Acclimating Tropical Plants

Hi,

I was wondering if it is possible to acclimate tropical house plants that are used to 80%+ humidity down to 60% or even 50%? Is it possible? For new house plants coming from a greenhouse.. what is the best way of acclimating such plants? Specially, imported plants from Asia.

Also, I have a few calatheas, a couple of cane begonias, and some philodendron and I am worried about them come winter time. I also have a monstera thai constellation coming in the first week of October from Thailand. Do I need an indoor greenhouse? I have one glass cabinet but I can't fit all of my plants in it.

Some care tips would be great, please! Thank you so much in advance! ‍

 

The Monstera and Begonias should have no trouble. The Calatheas and Philodendron, it depends which ones you have. The hardier ones will do great at 50-60%. The more delicate tropicals can appear to struggle for year, but in reality it is only the individual old leaves that struggle. Many can't re-acclimate to lower humidity, but any new leaves grown in those conditions will be just fine. Eventually they grow all new leaves under the lower humidity conditions and look great. However there are of course some tropicals which are generally considered greenhouse-only because even their new leaves can do poorly at 50%. Those are rare, however. You should be able to grow most of what you want at that level.

 

Wow. Thank you so much for the information. I spent hours trying to find answers on Google. Thanks again.Very much appreciated!