Wood prep for mounting orchids

[Daethen]

I just looked at Geoff's post about the wood he found to mount some plants on. I was wondering what you need to do to prepare the pieces you find before mounting so that you don't have to worry about pests. I find some really interesting pieces of wood here and would love to try creating some mounts. I know that I need to use hardwoods. I have access to oak (red or white), cherry, ironwood, hicory, etc. Any advice would be greatly apreciated!

[pavel]

There are a number of things you could do, Jonada, & any number of woods you can try. The main thing is to avoid the resinous woods and -- I would expect -- walnut.

I like to use driftwood, personally, as I like the smooth "polished" wood. (The fact that we are surrounded by freshwater lakes has the bonus that we don't have to worry about flushing out salts as we would with saltwater driftwood.) However, wood which still has the bark on it has the advantage of more footholds for an orchid's roots.

To rid the wood you harvest of undesired inhabitants, you can bake the wood in an oven for an hour or so. I think 400F would suffice. You can also soak the wood for an hour or so, wrap it in foil & sealing the edges (kind of like if you are baking fish in the oven) and then bake it for an hour or two at 400F or higher. This latter method makes use of the high energy found in steam to sterilize.

[Daethen]

Thanks for the info.

[Cjcorner]

I soak mine in a bucket of bug killer and physan.

[ajamarie]

i hose them off then do a hot water with mild bleach soak...than a clean water soak...

[catttan]

Thanks Pavel for the info. We have lots of hardwood here but driftwood definitely makes better looking mounts.