Have you ever considered s/h for the oncidiums? In the spring I received several plants in the oncidium family bare root and I put them all in s/h and they LOVE it. I have tremendous roots and lots of new pbulbs and they are blooming their hearts out.

My oncidiums that I had purchased before that will go into s/h when they outgrow their pots. Or sooner if I get bored and want something to do.

Brooke

As mentioned in another post i have Oncidium sphacelatum mounted on an old section of fence paling that has used wine corks cut in halves tacked onto the surface.

The only reason that i am growing the plant this way is that it tends to climb. The plant is doing fine.

A couple of other Oncidiums with normal growth habit are in basket pots.

Which Oncidiums do you have?

There seems to be the romance of the mounted orchid in posts on this page that are not borne out by looking at orchids at shows etc. which reinforce my theory that should only mount orchids that grow best that way. Other alternatives are basket pots and shallow pots or trays.

For example, went to an Australian Native Orchid show the other day where every Sarco. hartmannii was in a pot and every S. falcatus was on a mount.

Comanara Wildcat is doing so bad I put him back in a pot already. Gower Ramsay, Issaku Nagata, Howard's Dream, Winter Wonderland, Nanboh Waltz, Bartley Schwarz is going back into a pot today, and a Apple Blossom. I many more, but these seem to be the ones that are giving me trouble. I soak the boards often thinking that the moisture might attract the roots, but there are just a few that are growing to the boards.

Highjack, I will have to search around the house for something to setup a s/h with. I already raise African Violets, so know the properties of s/h. Do you think a large AV pot would work?

I am very new to orchids. what is s/h? thanks!

piperspal s/h stands for semi-hydroponics. The media is a clay pellet product, the containers are taller than wide with holes in the SIDES of the pots just above the base, not the bottom. You fill the pot with water, it drains out to the hole level and the bottom 1 1/2" of the pot holds water.

ebbykay I have no idea how big an AV pot would be. Many people make their own s/h containers from deli type containers. I'm guessing here but the height of the containers is probably three times taller than the width.

Brooke

Liter soft drink bottles with the top part cut off make fine and inexpensive s/h containers.

i just use aliflor for my onc alliance, except for the equitants, they are in empty clay pots and just root right to the clay, have a few mounted to the citrus

Take a look at some of the orchids that I've mounted up .
http://the-urban-gardener.blogspot.com/2008/10/orchids-tie-them-up.html
and
http://the-urban-gardener.blogspot.com/2008/10/orchids-update.html

Sunita, very lovely and how nice to grow in the garden. Very nice pictures and descriptions.

I am only 40 miles away from an area where people can grow orchids without heating or cooling, but as soon as we move away from the Pacific coast, the temperature range expands, so here we get both too hot and too cold, and in addition it rains at the wrong time for cold tolerant plants like Laelia anceps.

Sunita, you must have some very lovely orchids! I also have Phals mounted on a cedar tree trunk that was a hurricane left over. I must have about four or five Phals and about seven or eight cats mounted on it. When mounting such orchids, you have to consider thier lighting, and put the Phals on one side and the cats on the other, making sure that one side gets more sun shine than the other. Tree trunk on right of picture.

But, I do believe I can find another tree trunk that I can try to mount some dends on. I have all my dends mounted on cedar planks right now. Rather, cedar fence boards, that are about 5x14.

Evelyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Cedar Board Mounts and Cedar Tree Trunk

Evelyn,
That setup is beautiful. I'm new at mounts - have a couple, and would like to make more. Can you tell me what you used to hang the mounted plants onto the lath?

That is vynal(sp) lattice work that you buy from Home Depot. Our deck is enclosed in the front and the backside so I have lots of room to hang orchids.

Thanks, Richard.
That must be really frustrating, growing just 40 miles away from where you could grow just that much easier. But by the looks of that long list of orchids that you're growing right now, you dont seem to be doing so badly : )
Evelyn, I bet your orchids are really spectacular when they start blooming!
I just took another look at your original question. If you have access to coconut husk (not the chips), a nice wad of husk / coir placed between the plant and the board will encourage the oncidiums to send roots into it and through to the board. Are the boards rough or smooth? If they're smooth, try substituting with a rough or grooved board to mount the oncs on.

Back to the original question. Oncidiums not only have fine slender root compared to Vandas, Catts or many Dendrobiums, but they slao are not as eager to attach to the mount. I have all of mine mounted but in empty baskets, empty pots or branches that provide a 'saddle' for the plant to squeeze into.

A 'Mount' does not have to be a branch or a plank, any object which gives support to the plant and prevents it from falling to the floor satisfies the requirement. Paul Gripp form Santa Barbara Orchid estates is a big fan of 'pot in a pot in a pot in a pot'. He will take a small plant which has outgrown its pot and put it in an empty slightly larger pot, repeating the process as the plant gets bigger. Oncidiums lend themselves perfectly to this method of growing. I have a huge Onc sphacelatum hanging over the edge of an eight inch pot in all directions. Inside there are 3 or 4 smaller pots all totally rootbound but no growth medium of any sort has ever been given to this plant.

I place all Oncidiums inside an empty basket or empty pot small enough to provide a snug home for the existing root ball. If the plant is very small, I give it a little moss. Once the plant is growing well, the size of the pot or basket may be increased as needed. When the plant is spilling over the side I simply drop it into the next larger pot ot basket, no medium is added.

You can mount them on branches but they are very slow to attach and their strength to hold on always seems to be a little less than required. I will place them in branches that have a fork at the point of the mount so the plant has a 'saddle' to sit in. As the plant grows and squeezes into its space, one ends up with a successful mount. A plank from a fence obviously does not lend itself to this application.

The reason I mount Oncidiums even though they might be better off in pots, unless treated like I stated above, is that 95% of my plants are mounted. I water them daily, on hot days more than once. A plant potted in the conventional way would drown in this deluge. I lack the space to have potted plants sit on their own, they have to live under the mounted ones which dominate the scene. Having a plant in a pot full of bark and watering it twice daily is a death sentence.

If you mount Oncidiums in a satisfactory way they grow just fine, at least as good as potted ones. A few years ago I won 'Best Onc of Show' at the East West Orchid Show at the 'New Otani', in LA, a major orchid show, with an intergeneric which filled a 6" basket to the point of overflowing with 17 flower spikes. No medium so technically the plant was mounted. In nature they are growing on branches in trees, there is no reason why that should not work in cultivation.

Nick

Beautiful photos, everyone! I so wish the climate I live in was tropical and beautiful all year... I'd love to mount orchids all around the gardens! One day, when we finally get our greenhouse erected, I'd like to experiment with mounting a few plants on either wood slabs or tree pieces... they're so beautiful!

Thanks everyone for all the wonderful information! Today looks like I am going to be busy fixing my problemed oncidiums. I think I have seen coconut husk sold in one of the stores around here, gonna keep an eye out!

Evelyn