ultrasonic humidifiers - good or bad experiences?

[matwag]

Hello, thought I'd introduce myself and start with this question. Whenever I've used ultrasonic humidifiers in my terrariums they've caused problems with my Nepenthe's - the fog they create looks great but after a few days the pitchers start to go brown and die, I've had the same thing happen with Heliamphoras too on a different occasion. Has anyone else had any experiences with this or can explain what happened? :-)

[mobile]

Hi and welcome to CPUK Forum. 

 

I guess it largely depends on specific conditions as to whether ultrasonic foggers are of benefit or not. I know a number of forum members use them and, as you say, they look great when running. I have used them myself in the past, but no longer do so as personally I do not find them of any noticeable benefit in my conditions.

[matwag]

Thanks

To be honest that was the main reason I used the fogger in the first place - it looked fantastic when running but seemed to affect the pitchers badly.

[pmatil]

I haven't had any problems you described on my neps. I use external ultrasonic humidifier and the mist runs to the terrarium using hoses. Maybe your neps just need to adjust to the higher humidity? Or maybe the humidity was too high (rot, mold).

[North West Neps]

Maybe put your humidifier on a timer ? It doesn't need to run continuously, as once a humidity level is reached, it'll stay there for a good while before it starts dropping very slowly. Experiment with the timer to say give a 15 minute burst every hour or two at first, and then adjust accordingly.

How about air circulation ? Do you have any fans running in the terrarium ? A small 12v computer fan will do the job if you're tight on space. You could also put this on a timer to say give an alternating '15 minutes on/15 minutes off' breeze.

Constantly wet conditions and poor air circulation are two reasons for Nepenthes pitchers blackening off.

[matwag]

Thanks for your replies, the foggers I've used were on a simple timer set to come on for a couple of minutes about 3 times a day, humidity ran at about 80% and the water tank was always filled with room temp r/o or rain water but for some reason wherever the fog settled the pitchers started to go off colour, it's totally baffled me as I've never heard of anyone else having this problem. As soon as I stop using it the plants return to normal so I daren't use it again. The ventilation in the terrarium is from narrow vents top and bottom with an adda 12v waterproof fan running continuously to keep the air moving. It's a shame because I love the effect the foggers make......

[Guest Olivermurray7373]

We'll the best thing to do -and I had great results with this- is to put water in the bottom of your terrarium and but some slate of a rack of some sort for the plants to go on.

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[corky]

i have used leca (clay balls) and live sphagnum and damped down ,probably not as cool looking as the fog but works

[matwag]

That's a good idea, but the humidity is pretty good in there, I've got a couple of misters mounted in the top of the terrarium that come on for about 5 seconds every hour during the day, I just thought it would create a nice effect to occasionally have a bit of fog too but I wondered if there was anything obvious that I've missed that would cause the pitchers to go brown. Incidently I've never had problems with mould growing as it's pretty well ventilated.

[Guest Olivermurray7373]

You might get rot with all of the water on the leaves and you might get Crown rot.

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[matwag]

Hi Corky, I use leca as a drainage layer with coco soil on top so normally things grow pretty well. Oliver that's a definite possibility with it being over wet but with the fan running continuously the plants don't have a lot of surface water on them for long and the weird thing is that the fogger only affects the pitchers on the Nepenthe's, it's never made the leaves go brown, the plants themselves look happy enough. I'm baffled :-)