Hickory bark for mounting Dendrophylax lindenii
 

I have some Dendrophylax lindenii seedlings presently growing on a bed of Spanish moss. I've read that hickory bark is the best wood for mounting these. I'm wondering if anyone knows where I can get some pieces that are at least 6" x 18".

I know hickory grows in Wisconsin, so I bet it grows in Minnesota as well. What about calling your local city tree maintenance department or your power company? Or a large landscaping service or arborist?

The best thing to do is find someone who has a private land in Florida that has lindenii growing on their trees and gather bark from the dead roots of lindenii or bark around the plant but not disturbing it....the fungi that grows in symbiosis with the plant will help your seedling (even a dead root found in situ will be a great help to your seedling)....if you are able to grow that seedling after a year then your plant have grown accustomed to your environment and will be able to survive and form the needed fungi around it....
otherwise let it grow for a year in the moss and then transfer it to bark....transferring it to bark right now will be dangerous....at this point it needs high humidity like in the Florida glades....the hickory bark will dry and dehydrate it

Uh, which hickory? I suspect that in FL it's the Scrub Hickory, which has very different bark than the common and readily distinguished Shagbark Hickory. Among the northern species which I'm familiar with the Pignut Hickory has bark closest in texture to the Scrub Hickory.

Thank you for your great suggestions. Actually my son works for the local electric company and knows the guys who drop trees. I am planning on continuing to grow these seedlings for quite some time yet on the moss. Just wanted a head start on the hickory in order to age it.

I have had difficulty finding hickory bark slabs as well. In-fact, despite extensive searches, I have been unable to find them. Thus, I ordered some small hickory logs (with bark) on ebay which are about 8-12" long and 1-2" thick, but I would still like to actually find larger diameter hickory bark slabs, as this is supposed to be a "magic" ingredient in cultivating larger ghost orchid plants.

I have been babying an ever-diminishing number of ghost orchid seedlings from a replete flask(well over 100 seedlings) over the past three months and I will repeat what others have advised here in the past. High-humidity but not constantly wet! Meaning, a constantly humid environment is a must but do not wet the plants repeatedly during the day to compensate for sub-optimal humidity unless they will be dry (not dried out) within a few hours after each watering. Currently, my remaining seedlings are super-glued to the hickory slabs I actually could find. The slabs are laying horizontally outside slid inside plastic containers which are open on one side but covered on top to block rain from soaking them from 4pm-11am the next day. The ambient humidity is optimal 80% of the time recently, so this seems to be working to keep the seedlings I still have healthy and not rotting one-by-one. I have a bunch of spanish moss piled near the open side of the containers to keep humidity from fluctuating too much on drier afternoons and the light level is moderate overall.

My strategy will have to evolve as temperature and humidity levels drop within the next couple months.

Like this? This is from a Pignut Hickory that's going to help heat my house this winter. I have several pieces around this size (standard Bic lighter for comparison), some just bark, others with about 1" of wood backing.

Mine are presently growing on Spanish moss. I'm not going to mount until they are bigger. I don't know if you've read the culture articles on the American Orchid societies website but they are a great resource. What kind of hickory are you using. Mine are growing under lights inside a humidity tent. Humidity is in the 80's. Sometimes higher. Rarely lower. I hope I can maintain that in the months. Good luck with your ghosts.

---------- Post added at 07:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:37 AM ----------

Subrosa yes I do like example of the hickory. Can I ask where you purchased this wood? Thank you

Purchase wood? Never! Other than the time, effort and gas to cut and transport it, wood is free. Unless someone pays me to take it. I love getting paid to heat my house!

The issue with growing ghost seedlings on/in Spanish moss for me, is that, since I am currently growing outdoors, I am afraid I will lose the seedlings in the moss! Even though I have a semi-controlled environment set-up, I could still see picking up the bed of Spanish moss for inspection and only finding half the seedlings I started with. If I was growing in a terrarium this wouldn't be a concern.

Subrosa, would you be willing to sell a few of those hickory bark slabs you have to anyone interested on here that has had trouble locating these?