While tropical plants can spend the entire summer outdoor they need protection in the colder months. I realised that quite a number of hobby gardeners here in Germany are reluctant to grow tropical plants at home, thinking they can't provide the plants with high air humidity in the range of 80 to 90%. Even if they do grow them, they mostly stick with the few that have been proven to be quite hardy in that sense. Other who do venture into growing more tender plants like to place the plants on top of humidity trays. Seriously, my worries are quite the opposite.
In winter my study room is my plant conservatory. Here I keep the temperature between 16 and 18°C, which is way below the comfort zone of most Germans and I too sometimes find it chilly. But I do believe that this is the best for the plants kept in low light condition in the winter. Because of minimal heating the air doesn't get dried up as much as people fear. As my collection expanded I even began to have that 80% of humidity, as more plants also means more transpiration. This is usually when my problems come. Because our old pre-war house has such bad insulation we tend to have mold spreading on one of the outer walls. Cracks in it only adds to the thermal bridge. Despite my efforts to bring the hygrometre reading down to 60% by ventilation, mold still appears a number of times throughout the winter. When this happens I have no choice but to go through a very tedious procedure in order to exterminate the mold.
First step in the procedure is to remove every single plant from the room and find spots where they can stay temporarily. Then I apply some nasty chemicals onto the entire affected wall and let the wintry wind bring those out through the windows over several hours subsequently. By the time the nasty things have dissipated enough the room temperature would have dropped down to the neighbourhood of 10°C. Then I have to turn the heater back on and let it warm up again. By the time I can place the plants back to their positions, half of a day is already gone, without mentioning the time spent to adjust the position and fine-tune to perfection, which becomes more and more challenging as my collection expands.
Aesthetically I thought the room looked best when only a few of the plants had gone back onto the 2-metre window sill. When more plants came in and started to crowd, it started to need some getting used to. I'm getting so tired of doing the moving in and out and living in the crowded space. Giving up plants isn't an option. The only solution I see and my dream is to have a house with a built-in conservatory that is a lot bigger and equipped with automated irrigation, heating and ventilation systems.
In winter my study room is my plant conservatory. Here I keep the temperature between 16 and 18°C, which is way below the comfort zone of most Germans and I too sometimes find it chilly. But I do believe that this is the best for the plants kept in low light condition in the winter. Because of minimal heating the air doesn't get dried up as much as people fear. As my collection expanded I even began to have that 80% of humidity, as more plants also means more transpiration. This is usually when my problems come. Because our old pre-war house has such bad insulation we tend to have mold spreading on one of the outer walls. Cracks in it only adds to the thermal bridge. Despite my efforts to bring the hygrometre reading down to 60% by ventilation, mold still appears a number of times throughout the winter. When this happens I have no choice but to go through a very tedious procedure in order to exterminate the mold.
First step in the procedure is to remove every single plant from the room and find spots where they can stay temporarily. Then I apply some nasty chemicals onto the entire affected wall and let the wintry wind bring those out through the windows over several hours subsequently. By the time the nasty things have dissipated enough the room temperature would have dropped down to the neighbourhood of 10°C. Then I have to turn the heater back on and let it warm up again. By the time I can place the plants back to their positions, half of a day is already gone, without mentioning the time spent to adjust the position and fine-tune to perfection, which becomes more and more challenging as my collection expands.
Aesthetically I thought the room looked best when only a few of the plants had gone back onto the 2-metre window sill. When more plants came in and started to crowd, it started to need some getting used to. I'm getting so tired of doing the moving in and out and living in the crowded space. Giving up plants isn't an option. The only solution I see and my dream is to have a house with a built-in conservatory that is a lot bigger and equipped with automated irrigation, heating and ventilation systems.