Mounting orchid to reptile cork bark?

[estación seca]

I'm hoping my orchids grow so I can't see any of the mount!

[vjo]

I planted a cork oak in my yard when I lived in WA. it was a beautiful tree. I visited there recently and the new owners had cut it down. What a pity...Jean

[PaphLover]

Do you need to treat the cork bark in any way before mounting your orchid to prevent critters, mold, etc. infecting your plant? Should you soak it so that it's moist for the orchids roots?

Just picked up a couple pieces from the pet store…was the only place I could find it.

[samfish]

I have never done any pre-treatment to cork bark... You might want to give it a rinse, since you dont know where it has been, but other than that, it is a very disease and rot-resistant surface...

[rosebudforglory]

Look for a wholesale provider or an air-plant vendor. If you just type “cork oak bark for orchids” with or without “wholesale” and you should pull up some better pricing suppliers. You may have to buy a big cardboard box of it but you can resell, buy as a group and divide among friends, or keep for yourself. It really depends on storage space.

Be careful though as to what is the minimum size you are getting.I would request minimum size of 6” x 6” or whatever you need. If you don’t grow 2” miniatures, then a box of 2” x 3” pieces won’t do you much good. Ask to see pictures to assess thickness. Much over 2” thick is more difficult to work with. Some vendors seem to think you can just glue them together. That said — if you end up with some small pieces, you might get a piece of raw cedar (no preservatives, varnish, stains, etc) and glue them to the cedar. The roughness gives the roots somewhere to hide and hold on to. If you get too many — place them in a tall glass jar with a lid and maybe start collecting miniature orchids. Though I like to put my miniatures together — I think they like the company.

In terms of replacements — though not particularly cheaper is Fernwood’s orchid mounting boards (not the background) and totems. But on the background, you might try stapling to a piece of cedar and see how that works. I like these, and like bark, you can just keep putting them on bigger pieces with a spacer in between so as not to smush the roots behind.

Other board choices are cedar, cypress, redwood, teak, ipe, any tropical hardwood maybe locust, rough white oak — do not use red oak. Ipe is very durable and will turn grey like teak. But teak is a softer feel but lasts for decades sitting outside too. Ipe is being used for decks, piers, bridges etc because it is so hard and holds up for 50-75 years. Tropical hardwood like ipe is dense and hard, the most durable and best known of the Brazilian hardwoods. Its over 3 x more dense than teak, and has the same fire rating as steel and concrete. Look for sustainably harvested, read up on using it, it needs special blades and connectors as it is very hard wood. There are lesser -known tropical species such as cumaru, garapa, cambara, massaranduba, and tigerwood. Tropical mahogany as was used in window and door framing has always been durable — but again be careful due to the resins and test with cheap plants until you know how it works out.

Locust fence posts have been know to last for 50-70 years in the ground — that’s a possibility to test out. We had osmunda fiber then and I love it so didn’t try any of the locust we had. We used locust posts and white oak fence boards in late 1960s and many are still standing. If you see this and decide to use for posts, keep concrete away from them (really any wood, it holds the moisture to it-and rots them). We coated the bottom 2’ with pinetar and tamped inch by inch with good clay and 20% granite dust. You can do the same with treated posts and tamp and will last longer too — just need to line up, retamp every couple of years where livestock push on them. It’s more expensive in the beginning to buy these woods, but it considerably saves money, labor and waste over the long run.

I have been eyeing my large crepe white myrtle I’m getting ready to take down. Just don’t know how long it will hold up for greenhouse or outside use but will retain some of the branches to try. I may seal the cut end grain with the stuff the commercial lumber yard use to keep logs and boards from splitting or actually I may just use beeswax on the ends to be safe. But no on the log itself, just the small end and will try with a cheap plant to begin with. You just want to keep water and sun from ending those cut ends — you could just put a small overhanging piece of cedar, white oak, etc on the top, like you’d use a fence post cap to keep the water, etc off it.

Do not use red oak —- I haven’t had good luck with it and I saw someone on the net who had the same problem. White oak has been used for centuries and centuries for building sea faring ships but red oak is structurally different — like straws and the water just runs through and the tannis seem toxic to the plant. I have tried 3 over decades and they end up either dying or getting pretty close — so no more oak for me.

And no matter what you use, you don’t want treated, varnished, painted, etc wood. If the wood is very smooth (like crepe myrtle), might rough it up with low grade sandpaper, rasp, or use some sort of dremmel tool and carve grooves in it so the roots have somewhere to really grip.

There is also the handmade option — make a frame, line it with moss or double up and fill with whatever you want to use.

Best of luck.

[Leo H.]

I can confirm that black locust is the wood or bark of choice for mounting among German orchid growers because it so durable even in a greenhouse environment. But one has to be aware that the bark and especially the cambium layer are quite toxic if ingested.
Another downside is that some Bulbos do not attach to it or perform poorly for unknown reasons.
Cattleyas, for example, however like it very much and perform better than on cork.


Edit:
Oh, and I am surprised to learn that good cork is hard to get hold of in the U.S.! I guess the import restrictions are quite harsh because there is a potential to import new pests or diseases along with it. Here in Europe you can find it in any orchid nursery in different sizes and cuts. And ironically, cork is not seen as the best mounting material here because because of its hydrophobic properties which let it dry out basically instantly and make it hard to grow plants on cork which do not like moss on their mount.

[Ray]

If you need a lot of cork or can put together a “group buy”, contact marylandcork.com. They, are the biggest (only?) importer of raw cork bark in the US. It’s a great deal less expensive than the ZooMed stuff, which probably comes from Maryland Cork in the first place.

[Fuerte Rav]

I laughed so much ............ Thank You!