are you growing puny plants?
Growers tend to focus on certain critical factors contributing to the health and vigor of
plants such as growing media, seeds, lighting
conditions, temperatures and fertilizer compositions. These are all important considerations, but we may be overlooking one major
variable: relative humidity and the role it
plays on stomatal opening and closing. In
a controlled environment like a house or
greenhouse, we sometimes fail to monitor
relative humidity and, in the process, may
be producing inferior plants. In this article, the mechanism of stomatal opening
and closing, relative humidity and the
interaction of both will be discussed. A
little understanding will go a long way
in getting better results.
Plants, like people, respond to
stimuli. People respond to stimuli
such as hunger, noise and fatigue.
For plants, stimuli can encompass
numerous factors such as temperature, light and water. Growers often
gauge success or failure based on
visual cues like growth patterns,
form, yellowing leaves, wilted
appearance, days to maturity and
flowering. Factors that are sometimes not externally or overtly visible