My first mount! Please advise and critique!

[NeoOrchid]

Mornin'!

Finally after a couple years of nursing my puny aerangis cryptodon to a point where I think it's fairly healthy I mounted it!

I'd really love your opinions as to whether this looks like it will be a successful mount or not.

I used a piece of oak that I soaked and scrubbed, allowed to dry, then moistened for the actual mount. Using moss as a base, I then placed the orchid in the (what I considered) best position on the mount, added more moss and proceeded to anchor the orchid with fishing line.

Each layer (that is the base layer of moss, the orchid, then the final layer of moss are each separately secured with fishing line. I've been misting daily and so far I haven't seen any ill effects from the move from pot to mount.

Thanks so much for be here for those of us will little or no experience!

Cheers and Blessings
NeoOrchid

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[orchidsamore]

Since it a Vandaceous variety it can do very well on a mount without sphagnum.

I usually use sphag to transition a plant (non-Vandaceous) from a pot to a mount. It requires less watering as the plant establishes. With a Vandaceous it is optional.

Since this orchid is a climber it would prefer something higher to attach onto.

I would not change it now but as it grows you will need to either wrap it around your mount or add something to the mount.

By the way Aerangis do extremely well on round tree fern balls

However, with this family the air roots are the important ones and th wrapped roots will be much wetter. It is not bad but something you should watch.

It is not often mentioned with mounts that over the course of a couple of years all the roots in moss (on any orchid) will die as the plant grows new roots outside the mount. The plant knows it does not want both types of roots and will grow what is best for it at its own pace.

[Tindomul]

That is a nice mount. I think if it were me, I would make sure that none of the roots are buried deep in the sphag. Misting everyday is the way to go with mounts because as a mounted plant it should dry out between waterings (every day). Good luck! I love this genus.