More questions about mounting

[Ross]

Originally Posted by irrka

can someone explain to my why it's bad? it seems like it's synthetic stuff, so i thought it wouldn't break down fast? Just wondering here.

It is quite soft, punchures easily, crumbles, won't hold a hanging hook without the hook pulling free with weight of plant, tends to hold moisture longer than a sponge, leading to root rot, and there may be some other things as well. There are just too many great things to make mounts out of to worry over marginal products. Just my

[whygreenberg]

Originally Posted by irrka

yvan--you really run your humidifier the whole day??

Yeah, I know... But I do. Well, pretty much all day. There are of course breaks every now and then for one reason or another. Perhaps will not be used so much during the summer (it is NYC anyway!) but that remains to be seen since the A/C unit will eat up all the humidity.

[cb977]

Originally Posted by Ross

It is quite soft, punchures easily, crumbles, won't hold a hanging hook without the hook pulling free with weight of plant, tends to hold moisture longer than a sponge, leading to root rot, and there may be some other things as well. There are just too many great things to make mounts out of to worry over marginal products. Just my

Well done

[irrka]

Thanks Ross!!

Yvan- i tried running the mister i have the whole day and ended up having to clean it literally every day. Which i just don't have the patience for what kind of a humidifier are you using?

[Ross]

If I may join in on the misters, did you check out MistKing I have used Marty's system now for a year or so and never had to clean anything.

[whygreenberg]

I'm just using a warm vapor humidifer...got it at a PC Richard and Son, I think. It does require regular cleaning to prevent build up of scale & bacteria. But a short soak in a little CLR does the trick for the scale at least. I suppose if I had more orchids than currently (it'll happen at some point ), I'd probably want something which didn't require such vigilant cleaning.

[irrka]

Ross- i'd looked at MistKing before but i never quite understood how that worked. Plus the fact that it was talking about buckets for water reservoir (the mister i have now sits in a 3 L bowl on top of some milk crates (i can't believe i still own those either) and my kitchen window plants get the humidity off a cat water fountain. high tech my set up is not
but if you have a chance can you run me through how that thing actually works so i stop clicking on that ad and scratching my head over and over like a pavlovian dog (ooooh, miiiiister muuust click agaaaaain)

[Becca]

irrka, I have the MistKing System as well, and I, like you, was worried about a bucket for a water reservoir as well. I went and bought a clear rubbermaid storage container, I would say it is maybe double the size of a shoe box, and I only refill mine every two weeks if that....and it fits neatly on the under shelf of my table that my orchidarium sits in.

Let me know if you would like some pictures of my water reservoir!

[epiphyte78]

There are various variables that can be manipulated to increase the moisture level of your mounts.

1. Orient your mount horizontally rather than vertically.

2. Select mounts that have highly textured surfaces. Deeply furrowed bark has a greater surface area and will stay moist longer than smooth branches with the bark removed.

3. Use sphagnum moss. The more moss you use the greater the amount of moisture your mount will retain. Take care that only the bottom of the rhizome is in direct contact with the moss. Eyes,leads,new growths, leaves, rhizome cuts due to divisions and pseudobulbs should not be in contact with the moss. Roots are ok of course. There's something about micro cuts and abrasions on the orchid as a result of mounting combined with the moist contact of moss that can facilitate rot. Should you notice rot, remove the orchid from the mount, remove the moss and remount the orchid without any moss.

4. New Zealand sphagnum moss retains moisture longer than green sphagnum moss.

5. The flatter the surface is of a horizontally oriented mount, the more moisture it will retain. For example, a flat horizontally oriented wooden plank will retain more moisture than a horizontally oriented round branch with the same surface texture.

6. Placing a container of water underneath the mount will increase the moisture level in the air around the mount due to evaporation. Ideally, it should also work to capture any excess water that drips off of the mount when you water it. Many epiphytic orchids survive in areas of relatively low amounts of rainfall because they grow on branches that are near or directly over streams and ponds.

I recommend experimenting by manipulating and interchanging the various variables to learn how long a mount will stay moist for.

This last winter I experimented mounting $5 noid cattleya hybrids on horizontally oriented wooden planks taken from a broken down tree box. When I mounted the orchids I placed large handfuls of green sphagnum moss underneath each orchid. Unfortunately, I was too lazy and didn't bother tying the moss so that it was completely flat (meaning it was in contact with the pseudobulbs and new growths) and then we had an usually wet winter. Maybe a month or two ago I started noticing that the green moss was actually coming to life and growing (which has never happened when it's on a vertical mount) and many of the catts started to rot.

But now I know what kind of mount would be suitable for moisture loving orchids such as phals, pleurothallids, bulbos, etc.

If you have some orchids or backbulbs that you aren't too overly concerned with losing I would suggest giving those wet foam bricks a try. I thought about trying it myself but never really had the opportunity. Finding a source is half the work, which you've already done so I think I'll give it a try. I'm curious to see how quickly they break down. I've got some orchids mounted on 3 horizontally oriented, very fibrous, pygmy date palm trunks that I'm curious as well to see how long it will be before they break down.

[irrka]

as i don't have an orchidarium (i've two windowsills) i'm still not sure how that would work. Does it connect straight through into your orchidarium? (the videos look very tech-y)

epiphyte: unfortunately i don't have that many orchids and i *wish* i had a source for any $5 noids. one of these days i'll get to the stage where i have enough orchids to "spare" a few on experiments, but i'm too much of a newbie for that yet.