White Oak as Mounting Wood

[gdupont]

Hey ya'll,

A few days ago a tree fell at the end of our street. it was pretty big, rotted on the inside, etc. White Oak tree. There were a lot of pieces of bark lying around so I snagged as much of it as I could for my orchids.

So, I have a few questions:
1) if I were to mount an orchid on one of these pieces, is there anything I need to do to prepare the bark?

2) Does White Oak work? Anyone have experience with it?

Thank you!

[Daethen]

I have used white oak for several mounts. I try to boil and/or bake the wood for a while to kill any unwanted bugs, mold, whatever. I love using the burls if there are any. You may want to let it dry for a while before doing anything with it if it was a live tree. I usually try to use fairly fresh dead wood.

[gdupont]

Awesome, thank you! How do you bake it specifically? Should i peel off the loose bark?

[Optimist]

I think the main problem would be dragging potential termites into your house. People down south mount orchids on trees outside all the time without boiling the limbs or putting it in a microwave. Maybe a few treatments with neem oil or something organic would be adviseable.

[HighSeas]

I've used it quite a few times without any problems or adverse effects. It makes for a beautiful mount!

[Bud]

The white oak is debarked by herbalists for medicinal purpose.
You will notice that the wood is hardy and the bark is not easily separated from the wood hence it is a good long lasting material to mount orchids.
The texture of the bark is ideal for roots to establish itself and it retains moisture.
There are some friendly lichens and fungi that grows on the bark that is symbiotic to the tree, which might also be good for the orchids.
The bugs can be eliminated if you spray it with dish soap then dry it under the sun for maybe a couple of weeks.

I use white oak wood with its bark intact to mount two of my Dendrophylax funalis which is one of the ghost orchids.

[Daethen]

I just stick it in the oven at 350-400 for an hour or so. I don't know what type of bugs may be here so I treat it.