Thoughts on watering a mount - Orchid Board

Stray59 · #1 03-14-2015, 08:32 PM

Hello Everyone:
As I am doing some mounting for a public display, I get a lot of people who want to know how to water a mounted orchid at home. In reality, that is one hard question to answer. So many variables have to be considered, such as the species, the mounting material and the temperature, moisture and air circulation in the particular area you are placing the plant in. Plus, as our tap water has high levels of dissolved solids, and TONS of chlorine, I only use RO water or rain water for all my orchids.
Sometimes, look and feel can tell you if the root ball is in need of water, but if the plant is mounted with a good size pad of sphagnum moss around the root ball, it can be harder to tell when the inside area, next to the mount is dry. One solution I have found it to stick a small dowel or even a popsicle stick between the moss and the mount at the top of the root ball, going down as deep as I can without damaging roots, but enough to gauge what the moisture near the roots. I pull it out and check it to see if it is dry - if so, then I water. After a few weeks of this, I know when the roots are dry and in need of a drink and I throw the popsicle stick away; for miniatures, I use a toothpick.
A bare-root mounted plant in a dry environment may need multiple sprays a day, with a complete soaking every few days, in order to maintain a functional level of moisture withing the roots and leaves. But in a highly humid area, one daily misting and a weekly dunking is usually enough for me.
I look for a couple of things on my mounted orchids - if they start to shrivel, either leaves, stalk, pseudobulbs or previously plump roots, I increase the water. If the media is damp at all, I don't. I don't mount a lot of orchids that need a consistently damp media as it is so hard to maintain such. I have found, if the mount will allow, I can stick one end of the mount down in a pot with part of the root ball submerged in a moisture-retaining media so that the plant can "wick" moisture out of the media. These can work out nice and it is a way of having a mounted orchid in with your potted ones too!
If you kind of follow what I am talking about, you will see that it is really not that easy to advise someone on how to water a mounted orchid. For me, it was all trial and error and a lot of looking at other mounts and ideas.
Hope this helps someone! Enjoying growing!
(BTW - I fertilize my mounts with my misting. Once a week I spray the plants heavily with a 1/2 strength fertilizer - if you use a salt-based fertilizer you have to occasionally "flush" the roots and the mount to keep the salts from building up and choking off the roots. If you see any white powdery buildup on the roots or the root media, you should flush the plant well with low TDS water well.)
That's just some of how I approach watering mounts. Any other ideas or input?