my first mounted orchid

[Orchidity]

Hi,

I just received my first mounted orchid, and I suppose I expected something a little different. Not able to post pics yet, but its a tiny little Cattleya amethystoglossa mounted on a small rectangular piece of wood about 8" long by 2" wide, sphagnum wrapped with fishing line. Cute little thing, I hope it does well. Anyway, how long until it should be remounted? What should I be looking for with regard to signs that its outgrown its piece of kindling? hehe

Thanks.

[kmarch]

I'm happy that you're trying mounted orchids (they're fun) but I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. Cattleya amethystoglossa is one of the largest cattleyas there are. Mature, flowering plants are around 3 feet tall. Growing a plant of this size on amount will be a challenge. I've only ever seen this species grown in a pot. Eventually you will probably have to move this little guy to a pot. Also, if your plant fits neatly on a 8x2-inch slab, it's most likely a seedling and it will be many years (maybe 3-5 depending on its current size) before it is mature enough to bloom for you.

Regarding "remounting," I never remove a plant form a mount. Doing so damages many roots. What I do is "mount it up." I take a larger mount of a similar material and affix the current mount to it. The plant just spreads out onto the new mount. In the case of tree fern mounts, I cut a place in the new mount in which I fit the old mount (plant still attached). After a while you can hardly tell there was even an old mount there.

[Orchidflowerchild]

I have grown some pretty large Cattleyas on mounts, but you have to get out of the box that says mounts must hang. For big honkers like that (in my case, I had a few C. bicolor, C. elongata, and C. leopoldii) I used large, heavy pieces of well-cured juniper wood. Most were hunks of rootstock pulled out of the ground on our central texas ranch and left in t he sun for the better part of a decade. I had quite a few large, impressive mounts. ANyway, these plants sat on the benches in the GH, rather than hanging from the wall or roof.

GOd, I miss my old collection.

*sigh*

-Cj

[kellyincville]

Originally Posted by kmarch

Eventually you will probably have to move this little guy to a pot....Regarding "remounting," I never remove a plant form a mount. Doing so damages many roots.

Question...if it's not a good idea to take the plant off the mount due to potential extensive root damage, how do you transfer it to a pot?

I ask because I have a few mounties to try it out but I'm not sure whether it will be the best for me long term (since the mounties are typically higher maintenance). So I may run into this at some point.

[kmarch]

Excellent point Orchidflowerchild, and now that I imagine it, a nice big, flowering Cattleya amethystoglossa mounted on a gnarly piece of root stock, that would look really beautiful. Thanks for provoking us to think out of the box.

Kelly, There are a couple of things oyu could do:
1) remove the plant from the mount - this would damage the roots though
2) pot the mount - I've seen this on occasion, where the whole mount is potted. Depending on what the mount is, the mount breaks down and is discarded on the next repotting.

[made4engineering]

If you are careful, you can remove it from the mount with very little damage. Its time consuming, but you can use an exacto knife to remove the roots from the mount. Just slide the blade under each individual root starting from the tip, using a very small angle- about 5 degrees (.1 radians). You should try to shave some of the mount wood off as you go, although this wont happen that much. Its really just prying the roots off. Make sure to soak the mount first.

[kellyincville]

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll remember this for the future.

[Brooke]

Since the catt is obviously very young and (guessing) recently mounted to the tiny piece of wood, soak the mount for quite a while. Then use your fingernail, knife, something flat and dull to slip under the roots.

I've gotten several plants from Oak Hill that are basically seedlings mounted on pieces of cedar that are 1" x 6". I use the soak to remove method to place them on mounts they can live on at maturity. I wouldn't try this method if something was mounted on tree fern or cork, only smooth wood.

My amethystoglossa will be opening it's buds in the next few days - you will love this plant when it grows up.

Brooke

[Orchidity]

Thanks for the replies. I think for now it will stay on its mount, though after seeing a few photos of more mature plants it will probably go to a pot at some point.

Here are a couple of pics of the little guy. There are a few small dark spots showing up on leaves - should I not be getting the leaves wet (disregard white spot, was a tiny piece of perlite and I'm too lazy to retake pics)?

[PhalPal]

This is just my personal preference, but if you do not plant on keeping this orchid mounted I would remove it now before it becomes too established. I have a few similiar mounts and I moved them to a larger piece of cork bark. At this stage they are very easy to remove from it's little slab and no roots will get damaged.