so my area is really dry, and in my 2x4x4 tent, the RH is right around 38%. So the last couple of days, I’ve been misting the outsides of my fabric pots. This has done a great job at raising the RH level, to around 75%. But im wondering if I’m doing more harm than good, because its likely algea will start to grow if I keep the pots misted daily, and if it does grow, is it detrimental to the plants life ?
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In a hydro system it makes sense to me why algae is detrimental, but haven’t ever heard a compelling argument for soil. Ditto with clear cups.
My environment tends to evaporate the soil moisture inconsistently, too, and I came to the same conclusion you did. Now I can see it in the plants when I haven’t been consistent with spraying.
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Hi man, if you’ve already started a grow diary you can ask there this sort of questions. All the info and pics will be there and it will be easier for us to answer, cheers … 
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we had a problem one February in the greenhouses where it got cloudy
and our plants had a problem with algae on the top of the soilless
which we had to go around to each pot and breakup the top layer soil up to get the air moving
again
one time, after that we watched who was watering 
all the best
Dequilo
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I’ve been living in arid environments for a while now. I’ve resorted to lining the fabric pots with a layer of plastic. Some companies are even making fabric pots with the plastic liner already in them.
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I used to have the same problem in my 2x4. The ambient humidity where I have my tent set up is usually around 30-40 depending on the weather outside, ( we have crappy windows old house etc )
What I have found works is finding garbage bags that loosely fit around the pots. I just keep them in those (make sure there’s no standing water left in them after you’re done watering) and it keeps the humidity up around 60-70% in the tent which is right around where I like it for veg and also increases my days between watering quite a bit.
As soon as its time to switch them to flower, I get rid of the bags and that has seemed to do the trick for me.
As far as algae goes I wouldn’t be too worried about it in a soil environment imo unless it gets out of control but I’ve never seen that personally
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Some of the advantages of fabric pots are air root prunning and oxygenation of the roots, if you put a plastic bag around maybe you would lose them. A mostly wet soil top is a call for fungus gnats, it is better to look for other ways to humidify your tent …
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I use loosely fitting bags, they are still air pruning and letting some air in-between the fabric pot and bags, and it manages to keep the humidity in the tent where I need it to be as well as not letting the pots evaporate as quickly.
Nothing about having a bag around your pots this way is inviting fungus gnats anymore than the methods you just listed.
Fungus gnats have not been an issue in either of my tents with this same method, the top of the soil evaporates just fine, I’m not bagging it completely up to the stem the bag is as high as the rim of the pots.
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Will fungus gnats, spawn/hatch if I’m not over watering, yet still misting the bags, I’m pretty limited on what I can use, because cant just plug in a humidifier, I only have 1 wall plug to work off of. And as of now, I have quite a few things running off it. 3 circulation fans and an inline fan, and the Light, I dont really feel very comfortable plugging more things in.
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You are correct. I should clarify by saying we lined the top 16" of raised beds. So the beds still had air flow from the bottom. The reason was the humidity levels were too high (both both evaporation and transpiration), and we were struggling to keep the beds hydrated. It worked for our situation. May not be for everyone. 
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Sorry, wasn’t thinking about your specific case, here were I live the humidity is always 65% or more and I am constantly wondering how to fight it. For me water is life and we have plenty of, cannot imagine being working on ways to conserve humidity or avoid evaporation.
I suppose I cannot be a good adviser in this matter and hope I will never have to follow your good tips 
. The south of Spain is slowly converting to an african climate and I am glad living in the farther north coast …
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38% RH is practically a swamp around these parts. Seriously, it gets in the low teens here sometimes. If you can’t plug in a humidifier, I wouldn’t sweat it. Your plants will still survive just fine. And 38% is perfect for flowering IMO.
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I’ve had algae on the soil in my greenhouse. If it happens just scrape it off so it doesn’t block water from penetrating. Other than that, it doesn’t hurt much if you don’t let it get out of control.
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I love those pots I run 1 gallon about two thirds filled with my secret brew they work well, and help with aeration., it would seem the ways its gone I have gotten way more large rootballs than in regular plastic pots. And mind you im a soil guy. They work well too, my room is dry.
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Do they help finding the roots of religion? 
, sorry I suppose it was “at least” and automated spell correction 
. I recently transplantedmy first successful clone from 1 gal fabric pot to 3 gal and was astonished because I couldn’t barely see any root at all 
, much easier duty than with a plastic one … 
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I get tons of roots in the end
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Maybe because there’s always remnant water and they look for it?
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I have 20 and 25 gallon fabric pots in very large trays. My trays can hold around 4 gallons of water. I add water to my trays every day. If I have a large plant in flower, I’m adding about 1-2 gallons a day to the tray. The bags are constantly wet and I never have root rot. I’ve been growing this way for about 2 years.
One of the biggest mistakes is underwatering once the plant is in flower. If I touch the bottom of my grow bags and they are not “damp”, I pour water in the tray. I have roots popping out everywhere on the bottom of a 25 gallon pot.
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Great thread. I just put a couple plants in 25 gallon smart pots, so this is the info I need. K for everyone.
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I agree with @George the main reason to use them is more air in the root system
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