Maintaining mounted orchids while away on vacation

[Manu]

I was a bit hesitant on sharing this as I'm sure some would disagree with this practice stating air flow/rot issues, but it works great for me, so I'm sure it might help others. Also, I was going to post in the mounted section, but noticed how little activity there is there and thought it would be more beneficial here.

Almost all my plants are mounted or in baskets and require daily (or every other day) waterings. I often leave for a few days, or even a week or more and never ask anyone to take care of my plants. I just don't like people touching and moving them around and wouldn't want to ask someone to come daily to water my orchids anyway, seems like a big hassle for a non-orchid lover!

So how do I maintain them? I developed over time a system insipred from the spag and bag.

If I leave for less the 48 hours: I do nothing. Upon my return everything is crispy dry and gets a good irrigation. Never caused an issue. Happens quite often.

If I leave 3-4 days: I water thoroughly before leaving and wrap the mounts in saran wrap. Upon my return everything is almost crispy dry, but you can still see some humidity inside the plastic wrap.

If I leave 4 days or more: I water thoroughly and add a good layer of moist (not saturated) spagmum moss over the roots before wrapping in saran wrap. This will hold enough moisture for about 8 days at root level.

I just came back from an 8 day trip in the Carribean. The additional moss was still a bit humid, but quite dry, the level at which I'd consider watering a potted plant probably the next day. All my plants are doing amazingly well, some put out spikes, leaf growth continued, spikes continued to grow and branch out, buds forming, active root rips are still green and active, etc. It feels like I never left. I've used this method for up to 10 days away from them and never experienced any major set backs...

I always leave the crown area uncovered to allow some air flow. I've added a picture of an example. I also mount my plants with a fair amount of moss, which sure helps the 2-3 day period for which i only wrap with no added SM. People mounting with no moss or very little moss should probably consider adding a layer of moss even for the 2 - 3 day period.

This method basically creates a temporarily plastic pot for your mounted plant. Important to note I mainly grow Phalaenopsis Species, but it also worked well for both my basketed (can I say that?) Dracula's which did not blast their forming buds/spikes, Vanilla planifolia grew an extra 8 inches in length and roots 3-4 inches long, my minis (oncidium limmenghei, amesiella monticola, aerangis luteoalba, haraella retrocalla) all did ok and actually put out new spikes (perhaps a reaction to the extended dry period).

I considered adding some humidifiers and having my neighbour come and fill them up daily, but didn't feel it was needed for only 8 days away. Even with RH dropping to 25-30% without any human presence in our brutal Quebec winter (normally around 50-70% at plant level), everything survived and I'd even say continued striving.

So, to all you growers that are reluctant to mount your orchids due to vacations or small getaways, rethink it and give it a try!

I also mount my orchids on mounts that allow a fair amount of moss to be added without it showing, either using cork rounds or curved flat pieces, pieces with large crevices, etc. It's an art form for me, but I guess this should be kept for an other post some other day!

Happy holidays!

[LexyBoy]

This is basically what I have been doing too with my single windowsill mount (Onc. croesus, a Howeara, Phal, couple of Rhipsalis and more recently Mediocalcar decoratum). Mine is on an E or SE facing windowsill and in summer I would give it a good soak then loosely drape with cling film - your idea of adding some wet Sphagnum or I guess even paper towel is a good one (there's no moss on the mount). I think any orchid that's suited to growing on a mount in a home environment is going to tolerate being dry for a week or more without issue.

Just come back from a week for xmas and hadn't done anything other than water before going. The thermostat was down to 10 degrees though and being on a windowsill the plants would have been a fair bit cooler than that so no problem being dry.

[Dollythehun]

Good idea that I can use. Thanks Manu!

[Manu]

Originally Posted by Dollythehun

Good idea that I can use. Thanks Manu!

My pleasure :-)

---------- Post added at 08:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:10 AM ----------

Originally Posted by LexyBoy

I think any orchid that's suited to growing on a mount in a home environment is going to tolerate being dry for a week or more without issue.

Tolerate yes, but it might cause some setbacks. I'm part of the overwatering group of Orchid growers, hence why I mount everything... I don't think the plants I grow are particularly well adapted to a week without water at 15% RH, but am sure they'd all survive.

I've neglected one of my mounted phals for about 10 days once, it's leaf stopped growing, it dropped it's 2 older leaves and it showed signs of setback for a month or so. In the end the plant survived and bloomed on its regular schedule a few months later. But it did have that tiny leave for the years that followed...

This trick would be really beneficial on phals with thin leaves (or similar plants) that have no water reserves. I also do it to help with lower RH. My humidity dropped as low as 15% during my last absence, it was -30 to -40C most of the time I was away (No I do not live in Antarctica), and even with that brutally low humidity, there was still some moisture left at root level.

[estación seca]

Thank you! I will try this.