Transferring basket-mounted C. aclandiae to terrarium - Orchid Board

galguibra · #1 02-27-2025, 12:33 PM

Hey everybody! Construction on my new terrarium is coming along nicely, and I should be done with all the hardscaping by sometime next week at the latest if all goes well. The one thing I still haven't figured out, though, is how I'm going to mount my aclandiae in there. I can't think of a good way to incorporate the basket into the hardscape that would look natural, but I also don't want to set it back too much by unmounting since it's still quite young.

At the moment, it's established bare-root on a square, 4" teak wood basket, and putting out plenty of new root growth. I'm of course happy to see so many roots, but in classic aclandiae fashion they're extremely rambly, so unmounting it seems like it would be a nightmare, even if I soaked the whole mount beforehand. I wouldn't be opposed to just cutting the basket apart to make it easier since it was only like $7 anyway, but I don't think I really have the tools at home to do that :/ Likewise, if the basket were tapered I could incorporate it into the background like lots of people do with net pots, but it's ~4"×4"×2", and I need to mount it somewhere near the top of the terrarium since aclandiae are high-light even for Cattleyas, which doesn't seem to give me a lot of good places to put it.

I'm sure there's a reasonable solution that just hasn't occurred to me, and the design style I'm going for is really more like "naturalish" than, say, a scientifically accurate diorama, but I'm feeling pretty stumped! I'd love to hear any ideas you all might have, and I've really only finalized the actual background of the terrarium so far, so there's flexibility in the design. The only real constraint is that I have a relatively large, branchlike structure that I've been putting together out of cork pieces, and I'm planning to mount my C. intermedia on that. I was thinking of having it come up the back/side in the back-left corner of the terrarium and kinda jut out into the middle a bit as it comes up toward the top of the enclosure, but the exact placement is flexible and I have lots of other random little cork pieces I could use to add additional structures.

orchidman77 · #2 Today, 01:24 PM

I've seen several terrarium and "natural looking" settings using spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) that grows over the root/pot/basket zones. Spray it enough to water the plant, and the moss flourishes as well.

I've also read from several aclandiae growers that they actually do better with a bit less light than other cattleyas. I don't have any adult aclandiae so I can't speak to the light levels myself.

galguibra · #3 Today, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by orchidman77

I've seen several terrarium and "natural looking" settings using spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) that grows over the root/pot/basket zones. Spray it enough to water the plant, and the moss flourishes as well.

I've also read from several aclandiae growers that they actually do better with a bit less light than other cattleyas. I don't have any adult aclandiae so I can't speak to the light levels myself.

Thanks for the tip—I think the Spanish moss idea could be really cool actually! Although as it happens, I actually already went ahead and unmounted it between when I originally posted and now LMAO, but it was thankfully much more straightforward than I'd feared. Poor little guy is definitely taking it a little rough though, and the roots seem dessicated even in 90% RH with regular fog and daily misting. Maybe the Spanish moss would still help there too! Very interesting about the light though, cause I'd always heard of aclandiae liking things hot/bright/humid/breezy. This is my first one, though, so I guess we'll see what happens!