Mounting material question

[orchids4me]

Hi everyone,
Had a quick question....
I have a few things that need mounting. I noticed one of m mounts from a vendor is on a piece of redwood. So my question is can you buy redwood planks (fence planks) from like home depot and cut to size to use for mounting? Or are they treated and its a no no ?
Thanks in advance
Emmaye

[rcb]

You can buy untreated wood. I'm not sure if redwood usually comes treated or not but you should be able to find out.

I buy cedar shingles and cut down to use as mounts.

[Daethen]

I am going to go for a walk in the woods one of these days and collect a bunch of stuff with character and treat it to use. You could try that or I could collect you some.

[koshki]

I have mounts growing on wood planks, cork pieces, cork tubes, tree fern, clay saucer, driftwood, and even one on a plastic pipe that used to have some sort of fabric covering it (now gone). I think I'll remount the one on pipe to a cork tube after it blooms, simply for aesthetic reasons.

Let us know about whether the redwood is treated...sounds like another good idea!

[kmarch]

IMHO, you can use almost anything to mount an orchid on as long as 1) it doesn't contain anything naturally toxic to the plant or 2) as long as you maintain the culture/conditions the plant needs. I've used cork, Iroonwood, tree fern, Melaleuca (sp?) branches, paper bark branches, and at least 2 bits of wood/bark that I have no idea what it is. I've seen others mount plants on things as diverse as wild as PVC pipe, overturned clay pots, rocks, plastic mesh/screen, and what appeared to be just random pieces of wood scraps. I only have about 20 or so omounted orchids so I'm not the top expert on the topic, but I'd believe that the most important aspect of mounting is the culture the plant requires.

[mayres]

Since Oak Hill Gardens uses significant amounts of ceder shingles for their mounts I'm figuring this has to be a good and relatively inexpensive way to do at least the smaller plants. I have a number of them now and the wood pieces are generally about 1-2 inches in width and about 7 inches (give or take) in length. You can purchase enough of them at Home Depot or Lowes to do a "bazillion" plants for about $20. :-)

[orchids4me]

Thanks everyone for all your replies and ideas too
I greatly appreciate all of your input.
I went to home deopt and to answer the question are the red wood planks treated ? I found out they are not treated and most cost between 3 to 4 bucks for a 7 1/2 foot X 5 to 6 inches wide. Just have to find ones with least knots in areas to cut .....
@ daethen no woods near here just a lot of steel and concrete
@ koski (sorry if I spelled that wrong). Those are some great ideas
@mayers is that what those are from oak hills mine one synda picked up for me) from there I thought was red wood thus this question and thread. Sound much easier to cut shingles than planks
@ kmarch I seem to do really well with a couple mounts I have so far and I have some flask baby types that according to their culture may be better off if I mount them ( lost some potted, so going to try and convert a few and see how they do when they get some new roots and growth) all a learning experience. (Been checking some of thos Baker and Baker culture sheets)

Again thank you all for your responses
Emmaye

[Daethen]

You have a new chop saw, Emmaye there should be no trouble cutting anything. If you ever want some pieces of hardwood, let me know!

[syndywindy]

When I go to Oak Hill they have a couple boxes filled with mounts ready to go. Everything from tree fern, to cedar shingles to tree limbs and drift wood. All for $2 a piece. I am always rumaging through the boxes for that perfect or cool looking mount. I found one on my last trip that was a tree limb that was L shaped and my Laelia kleberii is now the proud orchid mounted to it. They also recently started selling mounts made of wine corks which look pretty cool also.

[koshki]

I've asked my mom to be on the lookout for peices of driftwood up around her cottage on the lake.