Growing orchids and bromeliads on a light. I

[ArronOB]

Hi. Almost all of my orchid growing to date has been in pots.

What I would like to try now is to get a log or two, about 3 feet long, and growing some moss, orchids and bromeliads on it. I want it to look like the ultimate epiphyte-rich tree branch in a tropical forest - with all the plants packed in tight and overflowing with life.

I’ll want to grow this in our shadehouse, or in a greenhouse if we have one in years to come. I’ll probably suspend it from the roof on chains.

I expect lots of people do this. Is there any advice - anything learnt by experience I should be aware of?

Cheers
Arron

[Ray]

That's an ambitious and worthwhile project, in my opinion, but I would start with smaller plants on a smaller log, to see how well you can handle it, before scaling up.

When choosing plants, you certainly have to shoot for those that have the very same cultural requirements, but keep in mind that some are "climbers", so do better on vertical mounts and will ultimately take over the whole thing, while others grow better on horizontal mounts and tend to "spread out" slowly, so do your homework.

[beepybeetle]

I've tried to grow Nepenthes vetchii on wood boards. you have to be careful when mounting. Obviously, you don't want your plant to fall off, but you also don't want the plant to get too stuck onto a piece of wood which may rot, mold etc. For nepenthes, I used a lot of live spaghnum moss since they have extremely delicate roots, and can handle constant moisture in their roots but I have literally no experience growing bromeliads and I'm a novice orchid grower at best. Also, just keep your humidity up since the plants lose the benefits of an enclosed growing container. Even dense spaghnum moss left open to the air will dry out deceptively quickly.

[ArronOB]

Good point about humidity. I was intending to use some of the local mosses as the ‘baseline’ between the orchids and bromeliads, but I’m not sure humidity will be high enough as they mostly grow near watercourses.

I want the moss to be living, growing green stuff.

[beepybeetle]

If you want live moss, you definitely need very high humidity. I don't have experience with other mosses since carnivorous plants almost ubiquitously require Sphagnum, but even with 80+% humidity, I still get brown tips on my live spag beds. I've literally had to use big plastic tubs to keep the humidity high enough for them. Maybe set up like an automatic misting system or dripper?

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