I bought a dormant, bare root Euchili citrina today, so I need to get it mounted. I have a slab of tree fern , moss, hook, and fishing line. My question is should I soak it? If so, how long, and in what? This will be a first for me.

Euchile /Encyclia citrina - how nice!!
I would soak it until the roots are pliable, a few minutes perhaps. I would probably soak it in water.
Looking forwards to see the gorgeous blooms!

I have one mounted. I water daily and it has grown lots of new roots that wrap around the wood. I don't water new plants unless they arrive early in the day in general. I'd give it a soak the next morning as a "welcome" gift.

Thanks Ursula. Don't hold your breath waiting for those blooms though. This a cool to intermediate grower, and there is a chance it will fry this summer. I always push the zones, and it was only $12, so I'm going to give it a try. This poor baby has been reclassified so many times, it's hard to find. After Wiki, I went to Jay Phals site... OMG, I never knew there were so many Epidendrums! I almost went cross eyed before I got to Euchili!

Thanks kathy!

Did you see it in this article in situ?
http://cubits.org/orchids/arti...

No, Kathy, I hadn't seen that article. Now I can only hope they weren't collected in the wild....

Same here!

ctcarol said: I have a slab of tree fern , moss, hook, and fishing line.

Carol, What's the hook for?

Bill

To hang it ,Bill. Did you think I meant fishing hook?

Carol - I've heard it's very hard to bloom an Encyclia citrina, but it's one that I'd love to have, and have not been able to locate one... would you please let me know where I can get one?

I love growing orchids mounted, even without owning a greenhouse... the fact that I can grow outside from May to mid October helps a lot... the orchids can grow very vigorously with daily watering (mounted ones) and all the humidity they can absorb here in northern NJ... it's a bit more work in the Fall and Winter for some that needed year round watering, but most of mine require a Winter rest, so it works out perfectly well...

Here are my latest projects...

Max. tenuifolia: I bought it, a 4" pot, 5 years ago from a very reputable vendor in CA... it never bloomed... I keep hearing that it's very hard to bloom a Max. tenuifolia, but the vendor assured me that his is blooming just fine... a lot of research via googling, I heard a lot of folks successfully blooming it mounted, so here we go... Max tenuilolia also loves water, a lot of water during growing season, so mounting it seems like a good idea (so you can water it every day and not having to worry about root rots)... how big was my Max tenuilolia you ask? I ended up with 8 plants!!! I will report back if it will bloom for me next year...

Mounted on treefern and cherry branch:







Plus some grown in purple clay pots and 6" baskets, as experiment...






Mormolyca ringens: I grow and bloom this one alright, but the blooms busted most of the time... so I divided it, mount one and the smaller piece goes into a 4" wood basket:





And don't waste a good broken pot... it got knocked off the shelf by a chipmunk, I use it to mount an Aerangis citrata, to help retain the humidity...



Hope this helps...

That's a great idea with the broken pot, Clementine.

I don't know what I was thinking Carol. I guess fishing line and hook in tha same sentence had me thinking of bass or blue gills .

Bill

Clementine, Call or e-mail Andy's Orchids. He doesn't have it listed, but someone else I know got one that way, in bloom!. They don't list them on the site unless they have a bunch.

i love the broken pot idea! Great pictures and explanations. You are such a great asset to our discussions, Clementine!

Yes, the broken pot idea is really helpful!!I will remember that one.
Clementine, you certainly have the conditions for growing Max tenuifolia down pat! They look great!

Carol, thank you very much for the source, I will call Andy's...

Bill, Kathy and Ursula, glad you like the broken pot mounting... I save all my broken clay pots to mount catts as well... the roots seem to like growing that way very much...