Today is “National Static Electricity Day” January 09, 2023

The little bit of static electricity that makes your hair stand up in the winter doesn’t really have much effect on plants. The dry air that causes the static to be worse in the winter does affect many houseplants. Many houseplants are native to humid tropical climates. They don’t like the dry air we have in our houses in the wintertime. It can cause them to drop leaves.

One of the best ways to help the plants as well as ourselves is to run a humidifier or vaporizer through the colder weeks in the winter. A home can easily have humidity drop as low as 15% on an extremely cold day. Ideally, you would like to get the humidity up to 30-40%. Getting 50-60% or higher can cause other problems to grow such as mold and mites.

Another great way to raise the humidity is to add more plants. As plants transpire (lose water through their foliage) they add water to the air in the form of humidity. It would take a lot of plants to raise the humidity of your home, but if a few plants are grouped together, it can raise the humidity in that area to help the plants. Another way to help the plants would be to make sure there are no heat vents blowing directly on them. Air circulation can lower the humidity in the area around your plants.

So, the takeaway from all of this is, to tame the flyaways by adding more plants!!! More plants = Great winter hair! Well, maybe not quite. But how could you go wrong by adding more green to your life?

Tomorrow, January 10, is “National Houseplant Appreciation Day”