Epiweb as an orchid mounting material. Disadvantages?
 

Hey guys,

I only have a very few orchids. My 4th and latest one is a sweet little lepanthes telipogoniflora. I am considering maybe getting a few more lepanthes later. THe plant came to me potted in a small 2 inch pot in long fiber sphagnum. Now..I like orchids to grow them on mounts. I have seen epiweb and it looks very good. But my concern is:

WIll the epiweb slab u use ...especially for miniatures like lepanthes need to be big? Reason: you don't want the plant to overgrow a 4 inch square of epiweb and realise that you can't untangle and remove the roots from the epiweb. It seems like a permanent mount.

What do u guys recommend for mounting miniature orchids? Are u guys who use epiweb concerned about the inability to remove the plant from the mount? I feel cork bark might be a better choice. A wad of live sphagnum for the platn to dig into...mounted on a piece of bark should be also easy to remove later on if needed.

thanks,

Varun

I like epiweb, it does not break down. If the plant gets too big just attach it to another bigger piece. My experience with spagum is that it breaks down pretty fast on the mounts that I water everyday. The plant is growing well the takes a sudden turn for the worse. Examination shows that I should have changed the spag last month. The biggest problem with epiweb might be that it does not hold water but dries too quickly. I have not had this problem but have no pleuros on it either. Works great for catts.

I would say, the only negative point so far, would be it dries out very quickly. You need to water more frequently than with other types of mounts, especially at the beginning. Once the plant is very well stablished, it copes better with this!

but is it possible to positively completely remove a plant from epiweb without tearing its roots out in the procesS?

I think it would depend on the roots and how embedded in the epiweb they are. But I think that it is nearly impossible to remove a plant from Epiweb with out some (or a lot) of damage. If the plant has not dug in too far, it may be possible with small scissors to cut all the epiweb off. I think it's just easier to attach the mount to another chunk of epiweb, and the roots will colonize that one when it grows.

I'm using epiweb cubes as a medium for a plant, as trial. I think repotting into a bigger pot will be easy. I just have to pull out the dead roots, and add more epiweb cubes to the new pot.

hhhmmm.... to be honest, I do not think so... unless you put a lot (but I say a LOT) of patience when doing it... Plants would normally grow roots into the EpiWeb, getting then really bound to it...

But, why would you like to remove it from EpiWeb if it is growing well? :scratchhead: The material is inert and will not rot... in case you want to move your plant or decide you want it potted instead of mounted, you could bring the whole mass of roots+EpiWeb into the pot, and that's it..

I'm new to mounting. Is i possible to use epiweb for a mount but use a thin layer of sphagnum over it to give it a more natural look?

If you attach a small piece of moss to the epiweb mount it will eventually cover the mount if it is provided the humidity.

I agre with Ramon, if the plant is growing well, why would you want to remove it? The idea when you mount a plant is that you don't remove it from it's mount (unless there are health and/or pest issues)....

True, you could not remove the plant from epiweb without damage to the penetrating roots. But the same is true of a plant mounted on cork pieces or anything else I've used to mount plant. Even going from one pot to a large one usually involves root damage.