My intent was to post this in the "Mounting vs Pots" thread but I see it has been frozen. Ursula, you may move this if you want.

I spent a good part of the day mounting an orchid and I thought I would share the experience. I started with a piece of wood from an old, dead orange tree.


I drilled a hole through it about an inch and a half from the top. Then I drilled a smaller hole straight down from the top so that it intersected the first hole. I doubled a wire and put the two ends down the top hole and fished them out each side. I brought up the ends and wrapped them around the loop that is protruding from the top.


I bought a piece of hardware cloth from HD and used it to fashion a small basket at the bottom of the wood. The sides of the screen are stapled to the wood.


I put some orchid bark in the basket followed by the bare root orchid, then more bark so it is tightly in place. Once the orchid firmly attaches itself to the wood, I will remove the wire basket and the orchid bark. Here is the final result:


I hope this helps or at least leads to some new ideas for those interested in mounting orchids.

Jim

Thanks Jim for taking the time to take the pictures, this makes it easy to understand. I have just received an Encyclia tampensis via trade, I think this would be great for it. I had tied it to a corkboard, but I think it would look much nicer on a branch

GT, try Ctna which is the abbreviation for Cattleytonia.

Jim

Ursula, I guessed you either moved my post or this wine is really good tonight.

Jim

The wine is good, Jim!! And yes, I started a new thread for you.
Looks good!! I like the way you anchor the hanger!
I dropped off some more fish at the Aquarium store, they always have these beautiful driftwood pieces around to place into fish tanks. One went home with me today. And I have used an old weathered Blue-berry branch to mount my Rhyncholaelia digbyana, the plant is really taking to it this Winter.

And GT, I answered in the Jan. bloom thread...

How do you water your mounted Orchids. Do you just use a spray bottle and spray them? What about fertilizing them?

I have a one gallon, hand-pump sprayer that I fill with water from my rain barrel. I add a half teaspoon of water soluble fertilizer and two drops of Super Thrive. I mist with this mix every day and deep water with the hose once a week. Try to mist or water early in the day so the leaves are dry at night.

Jim

That reminds me, I need to fertilize....
No wonder your plants looks so happy, Jim!

Around here, I pressurize a vessel containing rain water ( which we collect off the greenhouse roof) and use the attached sprayer wand to simply water everything, mostly daily. ( My greenhouse dries up very fast) Using daily fertilizer would be a bit more problematic here, since the glass walls on my much smaller greenhouse would be coated with salts in no time flat. In Summer outside I simply use a similar spraying wand, attached to rain water. Fertilizing outside is of course a breeze.

Thanks Jim,
This makes it less scary to try!

I have RO water now and I hose my plants down on the mist setting (which is more than a mist). My plants are inside so I have layers of linoleum, trays and shower curtains. When I had just a few mounts, I used to stick them in the sink or collect rain water/melted snow in buckets and dip them. I fertilize once a month with a backpack sprayer.

Here is my phal I mounted on a piece of cork. Sorry about the black pantyhose used to keep the sphagnum and orchid on, but it's all I had. I started out using zip-ties, but they didn't work the way I wanted them to.

Looks good. I think several of the ladies use old panty hose for this purpose.

Jim

Thanks. I thought everyone would laugh at it.............it probably wouldn't look as bad if I'd have had the flesh colored hose. Anyway, it seems happy on its cork.

panty hose, what a neat idea ... except, here in FL I never wear them, I don't own any

Heh, I use lace!

Oh, sure, now we have someone who does a "couture" mount............I will NOT tell my phal that it has to have grungy, old, black pantyhose.

I don't feel qualified to say anymore.

Jim

*snort*

I found myself fooling around with the rest of that orange tree on Sunday afternoon. I made one vertical mount and one horizontal mount. I now will look in the greenhouse for mounting candidates.

Jim