Weathered Bark

[greenguru]

I had a tree fall in my back yard several years ago and I kept the bark after cutting it up for firewood. I'm wondering if the bark is OK to mount orchids on. I've got 4 large garbage pails full of bark that I've kept dry in the garage for the past several years. I just don't want any problems i.e. some bacterial growth, virus, disease that may be on the bark to infect my orchids. Anyone have any advice?

[epiphyte78]

I've never treated any of my branches and haven't had any problem with transference. The composition of orchids and dead wood is fairly dissimilar so I would be surprised if any wood based organisms would be able to harm your orchids. But I'm hardly a biologist or botanist.

[Ross]

What kind of bark? What kind of orchids? I don't mean to be funny, but a few orchids depend on certain bark species to survive, I have found, for instance, that Encyclia tampensis does best on southern Live Oak bark slabs. That's what I use for mine. Otherwise, I'd suggest thinking about the speed of degradation of the bark compared to debarked limbs. The bark degrades very quickly. You don't want to put any preservatives on any mount intended for any orchid. Just my 2 cents.

[cirillonb]

I agree with Ross. I have seen "raw" wood used in furniture and toys show up filled with destructive critters. You'll notice that commercial sellers of drift wood and grape wood frequently refer to "kiln dried."
Personally I won't bring wild wood into my house (including firewood that I only bring enough for the night's fire.)
Nick

[greenguru]

Thanks for the 411. The bark is from an Oak tree and I haven't placed ANY orchids on it yet. Wanted to hear from you guys before doing so. I was also thinking about putting staghorn ferns on them as well. I'll try that first. If nothing happens to the ferns, I'll mount some orchids.