Mounting orchids vs. bounded roots

[hemster]

Hello everybody. Just joined the message board today. Looks like a pretty good group.
I have been growing orchids for about 3 years now. I have about 30 or so, a pretty good variety of different types. In the past year or so, I have started to mount a lot more of my orchids on oak, mahogony, and cypress. Ive mounted mainly cats, oncidiums, dendrobiums.
Before I started monting my orchids, I potted them in the wood slat baskets (I hate plastic pots because of the water retention and South Florida rain).
I know that orchids are known to like being root bound, but in nature, the epiphitic orchids have no constraints except for the legth of the brach they might be on.

Dendrobiums are known to be potted and love being root bound, but on my mounts, the roots sprawl over the branch and the orchids do great. Same with my orchids in my wooden slat baskets where the roots are free to escape and wrap around the wood. Either way, the roots dry quickly are are not subject to rot.

My main question is...so when people recommend orchids being root bound in pots, is this mainly so the roots do not sit in standing water (less medium) for very long, or are there other reasons behind it?
Sorry for the rambling question. Ive been kinda curious about this for a while.

[jerrymeola]

Actually this is a very good question that really may not have an easy answer.

Both your observations are correct. Orchids do not flower well in pots until they are pot bound. They spend all their energy growing roots. Whereas, mounted orchids do great all the time. I have hundreds of mounted orchids but have never considered the question, being satisified that it is natural for the plant.

I have noticed that my mounted orchids have about the same amount of roots as a pot bound plant. In general though the roots are healtier with no rotting roots and no crushed roots.

Some speculattion to start this thread is that potted plants that are not pot bound have larger amounts of water available to the roots and the roots may be growing toward the water possibly growing extra roots for future needs. Whereas mounted orchids dry much faster discouraging the growth of more roots than is necessary.

An observation has been made often that a stressed plant will often flower as a defensive measure to reproduce when threatened with death. A well watered plant in a pot may not feel this need.

Hopefully others will contribute their speculations for this thread.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

I personally don't hold with the rootbound theory, that it helps them to bloom. I think that the small pot is a necessity to allow the pot to dry quickly. Remember that the plant is an active participant in the drying process, and too large a pot means that the the plant is not able to help much in speeding the pot to dryness. Seems to me that mounted plants have more roots than potted plants. Just an observation over many years, but I am not much for mounted plants, since they don't work well in my very over crowded conditions. I generally object to the light gathering area of my GH being used up by the chunk of wood the plant is mounted on. Cynthia, Prescott, AZ

[hemster]

Thank you both for the replies. For some reason, that question has always kinda bugged me, although I thought I knew the answer. There are not too many people that I know I can talk about orchids to. I personally love to mount my orchids. I have some really great looking mounts that add to the look of the orchids. I dont know why, but Ive always disliked the use of pots for my plants. But if you have a lot of them, I can understand the spacing issues.