5 reasons why monitoring humidity is essential for a thriving garden

Collaborative post

Successful gardening isn’t just about having optimal soil, sunlight, and water. Humidity also plays a crucial role in overall plant health and garden maintenance.

Whether you’re a greenhouse gardener, working in an outdoor growing space, or growing indoor plants, monitoring humidity levels can help you prevent common growing and plant health issues and maintain optimum environmental conditions for your flowers, crops, or plants.

Using humidity monitoring tools such as a Garden Hygrometer allows you to stay on top of moisture levels and helps you make informed decisions about what is needed to ensure your plants thrive.

Here are 5 reasons why monitoring humidity levels is essential for optimal plant health and a thriving garden.

Preventing plant diseases and mould growth

High humidity levels create the ideal breeding ground for various diseases that drastically affect plant growth, including:

• Powdery mildew: A fungal disease that spreads along plant stems, leaves, and flowers. White powdery patches spread throughout the plant, particularly on the leaf surfaces.
• Root rot: A plant disease causing the roots to decay, affecting mainly woody plants. Leaves begin to wilt and turn yellow, roots appear consistently wet and black, plant growth is reduced, and there’s a noticeable foul smell coming from the plant’s soil. In extreme cases and higher levels of humidity, root rot can kill a healthy plant within weeks.  
• Botrytis (Grey mould): A common disease causing a soft decay of plants. Grey fuzzy mould grows on the plant and fruits growing off the plant.

By monitoring humidity levels within your growing space, you can provide your plants with the appropriate care. This includes taking steps such as improving airflow in enclosed spaces, creating a well-regulated watering schedule, and if necessary, using fungicides to prevent the potential worsening of these diseases.

Although every plant is different, it’s widely noted that on average the ideal humidity level for most plants sits around 60% to 70% relative humidity.

Preventing drying and wilting leaves

Low humidity can also have significant effects on plant health, leading to brittle and wilting leaves due to increased water loss and dehydration. This is often accompanied by reduced plant growth.

Many plants, especially tropical ones, require consistent humidity levels to remain healthy. Some plant species, such as Cacti and various succulents, thrive in lower humidity levels of around 10% to 30% relative humidity. Therefore, monitoring humidity levels doesn’t necessarily mean avoiding low or high humidity; it’s about learning and understanding the optimum relative humidity for the plants you choose to grow. Without this knowledge, successful gardening could be a struggle.

Maintaining ideal greenhouse conditions

Monitoring conditions in your greenhouse is crucial for plant growth and crop success. Fluctuating humidity levels can cause stress to plants, negatively impacting photosynthesis whilst also increasing the likelihood of pests and diseases.

If temperature and humidity levels fall below the dew point, the air in the greenhouse can no longer hold its moisture and condenses into the greenhouse. This means moisture covers the greenhouse glazing and leaf surfaces, which can lead to a greater risk of various plant diseases and negatively impact the plant’s water intake capabilities.

Monitoring humidity levels within your greenhouse helps protect and maintain the overall health and growth capabilities of your plants. Humidity monitoring instruments allow you to make informed decisions on what course of action is best to promote plant health.

Easy ways to increase humidity in your growing space include:

• Misters
• Sprinklers

Methods to lower humidity include:

• Fans
• Infrared heating systems
• Adjusting your everyday gardening practices based on the weather and the current greenhouse environment.

Aiding in seed germination and growth

Germination is the process by which a planted seed grows into a seedling.

For germination to occur, a seed needs moisture, oxygen and warmth. Most seeds require temperatures between 18 and 24 degrees, and high humidity levels of around 95% relative humidity are essential for successful seed germination. If humidity is too low, this can hinder the seed’s capability to grow and sprout. If the seeds become too moist, this can potentially cause damping-off disease.

Monitoring humidity levels ensures that you create and maintain an ideal environment for successful germination, healthy seedlings and protection from potentially fatal plant diseases.

Improving indoor plant care

Maintaining optimal humidity levels indoors can be difficult due to the lack of natural airflow and consistent natural sunlight. In addition, we all adjust indoor conditions to suit our comfort level, whether that’s air conditioning during summer or heating during winter.

Typically, indoor environments can quickly become very humid. If you’re an indoor gardener, this can be detrimental to your plant’s health. Too much humidity can lead to excess damp on leaves, which can potentially lead to diseases such as root rot. However, much like in the garden, low humidity levels can lead to stunted growth of the plant and browning leaves.

By monitoring humidity levels in the home, indoor gardeners can make informed real-time decisions on what their plants require based on current humidity levels. This is why indoor gardeners need a Hygrometer.

Useful methods of controlling indoor humidity include:

• Opening windows to promote natural air flow.
• Investing in a dehumidifier.
• Grouping plants with similar needs together to create a microclimate.
• Keeping plants away from extreme heat sources.

Whether you’re growing crops, flowers, or houseplants, monitoring humidity levels is crucial to plant health and growing success. Investing in humidity monitoring instruments such as a Hygrometer can help you track moisture levels and make more informed decisions about your gardening space.