Mounting my little Tolumnia...

[Amblnc38]

So, I bought two mounts a while ago. I origionaly tried mounting my staghorn fern and I failed miserably. She is currently recovering in a closely monitored pot of bark...

Anyhow, I have a cork mount left over now that I want to put my little Tol on...

Her flowers have died off and I cut off the cane. She's growing in the worlds smallest terracotta pot though....with roots all over the place. I'm afraid if I take her out I will lose a bunch of her roots.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to loosen up the roots or should I just consider it a price of mounting?

Attached are pictures of the plant and the prospective mount...

[-k-]

A good soak should help to loosen them up, if some of the roots are on there good gently use a butter knife to remove them... even if you lose a few roots new ones should replace them fairly quickly now that the blooming is over....

[Amblnc38]

Great! I also found some stockings to use to hold her down. She's just so tiny, I'll feel safer with her mounting and hanging, rather than in the pot...which I keep knocking over. :\

[Amblnc38]

Well I dove in....and honestly I should have probably done it sooner. 75% of her roots were mush or bare threads. Thankfully there are quite a few lush green ones left.

I soaked her for 15 minutes in some distilled water I have with a tiny speck of Super Thrive.

How does she look?

[-k-]

Nice! Looks good; what is it banded with?

[Amblnc38]

Pantyhose.

[otis 226]

A reall little cutey ! Looks like a nice mount too. I used panty hose on my first mount a couple of days ago as well. Good luck with her, I'm sure she'll take off in a while.
Tony

[Amblnc38]

I hope so, I love her leaves, they have tiny black spots on them...and I hope she gets huge. Well, as huge as such a tiny species can get.

[orchids4me]

It looks really good!
It won't get huge, maybe wide with new growths but not huge its a mini
Keep us posted water daily and if it gets really hot maybe twice a day

[Greybeard]

Good job on the mount Good luck with that little cutie

[Amblnc38]

Originally Posted by orchids4me

It looks really good!
It won't get huge, maybe wide with new growths but not huge its a mini
Keep us posted water daily and if it gets really hot maybe twice a day

Billion dollar question: Can I spray it heavily with my mister? Will that be enough, provided I drench it each time?

[orchids4me]

And my billion dollar answer.....I'd take it to the sink and run water on the roots. If its getting shrivled set it in a dish of water for a bit up to maybe an hour. When they grow in the wild they grow tipped so water doesn't get trapped in the crooks of the leaves. And they have breezes to help them dry out. So unless your watering only in the morning and have a fan blowing on it which will dry it out and if its hot will make you water it again. Some members water over the tops but when I do I end up with crown rot stem rot etc even with fans. They aren't drying out we'll enough here for me by night fall. Safest my billion dollar answer is take to the sink and wet the mounts root area of plant. Its the safest way.
Others may have their own billion dollar answers too

Good luck!

[Amblnc38]

I have a large overhead ceiling fan. Just to test it, I've prayed it down twice now, to the point of dripping and before I go to bed I will check it and dry it off if it's not cutting it. I'd put some Sphag with it....if we had any stores that sold decent stuff. I bought a bag from Home Depot last week....and pretty much added it right to the compost heap. :\

[amersault]

billion dollar suggestion: you can mist daily, probably twice in your case, just make sure they dry out each item. you might be able to get away with adding some sphag to help keep the roots moist.

spots are ok - mine does that as well, and likely due to genetics and me giving it the maximum amount of light. you might want to take the light portion down a notch until the plant acclimates to the mount, then when the roots have anchored, take it back to full light again.

i'll await my billion dollars in my Swiss acct next week

[Amblnc38]

I have a billion dollars in monopoly money. I actually put the back of the mount towards the light so it gets a couple "heavy" hours late afternoon.