Mounting = dry orchids
 

So I mounted 2 of my phals a few months ago on cork barks. They were in moss before and was doing fine with the care I was giving them. I thought mounting them would be better...but after 3 months, I was forced to rethink.

No matter how much I water them, they were drying out. The leaves and roots were growing but look like they are losing moisture. I added some moss to the bark, no help at all! My other orchids (which are in bark and moss), are doing better. Mounting was just slowly dehydrating these 2. The leaves don't have any moisture in them, they have come dry and thin! The plants also lost a few leaves each. The roots are starting to get brown and woody, instead of plump and green, the way they were before. So I took them off the mounts and repotted them in their old plastic pots (good thing I don't throw things away) with some moss..they seem to need a lot of moisture. I hope I'll be able to bring these plants back. :(

I have a memory of someone here saying before that Toronto has really low humidity, is that right?

You say "however much I water them" but how much is that. Even in my fairly humid environment I water mounts every day, and I really soak them at each watering. In the summer I water twice a day and again we don't exactly have dry summers here.

It just might be too dry in your environment. Sorry it didn't work out :(

Everyone has they're own unique mini-environment. The trick is to discover what culture techniques work best in your particular environment. For me, it's been fun to try lots of different ways of growing and eventually stumble onto a method that works well in my growing area. Just as an example, I grow my orchids on the south side of my house in Ft. Lauderdale and I have very good results with the culture I now use. My neighbor, two doors down, grows orchids on the northwest side of the house and she's struggled to get any blooms at all. Her orchids never look healthy and they're about 200' away from where I grow mine. Ideas from growers on this forum are great as a starting point and from there you can slowly discover what works best for you. By the way, I'm not a big fan of mounting phalaenopsis unless you're growing your orchids in a green house or in the tropics.

Phals do seem to need more moisture at the roots than many orchids do. Moss can work well in a dry environment as long as it doesn't pack down and stay soggy. My favourite mix for all my orchids is coconut chips with large perlie and charcoal if I have it. It stays nice and loose. The clear plastic pots allow you to see the roots and tell if they are silver [need water] or green.

I water all mounts with a garden hose 1-3 times per days. Proper soak. It depends a bit on the outside temps and humidity of course, but at lease once early in the day and normally also once around lunch time. The third round in the afternoon I can skip for some, others (read aerangis and bare-root hanging vandas) really need that third round as well. If I did not have a greenhouse where I could splash and mess with water, I'm not sure I'd attempt any mounts at all. But that's just me, perhaps.

---------- Post added at 02:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:56 PM ----------

Agree! Also loooooove coconut chips and perlite in combo. Have not added charcoal yet. Like you say, it holds perfect amount of moisture and remains airy and loose for long. Struggle to get hold of coconut chips here though, so I'm rationing it out. ;)

I just got my first mounted plants a week ago. One of them I have already moved to a pot because it was impossible to keep it moist and it likes to have wet feet. I was planning to mount my dendrobium cuthbertsonii too, but that's not gonna happen unless I set up that terrarium I keep talking about. It's drying out pretty quickly in the little pot that its in.

Indoor growing where I live, means low humidity. When humidity is low like that having mounted plants may not be the wisest idea, unless those plants really like it dry. I'm spraying my bulbo and dracula two or three times daily right now, and that's with a humidifier running in the room they're growing in. The dracula is very happy to be a mounted plant, it's growing new roots all over the place and I intend to leave it that way, but if it gets any thirstier than it is now, that terrarium is going to have to become a reality. I think that mounted culture makes a lot of sense. It's just not for every plant, in every growing situation.

I discovered that our Home Hardware sells bales of coconut chips as a mulch for gardens. I bought a bale and washed it several times before use. It ended up being a pretty cheap orchid medium and I am finding that combined with the perlite, it's perfect! I tried coconut fiber, which they also sell as a soil additive, but it packs down and breaks down too fast.

I have some mounts and baskets that need some extra humidity when inside. So I put them in clear plastic containers (typically re-purposed food bottles/tubs). I hang the mount from the edge of the container but inside it and let a small amount of water accumulate in the bottom to boost the humidity. I'm also trying this with some basket growers. So far so good. The guys still dry out daily, but not in minutes so that plants are staying hydrated.

I have eight mounts currently but I removed most of my orchids from their mounts and potted them in lava rock. Some that need to dry 'quickly' are in plastic vanda baskets. As Tucker says, it all depends on your climate. It also depends on the orchid. Some orchids just do best mounted (the ones, when mounted bare root, don't seem to mind being forgotten a few days).

You repotted them. You have done right. This is learning by doing, success and error.
A Chinese proverb says, if you notice you have done a mistake and do not rectify, you make the next mistake.