Jungle Log Resources

[DrDawn]

Hi All! Based on some chatter about ways to grow orchids and a nice presentation by Jason Fischer at the SFOS online in 2020, I've decided to start a thread for Jungle Log resources!

First of all, here's Jason's video from June 2020. His live demo of building a Jungle Log starts around 1:28 (but his talk is excellent too!)

Jason also gave some instructions at the Maine OS meeting in 2018, which are online here.

It looks like his methods have evolved over time. Now instead of using the hardware cloth, he uses two pots.

He also mentions using a clay pot or a terracotta fish breeding cone, but I'm also curious to try and see if these self-watering cones could work as well. I'm going to try to make a pretty small version.

As for the substrate, in the video he suggests sponge rock and milled sphagnum moss, so I'm going to get some from Kelley's Korner Orchid Supplies to try this out. I'll chop my own moss. And for covering Moss, he suggests Moss Unlimited, but I'm also going to check out Moss Acres.
EDIT: Also sheet moss here from Bonsai of Brooklyn, who I really like.

Anyone else who wants to try making a Jungle Log, please feel free to share any resources you find here! Thanks!

[farley101]

Thanks for starting this post! I'm planning to try one or 2 small ones to start and maybe get up to a double 8" one like is demo'd in the video someday! Need to start sourcing parts, everything should be pretty easy to get hopefully.

[DrDawn]

Cool! I'm glad I'm not the only one on this crazy adventure. :-P I just bought a bunch of supplies from Kelley's Korner and Amazon, so I should have stuff here by next weekend to start experimenting! (We're still in lockdown, so it all has to be delivery at this point for me.) Let me know if you get stuck looking for anything, I tried to post links above as I found things so that I could keep track of it all.

[farley101]

I think the hardest thing to find so far for me is the proper terracotta for this particular job. Those spikes look like something that may work for smaller ones. They're cheap enough to try at least.

I have some 3" regular terracotta pots that I tried out in some plastic pots I have. Needed a 5" to fit inside correctly, which is bigger than I'd like to try initially.

I'll hopefully get an item list together as well.

[farley101]

Here's what I'm going to order for the biggest parts of this build:

Net Pots 4" pots should work well with my choice of clay pot.

Clay Pots I like the cone shape with no lip, will need to plug drain hole.

Sheet Moss No idea how much moss will be needed to wrap around so aiming a little high I suppose. 😁

Perlite #4 Best price and clearest grade that I've been able to find.

Green Fishing line Got a big spool for as cheap as I could, don't think I'll lose an orchid to it jumping off the mount!

I have sphag that I'll use for the medium mix, blend it to chop or something close.

I will have materials to make 5 of these initially (I hope!). I've got a bunch of cattleya seedlings that I'd like to try on a few.

If anyone doesn't want to go through the effort to make one, let me know and I'd be happy to send one. I don't think I'll need all of them!

[Ray]

A word of warning: not all terra cotta pots have the same porosity; some will leak the water out quickly, so look for heavier-walled pots that are very smooth-textured on both sides.

[james j]

There seems to be a lot of interest in jungle logs, myself included. After watching the video I dug out some Kool Logs I had abandoned awhile ago. I bought them to try some cool growing plants but it didn’t work out. It never dawned on me to try them with other mounted plants.

Wouldn’t this be something that can be done as a member project? There hasn’t been one in a while.

[DrDawn]

Ah, interesting! What part of the Kool Logs didn't work out? The plants didn't like them? Too wet/cool? I saw that the Jungle Log included wrapping in moss which the Kool Logs don't suggest, not sure if that changes things?

As for a "member project", what is that?

[fishmom]

I had a Kool-log and another brand--the name escapes me at the moment--but I found that the salts in my tap water condensed unattractively on the outside of the log. Honestly, I didn't stick with it long enough to find out if it would damage the roots of my plants.

[james j]

[QUOTE][/ Ah, interesting! What part of the Kool Logs didn't work out? The plants didn't like them? Too wet/cool? I saw that the Jungle Log included wrapping in moss which the Kool Logs don't suggest, not sure if that changes things?

As for a "member project", what is that? QUOTE]

I was trying it on Masdevallias, they all died. I was using sphagnum moss because it didn’t think they would want to be mounted bare root and the logs are white which I thought looked really unnatural.

There’s a section lower on the page called Member Projects. Usually a group buys the same plant and compare notes on growing it over the course of a year.