Mount or not

[LJHurn]

Hi, I have some Catts, Phal, Oncidium and Psychopsis orchids, most now in flower. I would like to know if I can mount them now, or should I wait. I have never mounted an orchid before, but would like to have all mine mounted. I realise the Catts must have big mounts, but that is no problem as I an building quite a big shade house. Please any advice would be appreciated.
Greetings, Louis Hurn

[made4engineering]

Hi! Thank you for mounting your plants! All of my orchids are mounted. I believe they have much less health problems this way, almost no chance of rotting, and are generally more aesthetically pleasing and natural this way. It may be disappointing, but if you want to keep the flowers then you should probably wait until the plants have finished blooming. When you de-pot and then mount it, it will invariably damage many roots which will cause the plant to stress. Every time roots are damaged, mounted or not, the open wounds are exposed to mold spores and thus the plant will need to spend a lot of energy fighting off fungus attacks for a while. Some roots will rot, but oh well. In fact, i think the best mounting job requires a lot of roots to be damaged, because the goal is to get the rhizome as close to the mount as possible. Sometimes I simply cut off roots when they are directly in the way, but I try to bend them as much as possible. Mounting or repotting while in flower runs a risk of either it dropping all the buds/flowers, or overextending the plant and killing it. Regardless, Good luck!

[jerrymeola]

I mount about 2000 orchids a year so I have a lot of experience mounting plants in flower.

You can mount anytime. The danger is that if you damage the roots on a Cattleya, you may lose the flowers. I have occasionally mounted flowering Cats and been successful. Cattleya actually can be mounted on rather small branches. The plant will grow around the branch, sideways and down.

This Bassovola is so large you can not see the mount it is covered in roots (about 8 years).



Oncidium flowers get their strength from the pseudobulbs so I always mount these in bloom and seldom have a problem. Damage to the roots do not effect the flowers.



Phals can be mounted in bloom if you are careful not to break the roots. It is better to start with a Phal that is not too large. Phals grow down so it is best to mount the roots at the top and the plant and flower hanging.




I wrap the entire root ball (after removing most if not all medium) in sphagnum. This eliminates the stress of mounting bare root. The new roots will grow on the outside of the sphag and over a couple of years the roots in the sphag will be discarded by the plant. It is not necessary to ever add more sphagnum. I have done this so often and now so gentle, that my plants do not even know they have been moved.

Practice will get you there, but the worst is that you may lose a couple of flowers.

[LJHurn]

Thank you, I am not so fired up I will get started in this week! Thanks for the photo's they are super. I will start with two Catts that have not flowered in two years, and hope for the best.
Greetings, Louis Hurn

[made4engineering]

Jerry's method is a lot less stressful than mine, as I am willing to put my plants through large amounts of torture to make them look like they were never in a pot. When I mount my plants, the root ball is no longer a ball, the roots are contoured to the mount. I just think they look better not siting atop a 'mound' of brown sphagnum and old roots. I suggest you take your time, to get the look you want. For me, this is the lind of thing I go for: The root of the issue on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[Ellen]

I agree with Jerry that you can mount orchids just about any time, even when blooming. I try to mount them gently, too, not force the old roots to conform to the mount by bending them in unnatural positions. The new roots will grow onto the mount soon enough. Rather than stressing the plants, I can almost hear them breathe a sigh of relief once they're on the mount. My experience is they they grow new roots more quickly if the roots aren't buried in sphag, but everyone's conditions are different. Good luck with getting your plants mounted!