Mounting Tolumnia On Rock

[SurfDudeVb]

First post here but have some good experience with orchids.

I am trying out a new little project though and want some input from others. I just finished rescaping one of my small reef tanks, I used this really neat rock that has been sawed flat on the back for easy mounting to the back of the tank. MarcoRocks PrimeCuts. Well, I went to the local orchid show a few weeks ago and bought a tolumnia that I have had limited experience with. I have done some reading and everything says they like to stay fairly dry during the day, with good humidity, and wetted early in the morning. SO, I put the idea in my head and jumped in, and ordered 7 more tolumnia online all different varieties.

My plan is to wait til all of the tolumnias are done blooming and the transfer them out of there small 2 inch clay pots. I will mount them onto the PrimeCuts using panty hose or some type of wire or string. I then plan to mount the PrimeCuts to a piece of cork board that will hold some moisture. I will then mist them daily in the mornings before leaving for work so they can air out all day.

I would love to hear any feed back or thoughts about this project. I will try to get some photos up and progress shots as this project progresses.

[bumpman]

I have two Tolumnias mounted on cork in a paludarium so that they're over water in a humid environment with good air flow from a fan so that the orchids dry out easily. Your project sounds great - except would these plants be over sal****er (small reef tank)? Any splash from sal****er or salt ions in evaporative humidity would be deadly to the plants. If the tolus are over aquarium freshwater and have good air flow and light I think you're all set.

[SurfDudeVb]

I am just using a left over piece of the rock from rescaping the tank. The rock will be no where near sal****er. I will have the rock placed in a sunny window in direct light.

[GreenOrchid]

Hi
I have 6 Toluminas, and they are all mounted. I have 2 on the back of a coconut shell, and they have bloomed nicely for me. 2 others are on cork and 2 on a branch I cut from our Maple tree. I think they should do ok on the rock. I attach mine with fishing line, and a tiny bit of moss so they hold the moisture until they get started. I don't know about the direct light. Mine get difused bright light, and I notice if they get to much light the leaves turn a little redish, so I shade them a little.
Good luck, I would love to see it so post pics when you get it set up
Ruth

[katrina]

The project sounds great!

Side note - Strange...wonder why salt water (when spelled w/the two words together) is showing as sal****er in your posts? It usually only does that w/"bad" words. Hmmmm...is sal****er a bad word somewhere? LOL!

[Filb]

Originally Posted by katrina

The project sounds great!

Side note - Strange...wonder why salt water (when spelled w/the two words together) is showing as sal****er in your posts? It usually only does that w/"bad" words. Hmmmm...is sal****er a bad word somewhere? LOL!

I think because the letters that are blocked out spell a British slang word. Rhymes with brat.

[switchblade]

****?

[lmartiny]

I think it would do well on a rock. I don't really think it would need to be misted every day either.
Took me a minute, but I think the blocked out words are slang for female genital area. I haven't heard that term for years. But it made me chuckle.

[katrina]

Originally Posted by Filb

I think because the letters that are blocked out spell a British slang word. Rhymes with brat.

Ahhhhhh...got it! As in the sausage! At first I was looking for a rhyming word to what you'd call a snotty kid.

Originally Posted by switchblade

****?

Originally Posted by lmartiny

Took me a minute, but I think the blocked out words are slang for female genital area. I haven't heard that term for years. But it made me chuckle.

Looks like that's it! Too funny that it would pick that up w/in the word.

[lmartiny]

Tee hee!!

[Ray]

I had to edit the "auto screening" in the S/H forum so it wouldn't keep killing the last four letters of "spoon" when discussing dosages of pesticides and fertilizers.

[lmartiny]

Would that be poon tang? (this is a test)

[lmartiny]

Is that a pass or a fail??

[SurfDudeVb]

Well, the blooming process has started, my Pink Panther opened first, with another 7 more to go. I feel like this project is gonna have a 2 month wait to get started. I also laid out some of the orchids on the rock I plan to use. I definitely ordered a few too many, about 4 too many. But I can always find some more projects for them and could always end up adding some to my terrarium.

I made a little trip this past weekend as well and grabbed some new additions to the fold. I visited Floradise Orchids outside Charlottesville,VA while I was on the road. Awesome place if you ever in the area and Stephen the owner was very helpful and informative. I grabbed a very very dark purple Lady's Slipper, it has yet to open but I am very excited, this is my first. I also grabbed a small odd addition that was solely intended for my terrarium, it is an Angraecum Distichum. I had never seen or heard of this orchid until Stephen showed it to me. He had a very large mother plant on display covered in hundreds of small flowers. I grabbed a small division of this and will wait til its done flowering to mount it in my terrarium.

[SurfDudeVb]

Well, I finally did it. I couldn't wait anymore!!! All of the Tolumnia have dropped all their blooms, still have spikes and developing new buds. But, I just had to do it, so I transferred a good amount of them over to the rock last night. I have a few more I have to wait to add because they currently have seed pods. I will try to get some pictures of the new mounting up here in a minute.

[SurfDudeVb]

Sorry to disappoint but I can't find my camera... And it's dark right now, so I may hold off to take some pictures tomorrow when it is sunny outside.

[1joyceh]

can't wait to see!!!

[SurfDudeVb]

Alright, well I got some photos, they may not be the best. They definitely don't show this thing as awesome as it came out. I am very pleased with how it came out and plan to add a few more to fill out the rock. Currently it has 2 Genting Orange, 1 Genting Angel, and 1 Tequila Sunrise.

[1joyceh]

It looks great SurfDude!!

[RebelCowgirl]

that looks pretty neat, I like it

[lmartiny]

Looks neat. I've had a rock set aside with a mounting in mind. It has been de-salting in the yard. (came from the intracoastal)

[SurfDudeVb]

The great thing about this piece is that it was designed to be used a background material for SW fish tanks, so the back is perfectly flat, which makes hanging easy.

[SurfDudeVb]

Great News!!! Everyone seems to be doing well on the new mount. They are all starting to open a second round of re-blooms. I'm gonna wait a few days til some more blooms open and take some new photos. Obviously these won't be the nicest bloom photo since they are on old spikes, but you'll have an idea of my goal.

[Reg22]

That looks great! Very pretty.

[Vipere]

It looks very nice ))