Do you really need to mist your indoor plants?

Rochelle Polley got into indoor plants three years ago, and her collection rapidly grew to over 85 plants.

She mists all her plants every two days with a plastic spray bottle filled with rainwater, getting the idea from Facebook groups for indoor plant lovers.

"Indoor plants are from rainforests with humid conditions, so I'm trying to recreate that as best I can," she says.

"In winter we have the heater running 24/7 and it's very drying for them and their soil."

Rochelle credits misting with boosting the overall health and growth of her indoor plants.

Sounds relaxing, but is it necessary?

Julia Monk is a horticulturist who works at a nursery in Melbourne. She's also a dedicated indoor plant grower and says there's no need to mist your plants.

"It sounds good, but you don't need to," she says.

Julia researched misting after fielding hundreds of customer enquiries and found credible evidence that supported her suspicions about misting's effectiveness.

She even did an experiment comparing the growth of her plants that were misted with those that weren't.

She found misting made "no difference, even with the ferns".

"I have a Boston fern that's gotten huge with no misting," she says.

If humidity is what you're after, you may have thought about placing some plants in your bathroom. But it might not be humidity alone that's boosting growth.

"The theory is the bathroom is the humid room and so plants do well in there, but the bathroom will also often have a frosted window which provides this amazing light," Julia says.

"There's also usually a heat lamp or a heater drying it out."

Misting may cause problems

Regularly misting your plants can also cause problems.

"You don't want your leaves sitting wet because it can create a fungal issue, and the water sitting on the leaf can block the plant breathing," says Julia.

She also points out that regular misting keeps the top crust of the potting mix evenly damp which is "perfect for fungus gnats".

But what about Rochelle's plants that were growing well with daily misting?

"If they're doing really well and you always mist, that's good and it's probably from paying more attention to the plants," Julia says.

Two other ways to boost humidity

If you're still keen to get the tropical feel at home, Julia recommends considering a humidifier, a small, powered appliance that creates water vapour.

"But you can grow most things without it, so I'd say give that a try first," she says.

Her other tip is to group plants together, as the water vapour they release from their leaves will form a microclimate with higher humidity.

Don't want to give up on misting just yet?

"It's probably not doing any harm, but it's not doing what you think it's doing."

Patrick Honan is a researcher for Gardening Australia.