Hickory Wood
 

I wondered if Hickory wood is suitable for mounting orchids? :hmm
We cut down a Hickory last month and there are some interesting branches that I thought orchids would look good mounted on.
Plus, I will be receiving some bareroot orchids from Brazil in a month or so and would like to mount a few of them.

Thank you!

Hickory wood is extremely tough, yet flexible, and is used for tool handles, bows, carts, drumsticks, golf club shafts. Hopefully another member will chime in so we can both have the answer.

I can think of no real good answer why Hickory would NOT be a good wood for mounts. I have some on apple which is another fruit wood. I would say go for it!

I don't know if you will find this useful, but there are actually orchids that grow on old hickory wood in the wild. I think you can use it for mounting your orchids safely. I'd clean it really good but other then that I don't see why you couldn't use it :)

If tiy try this wood don't forget to tel us about the results, please. I don't know anybody yet who grows on this wood.

I don't see why this type of wood cannot be used...
are there any woods we have to avoid?

I am currently using Macintosh Apple, Manzanita, Southern Liveoak, cedar shingles, and a couple unidentified woods. I think it is easier to identify the no-no woods than the OK woods.

The only wood that I know needs to be avoided is pine. The sap from the pine tree is toxic to orchids.

Thanks
...wow avoid pine with orchids too! I heard too keep pine away from many different pets

Nothing wrong with oaks that I am familiar with. Most oak branches don't release tannin under the conditions orchids grow in.

I think you're on the wrong track. Tannins are a problem when they leach from tannic acid producing plants. Oak acorns have tannic acid, but we aren't considering those are we? We aren't watering our orchids with water that comes from high tannic acid bogs are we? So I contend that small oak branches or slabs of oak bark are OK ( and I've proven that with exceptional growth from certain Encyclias mounted to Live Oak bark slabs.) Sometimes what we read gets in the way of common science and everyday results. Just my opinion, of course.

Only problem (I know of) with tannic acid water is the acid, so add some pH UP compound (like for spas) and you should be good to go.

Get it in pet store like Petsmart or maybe WalMart. Aquarium area.

Some of my orchids hate oak, some of them don't care. :)

Tess,
I am probably going to be the ONLY person to say be careful with hickory.

I don't think that it will hurt your plants, but its sap is very high in sugar content and it rots extremely quickly once its wet.

We live on 5 acres of land here and during the 2004 hurricane season took direct hits from Frances and Jeanne. We lost 29 trees directly that fell to high winds during the storm, but later on, we have lost about 15 more since then to fungal disease from the high water that took over a year to get back to normal.

We had to have 5 huge (over 100 ft) hickory trees removed that were in danger of falling on the house, and the arborist told me that if I wanted to try to sell it to smokehouses I'd better do it in 3 days, because once hickory has been on the ground for over a week, no one will touch it. The high sugar content attracts wood eating bugs almost immediately, and the wood starts to decay.

The tree service wanted $2000 to haul all the debris away, but the arborist said that if we just stacked it up and left it, it would decay and fall apart within a year's time. And, he was right. We burned some ourselves and the rest just turned to dust.

Since you will be wetting this wood probably daily with an orchid on it, I'd really be careful, you may be remounting sooner than you think

Faerygirl, thanks for the information!

I think many people confuse the wood with the bark. I suspect many of the orchid mixes contain pine bark. I can not think of another source for that bark. Look at it and see if you can tell.
Pine is bad, but the bark is different. Just like oak, the bark is different from the wood.
Someone correct me if I'm way off base here. And does anyone actually know the type of bark used in common orchid mix? Walmart type brands?

I make potting mixes by myself and I use pine that I bring from the forest (by myself too). So, I know exactly what I'm using. Now I have almost 100% of my collection growing in pine mixes for already few years and only two plants in oak mixes (only because the pine is not recommended for these particular species). There is nothing bad in pine bark if you prepare it properly. ;) Of course, I use bark, not the wood.

What are you doing with the wood not suitable for mounting........sounds ideal for some slow cooked pork shoulder over hickory! Yum!

Exactly! :lol:

I would never contridict you, however only the resinous pockets are particularly bad for plants. After all, pressure treated pine has been used for years as planters, and such. I agree with the pine bark (or any bark for that matter.) I use a oak/pine mix for some of my Encyclias since they are known to prefer southern live oak.

OK, we need to get back on track, folks. Tess asked a fair question that got some adrift answers. Firstly we need to determine the specias of Hickory being proposed. The hickories of Maryland are not likely to be the same spp as Florida. There are at least 11 species of hickories (counting the pecans) native to North America and many more in Europe or the Balkans. Most fruit woods (including oaks and apple and pear, etc.) conatin sugar and depending on the local environment rot at varying degrees. I would bet the hickory FaeryGirl was refering to is a different species than the trees Tess has access to. Even so, environmental conditions in the south will allow just about anything to rot down in a few years or be attacked by insects almost overnight. Maryland has a much different climate and mounts indoors are different still. Just being wet doesn't cause wood to rot (necessarily.) The wood would need to be subjected to a source of fungy. As I have stated in a couple replies to this thread I am using apple wood which is even higher in sugars than any of the Hickories, and Have had no problems so far. The mounts are subjected to 5 second mistings every three hours (in fact the misters just went off this minute!) and stay wet all day. They dry off every night. This would be a cause for rot in many instances, however at first signs of white mold, I spray mount with Physan 20 and mold disappears.

One of the responses indicated people confuse wood with the bark. Well, bark of most trees does not contain the same cells or structure as the sapwood or the heartwood. That is why Pine bark is so easy used for orchids (after proper treatment.) That is why Oak bark (by-and-large) does not contain the same levels of tannin as the woods. In fact Black Cherry has much higher levels of tannin than any of the oaks (and arsenic besides, as does the pit) but makes a pretty nice mount for certain orchid species. The previous comments come from my training at a Forestry school and many years of work with the US Forest Service where I dealt with many aspects of trees every day.

I agree with you. I don't use pieces with resin. :) And then I boil the selected pieces. :blushing:

That's the "proper processing" I was refering to. You have the picture!:cheer:

Ross, you are of course correct. The climate here would be much more conducive to rot that the climate in Maryland, even in a drought year. And, you can take a walk in any Florida yard at almost any time of the year, turn over a piece of wood and find termites and wood boring beetles and what-have-you.

Things decompose QUICK down here which makes composting a dream.

I made the terrible mistake 4 years ago when first built my greenhouse of going out with a chainsaw and cutting live grapevines to use as totems and vine-anchors in the GH. Of course you read about grapevine being a long lasting mounting wood blah blah blah...

My natural Florida grapevine wood started to rot within a year and now has had to be completely removed from the GH, plants that were climbing on it had to be relocated and remounted.

Now I confine my totems to PVC covered with Coir, and I confine my grapevine usage to the hard sandblasted pieces that come from California.

I don't know where Tess lives, if its Maryland I am sure her hickories ARE a different species than ours. I only know ours rots with ligntning speed, and makes a REALLY aromatic campfire!! ;-)