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Old 14-Dec-2001   #3
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Re: Why "hygroscopic" for pebble tray?


Quote:
author=denny link=board=general&num=1008328083&start=0#1 date=12/14/01 at 12:02:32]
...a couple of damp towels hanging *around is a cheep way to bring up your humidity.


I keep telling my wife that, but she she doesn't buy it

Aside from the prospect of mildew, some kind of wicking material like a towel would be great. There is some kind of batting that they use in greenhouses to provide a combined evaporative cooling & humidifying effect. Looks like a rug of (artificial) horsehair material dangling in a trough of water, and a fan is set up to push air through it and into the greenhouse.

I believe the main benefit of the broken pottery bits in the humidity tray is that they are absorb the water and provide more surface area for the evaporative exchange, where using pebbles alone in a humidity tray would just keep your bonsai from having wet feet (an important function unless you have bald cypress, wisteria or something bog friendly)

Regards,

Matt
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