What or How does one prep cork for the mounting of orchids? We had a pet shop close and I picked up some nice size slabs of raw (seems like right off tree) cork from the reptile section for very cheap. I say raw cause it seems to have some of the inner part of tree,looks like forest humus, in it. I want to make sure there are no Bugs on it as I saw something crawling around, before I bring it into house with the orchids. As of right now I have sprayed with a neem pyrenthin Mixture.

I would ask @drdawg at the Orchid forum.

Really. @drdawg, isn't he the gentleman that has the store? I believe I spoke to him the last time I posted on this forum. Thank you so much Ursula. If memory serves me correctly you also made a post on my thread. I will try to get hold him, again, thank you ad hope you have a Happy St. Patrick's Day😄

Ken must be busy carrying his Orchids outside or he would already have popped in here....
In the meanwhile - I have used Cork many times after simply soaking it in water, but I never had other parts of the tree present....soaking it in some of the Bayer's Advanced Rose and Flower Care or similar should surely take care of critters.

I was outside watering. We are supposed to get up to 80F today .

I don't know that I have ever seen a pest/insect on a piece of cork. But, that being said, I put my cork in a large tub of water and weight it down so that it stays submerged for an hour or more. I do this simply to dissolve any salts/debris that may be there. If you have pests, they won't remain under water and will float to the surface where you can remove them. I guess flooding the cork with an insecticide would work. I just don't used pesticides on my slabs.

I have a little concern about the dark coloration of the inner surface though. Here are a few examples of what I have and notice the light tan color of that inside surface (and all the lichen/moss on the outside surface). Even cork that I have had mounted for years still has that light tan color. I don't know what your dark surfaces represent. Does that surface smell smoky? Perhaps it was treated with some sort of ferrous solution?

I always mount my plants on the outside surface since that surface presents lots more undulations/coarseness, giving those roots more opportunity to "grab hold".

Hello DrDawg
hope your day is going well. My apologies for not getting back to you sooner. Thank you for your quick reply, and yes I have spoken with you before, it was about mites.
Your slabs are definitely cleaner than what I have. I took a big wiff and it doesnt smell smokey. I was calling the inner part of the tree because there is a distinct difference between the 2 layers. The inside layer yes is very dark in color, but looks very fibrous, which almost looks like tree fern material. When I took the microscope to a couple of pieces it had these little tiny white dots,the size of a pinhead to ballpoint pen tip. I'm thinking they were crawlers of a bug. While I did see 2 tiny white bugs running around that looked like a flea, before I sprayed, there seems to nothing moving now, I think anyway. I noticed your cork being very kinda blondish I color, Do you do anything to the cork, before putting it in water for salt removal? ie. Metal brush, sand paper. Or do they come that way to you? I'm not sure if I should bleach them? Because of some white fungi that I saw under the scope. Should I scrape all the inner stuff of, should I keep it? I guess im basically asking what your process would be.
Well I was hoping you let me know how these are prepped. I did take some more pictures of cork pieces in question, and they are very close up. Trying to get the url or actually post them here.
I guess when you get your they are already cleaned. I have taken more pics just so you might have abetter look. I have applied a couple more coats of a insecticidal soap.



































Ok well hope those pics are ok. Very much look forward to your Reply

I wish I could be more help, but my cork is all this color (blondish) when received. Every now and then I will get a darker slab and I am almost certain that it was either in long-term storage at its source (probably Portugal) or at my supplier. What the dark color actually represents, I just don't know. I never bleach, brush, or clean my cork in any way. I just put it in a large tub of plain water and put something like a brick to hold it under water. I don't even think I need to do this, but I do just to be certain there are no harmful salts on the cork.

The smoother/cleaner surface is the inside and the coarse/gnarly surface is the outside/bark side.

Why don't you try a bleach solution on your cork and see what happens? I don't think bleach will affect the cork at all (use a 1:4 solution). The bleach might take some of the darkness out but will surely kill any fungi/pests on the cork. If you have a small piece of cork, experiment on that. If you have a tub/sink filled with the bleach solution and then weigh the cork down with something to keep it submerged, that would be better. Just leave the cork submerged for whatever time it takes to bleach out the cork, or you see that bleaching doesn't do anything. I would guess that you should see results within an hour.

I like my cork to have lichen/moss on that bark surface, but having these organisms on the cork adds no particular value to the cork. I just like the esthetics of that lichen/moss.

thank you so much sir

I will do what you said, with bleaching the cork. I appreciate all the advice you can/have given. Iwill get back to you and let you know the results. Thank you very much and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Good luck