. Using a humidifier can certainly make the air that we breathe more comfortable but there seems to be a trade-off in terms of safety, potentially at least.
Jane: You can't just buy one of these things and expect it just to run endlessly without your input. You've got to refill the thing, in some cases you seem to have to do quite extensive cleaning of the humidifier regularly. Can you just run us through... There seem to be two main types; the cool mist and the warm mist. There may be other ones that I haven't come across, but how do they actually add moisture to the air? What are they doing to do that?
Jonathan: So, warm mist humidifiers are these kind of old-school sort of tea kettle-like humidifiers. They just boil liquid water in a reservoir and they turn it into water vapour very, very slowly. The mist that they emit is very warm, as you would expect from a tea kettle for example, and there are concerns about that, for example, if you have young children they could injure themselves by getting directly in front of this very, very warm jet of water vapour. Another issue is with bacteria, is you have a reservoir filled with water and if you don't clean this regularly you could get bacterial growth in there. This was actually tested by consumer reports, which is an American consumer information advocacy organisation, and they tested a number of these warm mist humidifiers and, when bacteria were present in the tank either because they had not cleaned it in three days or because they were they were actually adding bacteria in the tank to test this, they found that almost all of these warm mist humidifiers did emit bacteria into the air, so that's something to keep in mind. These bacteria may not cause any actual disease, but they could make a pre-existing allergy or asthma worse. So that's one kind of humidifier.
Then there are the cool mist humidifiers, but there are different technologies here at play. There are two main ones that I could find. There are those that use a very thick paper wick, it almost looks like an accordion, so these are the wick-based humidifiers and so essentially the water from the reservoir goes onto this wick which has a very large surface area. It creates these little water droplets that then get pushed out using a fan and so that's why these types of models can be very noisy and this wick filter has to be replaced every few months because mould can accumulate on it.
Then the third one is a very common one, it's one that I had myself, it's called an ultrasonic humidifier and it sounds like the perfect humidifier because the mist that it generates is very cool, it doesn't use a lot of electricity which is good for your electricity bill and there's just a small vibrating bit in the water tank and it turns liquid water into a vapour. So it's quiet, it's safe, it's efficient, or so it seems. The issue that has come to the forefront, recently especially, is that if you have one of those ultrasonic humidifiers, you may have noticed that there's this white mist, this dust, that ends up covering your furniture around the humidifier. I've noticed this myself. So the question is, what is this thing? What is happening, is that the water that you put in the reservoir, if you're using tap water, it contains certain minerals and certain ions, things like calcium and magnesium and sulphate. There are less common substances, like lead and manganese and arsenic and copper, and these minerals get turned into aerosols, into little particles that float in the air, by these ultrasonic humidifiers, and we breathe them in.
Now, if you have a warm mist humidifier, that doesn't really happen quite to that level because the water gets boiled and the minerals get left behind inside the machine. That's why you have to remove the calcium deposits on the heating element. But with ultrasonic humidifiers, they do generate a lot of these particulate matters and, as far as we know, these minerals are safe to breathe in, but we don't really have long-term data on breathing this stuff day after day for years on end. So that has been my concern, when I looked into this myself. I'm not a humidifier scientist, but I looked into this to communicate about this to the public because that was one of the questions that was raised. I have now put aside my ultrasonic humidifier and I don't use it anymore, not because I know that it is bad for my health, but just because there's this big question mark and I just don't know what it really is doing to the air quality that I'm breathing in every night.
Jane: Would one solution to that be to use distilled water? I guess that's adding to the cost but would that be one solution that if you use distilled water, presumably you wouldn't get that kind of outcome?
Jonathan: Absolutely. Some humidifiers do have demineralisation cartridges built in, so if you're willing to fork over the money, that will take care of the issue, in theory. As you mentioned, otherwise, yes, sure, you can buy distilled water because that is what distilled water is, it's water that's been evaporated and has left all those minerals behind and then it goes back to a liquid form. The thing is, I did a little back of the envelope calculation with my own personal humidifier, which has a 3.5 litre tank, and this means I would have to buy almost 25 litres of distilled water every week for it to run every night, and this is a lot of money, about £6 a week, and you have to take into account the plastic containers that you generate. You have to purchase them, you have to transport them, you have to dispose of them. So, it will take care of this particulate matter issue, which again may or may not affect our health, but it's quite the thing to go about it and buy 25 litres of distilled water every week throughout the winter, to run your personal humidifier.
Jane: Wow, yes, that's a lot of water to lug around and the expense is, obviously, considerable. That's really interesting and, I guess from my point of view, my other issue with humidifiers is that it's another electric device to have in my house and, less so with the ultrasonic one, but with the other types, adding to my electricity bill, which, here in the UK, we pay a lot for power anyway and it's just another chunk of plastic in my house, so I kind of resisted on that level. It does seem like, from what you've been saying, that it's not a straightforward win for you or your houseplants to have one of these devices. I guess this is all good in that, presumably, the humidifier industry will be ever refining and trying to make a better product as a result of people discovering that current models are not necessarily delivering everything that they need to deliver?
Jonathan: I certainly hope so. Again, if I were to say the air that I'm breathing in is just too harsh and I need to humidify my apartment, I would probably buy a warm mist humidifier because, again, the particulate matters that are released are quite low compared to an ultrasonic model, but I would clean it after every use. There are ways: you can use vinegar to clean the base, you can use a very, very mild bleach solution to disinfect the water tank, or even dish soap, and I would do this regularly. I didn't used to because you just look at this piece of machine, you're like, "I don't want to add to my routine. I don't want to have to do more things. I'll just leave it. It should be fine". We don't think about it because we don't really see what these things are really emitting, so these very old-school, warm-mist humidifiers seem to be fine.
The other thing is that the ones that use the wick, the wick-based cool mist humidifiers, I couldn't find a lot of information on them or about what they emit, so they could be much safer than the ultrasonic ones, but again, there's just a lack of data. Now, scientists have access to these very nifty particulate matter detectors and they're now able to do these studies where they're putting a humidifier in a room and they are measuring the air quality very, very precisely throughout the night so that they can see what is happening. So, hopefully with this data, and perhaps with a bit of a consumer advocacy and then asking the right questions out of these manufacturers, we can indeed arrive at machines that are making the air easier to breathe while also making sure that they are good for our health.
Jane: Here in the UK where most people have - I think in Canada, oftentimes, your heating is like warm air, isn't it, coming through a vent? - whereas in the UK, we have these things called radiators. You know what a radiator is, right? It's connected to the boiler, hot water goes through it, it heats up and the real old-school way of adding humidity to the air is little containers of water that fit on that radiator and every time the radiator heats up the water heats up and evaporates. I really want to give one of those a try. I'm going to do some experimenting and see how much they impact humidity because I'm thinking that's got to be a, if it does work, a good lo-fi alternative because that's easy to keep clean, it's not causing any electricity, but I'm not sure yet whether it'll actually increase the humidity in the room, so I'll report back on that, but that's the old school solution here to the problem.
Jonathan: It is, and you can buy a hygrometer, which measures humidity, quite cheaply and you can just measure it to see if, indeed, this method is effective enough, if you have enough water, that gets boiled and evaporated, to make a difference in your living area. I would say, at the end of every day, you want to make sure that you thoroughly clean the receptacle for the water because otherwise bacteria will grow and you will be breathing those in.
Jane: That is fantastic Jonathan. Thanks for joining me today and I'm realising that many listeners have probably got some cleaning to go and do now, as a result of listening to this interview! Thank you very much!
Jonathan: Thank you for having me.
Jane: So you're all on tenterhooks now, wondering whether I tried those radiator-mounted water vessels to increase humidity? Well, it's a mixed story I'm afraid listeners. I did give them a try and I'll put a picture of them in the show notes and also a link to the site I bought them from. They're just metal tubes with hooks on the end that you hook over the radiator. Potential downsides, if you have bouncy children or dogs, are them being knocked and the water spilling, but then it depends how much you fill them up. I put my hygrometer which, as Jonathan said, is a really useful thing to have around because you may find that if you get your humidity assessed, by testing the humidity in each room, that you don't need more humidity in the first place. But once you know that humidity is too low, then you can test these various different devices and the effect they're having.
So, I put the water chambers on the radiator, this was in my front room, usually humidity in there, in the last few days before they went in, humidity was around 49%, but after the chambers went onto the radiator, well humidity went up by about five percent in the area of the radiator, lower in the rest of the room. In other words, it didn't have a massive effect but it did have some effect. So, if you're looking for a localised boost for your air humidity for plants and you happen to have some radiators close by a group of plants, this could be an option for you. It depends whether you want to fight the level of humidity you naturally have or adapt your plant choices to the humidity that you can offer, and I'm firmly in the camp of the latter. Of course, the most easy ways to provide the microclimate that most plants enjoy, is just by grouping them together; no extra work required.
My next experiment? Well, I'm going to try, in the coming weeks, testing a pebble tray option versus a plant without a pebble tray and I will report back on my findings on that front too. Because I know this is one of the techniques I'm often spouting off about as a way of increasing humidity, but I've never actually done the test to find out if it makes much difference, so stay tuned for more experiment results in the coming week.
So, it's over to you. I'd love to know what humidifier you use, if you use one at all, if you've got any other cunning ways of increasing humidity in your house, or if you've got any thoughts on humidifier cleaning routines or anything else. You know the address: ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com and you can also check out the show notes for links to Jonathan's article about humidifiers, more on what relative humidity is, and so on and so forth.
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Jane: Right, before I get a case of the vapours, let's move on to Meet the Listener!
Teagen: Hi, my name is Teagen! I live in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and I love plants! I started listening to the On The Ledge podcast during some home renovations and now I listen to it while I'm working on setting up my greenhouse cabinet. My journey with plants started when my husband and I bought ourselves a townhouse and I started looking at how we were going to decorate it. Since then, I've become kind of a plant hoarder and channel my hoarding tendencies into plants and things related to them. I never thought that I would be a plant person, especially because I'm not particularly impressed by flowers, but I started to see the foliage in the leaves and being an art teacher there was no way that those patterns and textures wouldn't eventually win me over and draw me in. My collection is growing all the time and I'm starting to bring in some more rare plants, as well as some specific varieties that I've been looking for, and I'm just loving watching it grow. Checking over all my plants and attending to their needs is definitely my favourite way to relax and unwind after a day at school.
Jane: Question one. You've been selected to travel to Mars as part of the first human colony on the red planet. There's only room for one houseplant from your collection on board. Which plant do you choose?
Teagen: If I could only choose one plant to take, it would be my Calathea musaica. I really love the design and the patterns on that plant and it was really hard for me to track down where I'm located, so yes, I would definitely take that one and probably spend a lot of time staring at those leaves.
Jane: Question two. What is your favourite episode of On The Ledge?
Teagen: I'm still catching up on a lot of the episodes of the podcast but I think my favourite, so far, would be episode 41, the Maranta episode. I love all those plants and I really enjoyed learning lots more about them and I'll be listening to it again soon to make sure that I keep track of all of that information.
Jane: Question three. Which Latin name do you say to impress people?
Teagen: I wish I could answer this question in a few weeks. I've just asked the Latin teacher at my school to help me with my botanical Latin, but I think, at the moment, the one I'm most proud of is Ctenanthe because it doesn't sound like what I would expect it to and it took me a while to figure that one out.
Jane: Question four. Crassulacean acid metabolism or guttation?
Teagen: I listened to the episode on crassulacean acid metabolism and guttation, so I feel equipped to answer this question and I also have a suggestion for an additional process we can add to it, but I would pick guttation, I actually really enjoy this process. My Yucatan Princess does it regularly and I think it looks really, really beautiful, she's also located in a place where the water isn't a problem, so I can just enjoy how it looks and make sure that she's looking healthy. Now, I suggest that we add diurnal rhythm to the question, that Calatheas and those sorts of Maranta plans do. I think that would be an interesting thing that relates to the same kind of concept.
Jane: Question five. Would you rather spend £200 on a variegated Monstera, or £200 on 20 interesting cacti?
Teagen: As you can probably tell, I really like the foliage plants with really luscious leaves, so I would definitely pick the Monstera., I just love the texture of foliage and big leaves and everything, so I would love to have something like that to admire and enjoy, even though I do find cacti really cool as well.
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Jane: Thank you Teagen and if you would like to be featured on On The Ledge, drop a line to ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com and my assistant, Kelly, will be in touch to fill you in on the details.
Before I go, let's just catch up on the On The Ledge Sowalong. It's been great to see so many of you starting to buy and sow your seeds. If you haven't got a clue what I'm talking about, do check out the #OTLSowalong hashtag and last week's show, episode 170, for more information about what this means. It's basically our opportunity to go nuts with seeds and get lots of houseplants for very little money. That's the key! It's been great to see so many of you getting involved already. GrizzlyGrove on Instagram has been showing off some lovely little Drosera seedlings, which were chucked in some sphagnum moss last autumn to see if they germinate and they did! They're so cute and so tiny! Thanks for sharing, GrizzlyGrove! BotanicalBachelor, on Instagram, has had successful germination of Hoya incrassata seed. Oh, that sounds interesting and they look great! Keep us posted on that, BotanicalBachelor! Pradoji has posted pictures of a wonderful Cyclamen persicon, grown from her own plant seed pod last year, which is just so adorable and bright pink flowers, to boot! That's great. That's what happens when you do the sowalong - you get some wonderful, wonderful plants!
Pradoji writes, "I think everyone should try growing something from seeds. It's such a fulfilling life experience, with the bonus of getting amazing little results to share with friends". Amen to that! JenPlantsToo, in Minnesota, has been sharing pictures of the Lapidaria grown for the 2019 sowalong. They're doing lovely Jen - that's brilliant! So it just shows you, you can end up with some wonderful plants as a result of your efforts.
Lots of you are also sharing your exploits on the Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge Facebook group. Do remember to edit your post and add 'OTLSowalong' as a topic. You just press the three dots in the top right hand corner to do that. Molly has some exciting deliveries from Chiltern Seeds - she's growing Stephanotis, Coffea arabica, Aeonium, and more. My assistant, Kelly, is looking for some good sources of Coleus seeds in the UK and Tate has been sharing some 2020 success stories, including Pseudorhipsalis ramulosa and Dioscorea Elephantipes, both wonderful plants. Well done, Tate!
So I hope that's whetted your appetite and got you enthused about the sowalong if you weren't before. I'm going to be answering On The Ledge sowalong questions in an episode coming to your ears very soon, so if you've got any questions, please let me know - happy to try to help with any seed-related topics.
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Jane: That's it for this week. I will be back next Friday, so have as good a week as you can and go forth and propagate! Bye!
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Jane: The music you heard in this episode was Roll Jordan Roll by The Joy Drops, Chiefs by Jahzzar and After the Flames by Josh Woodward. All tracks are licensed under Creative Commons. Visit janeperrone.com for details.
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Moisture in the air helps keep many houseplants healthy, but how do we know how much humidity our plants need? Kevin Espiritu and Jonathan Jarry join me to explore the misty world of humidifiers. Plus we hear from Teagen in Meet The Listener.
ALSO: If you heard the trailer for the Flora Funga podcast and want to give it a listen, the first episode is out on February 10 2021 and you can find out more here.
This week’s guests
Fellow podcaster Kevin Espiritu of epicgardening.com can also be found on Twitter as @KevinEspiritu. His page on humidifiers is here.
Jonathan Jarry is a science communicator with the McGill Office for Science and Society, and @crackedscience on Twitter. His article on humidifiers is here.
More on humidity
Relative humidity is the amount of water vapour in the air in relation to the maximum amount of water that could be held in the air at that temperature, and it’s expressed as a percentage - it’s explained further here. Most homes have a relative humidity of about 40-50% but this depends on your climate, as well as your heating and cooling mechanisms.
The radiator humidity hangers I tried out are available on eBay UK but there are many different models you can try: some are made of ceramic rather than metal. Like humidifiers, these should be cleaned regularly.
A hygrometer (humidity meter) can help you measure temperature and humidity: I have this one from ThermoPro.
Want to learn more about the relationship between transpiration and humidity? There’s a useful lesson on the USGS website.
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CREDITS
This week's show featured the tracks Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops, An Instrument the Boy Called Happy Day, Gokarna by Samuel Corwin and Fire Tree by Axletree.