Mangrove Root Drift Wood
 

I brought this large piece of Mangrove driftwood home from the beach today. I don't know if it would be worth cleaning up for a mount or vivarium display. It has no barnacle formation but does have a few tiny clams in some of the crevices. Would several fresh water soakings leach the salt from the wood. It's too big to boil unless it were cut down into smaller pieces. I took the photos with a shovel in the background for size comparison.

Hi Junebug, I was doing a search on google for mounting on driftwood and this came up. I was wondering, did you ever try mounting on this? and if so, what did you do to prepare it and how did it turn out?

I just picked up a beautiful piece of driftwood from the beach about a week ago and have been soaking it in a big (clean) garbage bin full of water (turning it sometimes as it can't all fit). Have been too scared to mount as i fear the orchid will somehow die of too much salt!

also, do you have to let it dry out a bit before you mount?
would like to know how yours went-- thanks!! :)

fresh water driftwood is a lot harder for me to acquire here, that's how come I ended up with one from the beach

but good idea on the bromeliad!! I'm going to try that tomorrow! thanks!

My driftwood came from the beach too. It was covered in sand and small clams, so first I made an attempt to scrub them off and then I water jetted all the crevices. Afterwards I soaked the wood in a very large container of tap water. It was large and odd shaped so it had to be rotated and weighted down daily. I let it soak for several weeks and changed the water every few days to get rid of the leached tanins and salts. Eventually I did a salinity test by taste with the use of a quick lick of my tongue.

I never officially mounted anything to my driftwood because I was fearful that it still contained salts. Last summer I further tested the wood by loosely attaching a piece of dendrobium cane that had a small keiki growing from it. The keiki responded favorably. A short time later it's roots attached to the driftwood and it grew another cane.

My driftwood has now been designated as a transition/recovery zone for keikis and rescued chids. It's a fairly large piece of wood, so I plan to let the keikis and rescues attach themselves at their own discretion.:)

thanks for the info! I was tempted to do a similar sort of salinity test as well but couldn't bring myself to do it! :lol:

My driftwood wasn't as dirty as it mangrove roots would probably be but I when I've now mounted an orchid (after no luck finding a bromeliad to conveniently pluck off the trees...) and will monitor the roots carefully to see how they react to the wood. hoping all goes well...

I found this piece along a saltwater estuary & never did any soaking before mounting. I have an encyclia on a piece of driftwood I found in the same area & it is growing nicely too.

Tim Abbott

Bad news! I've had to dismount my Laelia from the driftwood as I found that the roots were shrivelling on contact :( I guess maybe I didn't soak it properly. I had only soaked for a week.

@Tim - what a gorgeous mount! That's crazy that it's able to thrive without having soaked the driftwood!!

I have another driftwood soaking but this time it's been soaking for about 4 weeks. I may try that one instead soon -- or give up and put my poor plant in a plain old pot!

thepurpleorange,

Good luck, The orchids can make you scratch your head sometimes.

Tim Abbott