Help with potting d. loddigesii?

[amandarenee]

A fabulously awesome person here on OB offered to send me a d. cucullatum, and also stuck in a little d. loddigesii (and a t. concolor I am a happy lady today!). I read up what I could about loddigesii, and it doesn't seem like a very picky guy to take care of. But I can not figure out how to pot this guy! It looks like two kieki's on each end of a cane....? I don't have any experience with mounting, and would rather pot the little guys. So...what the heck do I do?

The first pic shows the whole plant (about 6" in lenght, not including the go-crazy roots), the second is a close-up of the "cane" thing in the middle.

[prc11]

Truly, the easiest way would be to mount. What will happen if you pot it is it will grow out of the pot and these guys like to be mounted so it would be a good experiment.

[amandarenee]

Well, what do I want to mount it on, and where can I get it? The only way I've really seen it done is on a slab of cork bark that was purchased at a pet store. How big of a slab do I need? Is it true that most 'chids get sulky after you mount them and don't grow well for the first year or so?

[gnathaniel]

A 6" x 6" slab or rough equivalent should be more than adequate for your loddigesii for years. Now is a good time to mount this species because it will soon start active growth and quickly root to its mount. Most orchids don't sulk when mounted anymore than they do after potting, in fact mounting typically disturbs roots less. Good luck, this is one of my favorite species!

--Nat

[prc11]

I would also put so moss under the plant to give it good moisture at first. I mist all my mounts every morning because I grow in my home and have low humidity. Good luck growing!

[amandarenee]

Well I did it!

And it wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. Luckily I had all of the supplies I needed, except for the cork bark. I went to the local pet store chain and was disappointed with what I found in the reptile section, but then I looked with the hermit crab supplies and found a lovely little piece of bark that was the perfect size (about 6"x4"), for less than $4.

[gnathaniel]

Nice! You won't be disappointed, this is a lovely and easy to grow species. One of the vendors who displays at our show each year usually brings a huge specimen mounted on what looks like a 2' x 3' treefern slab. You can literally smell it from halfway across the room!

--Nat

[prc11]

One of the very good things about mounting is that you can see the root condition of the plant anytime. Just make sure it does not dry up.