tolumnia mount

[Stelios]

So far i have only mounted a Phal equestris on cork bark, and was the home of Geek the Gecko until one of the cats killed him
So i though it would take some time until i would try my luck with mounting again.
It seems the time has come and earlier today i decided to mount some tolumnias. They were part of a discounted lot of 5 hybrids. I want to make a somewhat special display with them but until then, here's their new home:

[Phalcycle]

That is a good job you've done mounting!
Just wait until that blooms, what a display you'll receive

[Stelios]

Originally Posted by Phalcycle

That is a good job you've done mounting!
Just wait until that blooms, what a display you'll receive

If they are anything like the photo on the grower's site i think they will give quite a show. All 5 are different color. They haven't yet bloomed for me so i can only imagine how will they be. I sure know their flowers color but not which is which They were all tagged as tolumnia hybrid collection.

[lmartiny]

Looks nice. What nice big plants.

[ysanabria]

Beautiful!!!

PD: How do you post your pictures to show it in big size?
Thank you

[koshki]

Holy, moly, that is cool! They look a little like pineapples!

Can't wait to see them bloom.

[Stelios]

Originally Posted by lmartiny

Looks nice. What nice big plants.

Thank you, The sustainable Xaxim (tree furn) plate used is 8x40x4cm. The biggest of the tolumnias is around 15cm tall but i guess for a tolumnia it is quite big.

Originally Posted by ysanabria

Beautiful!!!

PD: How do you post your pictures to show it in big size?
Thank you

Thanks! Well i just click on the image icon and i copy and paste the URL of my picture. If you have a service hosting your photos you can use this feature and it shows the photos according to the size they have on the hosting service.
If you upload your photos as attachments the forum automatically crops them.

Originally Posted by koshki

Holy, moly, that is cool! They look a little like pineapples!

Can't wait to see them bloom.

I can't wait too. I am not sure when they are supposed to bloom. Every time i read when an orchid genus is supposed to bloom i have one of my plants blooming at a different time just to break the rule. So i haven't read a lot on tolumnia's blooming season so far.

[psyc1210]

Very nice!

[ysanabria]

Thank you Stelios! What service do you use to host your pictures?

[Stelios]

Originally Posted by ysanabria

Thank you Stelios! What service do you use to host your pictures?

I use apple's me.com but there are similar services for free as well.

[Anton]

Stelios, not good I'm afraid to say.

NEVER mount Tolus with moss, they will die on you quicker than the cat killed Geek the Gheko !

Tolus like their feet dry most of the time. it is best to water them by misting in the morning and late in the afternoon to give them a chance to dry out by night time.

ALL of mine are bare rooted on the mounts as you can see by this old image, don't have any more recent ones.

[Stelios]

Thank you Anton! I also was hesitant toward using a bit of sphagnum to make them steady on the xaxim (i used nylon thread to tight them in place and i didn't want to have their roots damaged from it). But since i had them potted in sphagnum (in clay pots) since i got them and they kept growing just fine I decided to use a bit. It looks like a lot but it is just a very thin layer over their root system, and they had a lot of roots for their size. I guess since they were used to be potted in all sphagnum during high humidity winter, they will be just fine in spring/summer with a shorter time needed to dry. I believe it is not the medium but the fact of meeting their needs of alternating dry-wet cycles.

[-k-]

Wow! Thats one serious mount!
I started my first mount a while back and since it's was doing well I decided as well to give another crack at it, it's alot of fun!
Nice work

[madphrag]

Mounting various Tolumia's on a nice slab of cork bark happens to be at the top of my orchid project list as I recently purchased about a bucket full of cork bark slabs. What I do is start out with a thin layer of sphagnum moss underneath and another layer on top until the roots take off. Then I start removing the sphagnum moss a little bit at a time until most is removed. Not much harm leaving a bit behind and maybe top it off with some CHF depending on what is being mounted. I'm open to any other ideas as I'm sure you are also

[lmartiny]

I haven't tried to mount a Tolumia so I have no input. But I know mine like to dry out between waterings. One was in a basket that thrived on neglect, then I got "geeky" and paid too much attention to it and it nearly died. Too much water. It is recovering and now I know more.

[Anton]

Stelios, instead of using nylon, get your wife / partner's old stockings and cut them into about 1cm strips and use them instead.

They are almost invisible and don't damage your plants.

[patticake]

Nice mount! I love Tolumnias! That's going to be a beautiful display! I need a little moss where I am, as I'm growing indoors with dry heat! Mine are actually in plastic pots with a bark mixture. If it were a more humid environment, I would probably mount mine. You did a beautiful job!

[Brooke]

I have to use sphag on my Tolumnia mounts also or I would have to water them multiple times a day. The only Tolumnia I've ever lost has been from crown rot caused by the mount above it dripping onto it.

Brooke

[Stelios]

Originally Posted by Anton

Stelios, instead of using nylon, get your wife / partner's old stockings and cut them into about 1cm strips and use them instead.

They are almost invisible and don't damage your plants.

Thanks Anton, i think i've read a lot of geeks use stockings to hold everything in place. Unfortunately my partner is a male too so no stockings are available
i would hesitate to buy a new pair just to cut it and use it for the plants.

Originally Posted by patticake

Nice mount! I love Tolumnias! That's going to be a beautiful display! I need a little moss where I am, as I'm growing indoors with dry heat! Mine are actually in plastic pots with a bark mixture. If it were a more humid environment, I would probably mount mine. You did a beautiful job!

Yes i see. I keep the floor with the plants without heating or i would have to water everything twice a day.

Originally Posted by Brooke

I have to use sphag on my Tolumnia mounts also or I would have to water them multiple times a day. The only Tolumnia I've ever lost has been from crown rot caused by the mount above it dripping onto it.

Brooke

Sorry to hear you lost one. I guess it is true that experts have also lost a few plants. Do you also grow them indoors? I am really thinking about a greenhouse but at the moment it is out of the question.

[Anton]

Originally Posted by Stelios

Thanks Anton, i think i've read a lot of geeks use stockings to hold everything in place. Unfortunately my partner is a male too so no stockings are available
i would hesitate to buy a new pair just to cut it and use it for the plants.

I buy them for my wife, not an issue, BUT, don't you have any female neighbours, or relatives ?

[Stelios]

closest relative is 600Km away
i think it would be strange if i went to a 80yo lady next door asking her for her old stockings
So far nylon thread works just fine over a bit of sphagnum, if i would get really into mounting the i guess i will go buy the stocking material

[Brooke]

Stelios it isn't a big deal for me to lose one. It is from a flask where I STILL have about 40 growing plus I also have another flask growing with about that many. I'm at the point now where on rebloom many of them are finding Mr. Trash.

If the bloom count didn't improve or if the spike doesn't branch, hello trash can.

Brooke

[Stelios]

poor little things. I wish i were your neighbor, i would so dig into your trash rescuing the low bloom count-ers

[Brooke]

If it is a poor grower or bloomer, why devote time and space to a bad performer. I would rather use my energy to grow something robust

Brooke

[willowbanks]

Stelios, yep it looks very nice at the moment but I think you are going to have trouble down the track, there is enough moss on those plants to choke a horse, they will drown.

Also I have tried growing these plants on treefern without success, again, retained too much moisture.

I wish you luck with this mounting style.

Here's a couple of photos of mounted Tolumnia grown in a hot climate without sphag moss.



Bill

[maiseymoo]

Interesting thread! Have no expereince with mountng orchids so haven't really got any input apart from it looks good! (and I would love to see you go round to your 80yr neighbour to ask for her stockings )

[Stelios]

Originally Posted by willowbanks

here's a couple of photos of mounted tolumnia grown in a hot climate without sphag moss.

Attachment 32955 Attachment 32956

bill

wow!!!!

[domresvanis]

(I believe it is not the medium but the fact of meeting their needs of alternating dry-wet cycles.)
I am with you Stelios.I totally agree with you.If they grow in hot humid environment it looks that they dont need any kind of moss.But if the environment has not humidity I think that they need the sphagnum moss to feel happy.I like your Tolumnia mount and I believe that if you let the moss to dry out between the watering you ll have not problems.

[katrina]

Originally Posted by willowbanks

Here's a couple of photos of mounted Tolumnia grown in a hot climate without sphag moss.

Attachment 32955 Attachment 32956

Bill

YOWZA! Bill - those are AMAZING!!

I see the rack is angled a bit upwards...is that to help retain a bit of the water for longer? How often do you water them?

[willowbanks]

No Katrina, nothing to do with water retention.

I have overhead watering, when the racks were upright I found the plants halfway down and below them were being starved of water by the plants above.

Simple solution was to angle the racks back, sprinlers spray outward of course before gravity takes over, all the plants on the rack get equal water.

What you are looking at in those photos above was the angle test before I put the racks up in their new home.

Bill

[Brooke]

Gorgeous orchids Bill! Is Queensland in the humid or arrid part of Australia?

Brooke

[willowbanks]

Brooke, I'm in South East Queensland, west of the state capital Brisbane, my weather is hot and dry during summer and cold to very cold with frosts during winter.

Queensland is a big state, we've got everything, sub tropical, tropical and desert.

About 50 K's from me there is a pile of rocks called The Great Dividing Range that runs the length of the country, out there it gets so dry the trees chase the dogs. It's cattle, sheep and wheat growing country and gets worse as you head toward central Australia. I should mention they are in flood out there at the moment, first real rain in about 10 years.

14 to 16 hrs drive north is Townsville, the start of our true tropics.

The south east corner of South East Queensland (I know, sounds strange but if you lived here it would make a lot of sense) we have sub tropical rain forests.

Bill

[Brooke]

Thanks! It's a huge country and I know nothing about it except you have different types of weather like we do.

Brooke

[Anton]

Domresvanis, sorry, but you are wrong !

I live in Adelaide, and I don't have anything on the roots, ALL bare rooted and have survived the past 4 years that I have had them, except for a few which I overwatered in the early days of having them.

The moral is, minimal water and they'll survive, this is from personal experience.
As you know, Adelaide is the hottest, driest capital city in Oz with horrendous heatwaves over the past 3 summers.

NO MOSS, but STILL have my Tolus. I did try moss on a division once for a test, and lost it within a month.............. NO MORE MOSS!

[fred]

I think this is a case of the three L's
Look
Listen
Learn ...........

[Stelios]

well Fred, nicely put.
We all have our "recipes" for success and we all swear on them as the best (i know i have been raving about my pond water ) but every microclima is a different set and things working for some don't work for others. Especially greenhouse and indoors settings can be vastly different. I recall reading somewhere that someone taking the step from indoors growing to greenhouse growing lost half his/her collection until he/she managed to adapt to the different culture needs.
I really appreciate the valuable advises i've read on the forum since i joined but sometimes a few can not be followed with my conditions.

e.g. my ghost orchid was doomed to die by 3 members including an expert from an orchid society on ghosts. 7 months later my little ghost is thriving.

[willowbanks]

Well your miles in front of me with the GHOSTS Stelios, I can't get them to grow.

Bill

[domresvanis]

(I live in Adelaide, and I don't have anything on the roots, ALL bare rooted and have survived the past 4 years that I have had them, except for a few which I overwatered in the early days of having them.

The moral is, minimal water and they'll survive, this is from personal experience.
As you know, Adelaide is the hottest, driest capital city in Oz with horrendous heatwaves over the past 3 summers.

NO MOSS, but STILL have my Tolus. I did try moss on a division once for a test, and lost it within a month.............. NO MORE MOSS!)


Thank you for correcting me Anton.As you said it seems that they dont really need moss on the roots .I use moss in my new mounts with small seedlings to help them grow new roots.About one year later when the seedlings are established on the mounts i move the moss and i let them bare root.
Thank you for your advise.

(I think this is a case of the three L's
Look
Listen
Learn ........... )
I totally agree with you Fred.Thank you..
__________________