Mounted plants in the home

[78Terp]

I have picked up 2 mounted so far. One den (den Fuchs Blue Twists x compactum) and one catt (Rhy. Aristocrat). Neither are in bloom.

Here in the dry of the west, I mist/spray at least twice daily. What is the best way to water them?

My 10 gallon fish tank is really in danger now of converting to an orchid vivarium! Currently, I have them hanging off of hanging catts in the living room. I found out hanging them creates more space for more orchids. See pics of them below.

Fuchs is shown first.

[phalspital]

wow...when we had a house near Breck, we needed a humidifier just for us, let alone the poor orchids. I actually brought oncs back from ---- Vendor information removed - see FAQs on Posting ----, and they are thriving on my palm trunks here!

[78Terp]

I broke my "no more orchids this year" pledge by rescuing a phal at the grocery store for 3 bucks today. But I content that didn't really break the pledge since it was a rescue.

Yes, dry, dry, dry. On the good side, crown rot is not common here.

So far, I have been able to keep positive results. Many are adding new growth and others, purchased in spike, are able to open all the buds without blasting. Still waiting for my first self grown spike. But I have only been at it for 3 months, so it will be in my future.

I am seriously considering getting a humidifier or 2. But I wonder if it would make enough difference to warrant the trouble of keeping them filled.

A humidifier would take up valuable orchid real estate.

[phalspital]

but if you don't have the humidity to keep them happy...what good is the real estate? colorado's dryness is a real challenge.

[78Terp]

So far, I don't see any negative effects of the dryness. I grow leaves, they get light, get watered probably more often than most places require and I do mist them when I can.

My one bad dry experience so far is: I had repotted my phals in a straight bark, charcoal, perlite mix and it didn't hold enough moisture. And within several days, many leaves dessicated. So I repotted them again with chopped up sphag moss in the wood mix and this seems to be a better mix for my environment. Newer phals repotted in this mix are not dessicating. I have repotted my oncidiums out of sphag moss into the better mix and they all have new growth on them. I think it would be best to keep this mix with all my orchids when their repot time comes. Unless they appear stressed by dry, then I'll push up the repot.

On another note, this will be my first summer growing orchids and I have begun making plans for my orchids (or as many as I can get out there) to summer along side the veggie garden. Some will have to be up on the deck as my 'backyard' is postage stamp sized. And there is only so much non-heat of the day sun space. Backyard gets max 5 hours of sun per day in the summer. I do believe I am going to have success with my cymbidium re-blooming. We usually get to around 60 F most summer nights. 55 F is more common than 70 F overnight. And from what I have learned about them, it sounds like that would be perfect for cymbidiums.

[phalspital]

Back on thread...I use pure sphag on my mounted plants. With our wildly varying humidity (dry winter, hot wet summer) it seems to keep them happy, especially when combined with a base of fern bark. The combination lets the roots get fresh air and avoid sogginess, while the wet moss keeps them hydrated. I mounted up several mini catt divisions 2 months ago, and they are wildly growing new noses and roots, and one of them already bloomed...a real surprise.

[phalspital]

My latest mount is to Mendocino driftwood. One of the pseudobulbs was bent in the greenhouse and the leaf flopped over unattractively. Using what OH calls "appropriate technology," I wired it up straight with a spiral of electrical wire (I couldn't find the florist wire in the newly upended garage). Then I attached an eye-screw to the back and hung the whole mess on the new palm tree with...wait for it...a Christmas tree ornament hook! Unfortunately, when I post this from Picasa, it turns it sideways, and turning it in Picasa doesn't cure the problem, so you'll have to turn your head...sorry...


---------- Post Merged at 11:23 AM ----------

and the ondiciums like their new "sling" wired to the tree and stuffed with moss from the craft store...

[ksriramkumar]

Hi,

Like the way you have mounted oncidiums.

[phalspital]

Thanks...it was inspired by my neighbor, who has about 100 oncs and catts tied to her palm trees in burlap pouches. I don't think they look very attractive when out of bloom, so I decided to use sphagnum around the roots and decorate with a tillandsia-type "Spanish Moss" that is sold at craft stores here. (It even comes in some wild colours like purple--horrors!) I attached the moss by bundling the root ball up in monofilament. As I wait for the roots to grow, I'm hoping that just stuffing moss carefully around under the monofilament will keep the plants hydrated enough so they make it through to the summer rains. Then it rains almost every afternoon. Meanwhile I need to ensure that the mist system is reaching them. Our other challenge is the winter cold, which sometimes invades the Gulf Coast when the jet stream dips south. People don't think of Florida as cold, but we can have freezing nights and windy cold dry days in January. in 2009-10, many Christmas palms (Adonidia) were killed by a prolonged spell of cold.

My neighbor's plants that have been in place for several years have no moss around them where they've ventured out of their pouches with new growth, and they are firmly attached to the trees. On cold nights she swaddles them by wrapping protective fabric around the trunks--it looks funny, but every spring she has a spectacular display as a result of her care.

[maggs]

I have had to take all of my phals, out of pots because of root rot and the clay pots were drying out too quickly added to that I had no room to put any pots as there were too many and they were suffering, so I decided to mount all on tree branches, and I have had excellent results the roots are thriving profusely and the orchid plants are also flowering with two spikes on most of them right now, some have been flowering for about two months now and not letting up, besides the weather is very lovely here for them, I also use a bit of Epsom salts added to the other fertilizer and water them at least once a week with a mild mix and I think they love it. I use coconut fibre and a bit of moss to hold them onto the piece of branch tie them so they would not shift about and have hung them on the wall at the side of my home. you may find a picture under "MY grow area" and also phalaenopsis and oncidium, but that is the most natural way but not everyone can do that because of the temperature, I have rain and sun here with lots of wind and so I do not have to move any plants at all, great seeing someone else is doing that too.