Misting schedule for small gh

I'm setting up my timer to run my mister & would like to have some suggestions as to when I should start & how long it should run on each cycle. I've got a 6x8 Harborfreight GH with Aluminet shadecloth inside and a automatic vent opener. Right now, I'm running 6 solar fans (2 vents & 4 for air movement inside. Electricity won't be run to the Gh until my dad has some time (luckily he's an electrician). The plants in there right now are orchids, tomatoes, brugs, an orange, a lemon, a mango, an avocado, some rose cuttings and some perennials that are soon to be planted. All of the big stuff will be moved out once our night time temps get a little warmer. Anyway, my water timer has 4 cycles I can program. I've seen some folks that suggest beginning the misting cycle in the night (around 5 am). Thanks!

Sandi, are you misting for irrigation, humidity, or cooling? SB

SB, I'm misting for humidity mainly. The other 2 are bonuses. Thanks!

Sandi- I have 3 greenhouses and I only run my mister timerr on my pansies seeds in the summer. The mister runs for 15 secs every 5 mins thruout the day, and I turn it off around sunset. If I were you the only thing I would think about misting would be seeds (easier to cover with plastic and mist once a day) and your cuttings. Most foliage doesn't like to be wet continually thruout the day. I would water by hand as needed. If you want more humidity, put the fan thermostat up higher. Just watch that the temps don't get too high.

Tigerlily, wouldn't I need to run the misters to give my orchids humidity? I've got about 30-40 of them in there.

I run 8-10 seconds every 1 hour for humidity and cooling. I found that much more than that leaves wet foliage in my GH. Your mileage may vary...SB

Sandi-I don;t grow orchids-I just buy them lol. But I will say that there is a orchid greenhouse near me and I have never seen misters go off during the day, and its not that humid in there either. As well, when I lived in Hawaii, and had friends that grew them, they were under a shade cloth and they never misted them either-and although they say Hawaii has 100% humidity, you wouldn't know it. You never sweat, and the tradewinds keep it pretty dry.
I would call a local orchid grower and see how they handle it.

Sandi, If you are wanting your mister to provide GH humidity, you would do better with an automatic stat controller. Using a stat would allow you to pre-determine the correct humidity that you're aiming for. My GH is set for orchids w/ intermediate conditions, so my humidistat is set for 55%-60% humidity. Doing this eliminates guess work and also frees me up so that I am not chained to my GH all the time, worrying and watching....

The mister that I have is an Aquafog and it is mounted. The face is positioned so that only a few plants receive a little direct misting because most plants can't take that much moisture. (One plant that LOVES the misting is a Dischidia, others are Masdevallia orchids.)

Here is one of my webpages that gets into more detail about our GH: http://www.veriwired.com/garden_gh.html Towards the bottom of that page is a link to some more technical info on our GH construction.

Hope this helps!

Lynn makes a good point. Another way to regulate the mister, if you primarily intend to cool with it, is to connect it to a thermostat, rather than a humidistat.

My mist runs through a misting controller and the climate controller (which is basically a fancy thermostat). The mister system sends a signal on a schedule (for example, 10 seconds every 30 to 60 minutes) but for the signal to get to the valve, the temp has to rise above a certain level. Over that level, the thermostat energizes a simple 24VAC relay and the misting controller signal is permitted through the circuit on schedule.

I have heard of people wiring the mist system through BOTH a humidistat and a thermostat, so that the system will come on when either the temp rises too high or the humidity gets too low. SB