Any Mounting Ideas For Neofinetia Falcatas?

[Shandra]

Hi, So I am getting another Neo (this makes # 2 : ) and I am thinking I want to mount this one. Wondering what kind of set up is needed, what to mount on and how to do it? Any one with mounted Neos please give some input and or pictures

[Wjs2nd]

Well, I had a mount neo for 3ish years and it always kind of struggled for me. I decided last week to take it off the mount and the roots have doubled in length for me. I couldn't keep the humidity high enough.
My neo was mount on a cedar plank with moss. I added extra moss every year to cover the new roots up a little. Cork looks nice and won't break down.

[WhiteRabbit]

Well - I have a small neo division mounted on a small piece of grape wood I got at the pet store - one of the few orchids that has done well for me mounted in our quite dry summers. During spring, summer, and into fall, I alternate days, spraying just the roots well one day, soaking the mount the next. During extremely hot dry weather, it gets an extra spraying later in the day as welll. The piece of wood I used is quite small (the plant was very small), but I didn't take into account the really looooooong roots Neos get, so most of the roots are growing into the air. Mine has not grown roots into the sphag on the mount at all.

I initially had used twine to secure everything - that didn't hold up well - so then I just used some twist tie - doesn't looks real great, but has held up well.

So, not the greatest looking mount in the world, but the Neo has seemed happy. I had recently been thinking about potting it, to reduce how often I need to water it, and something has attacked the wood, but Idk, cos it's done well mounted. The moss is old and no doubt icky now, but no roots really growing in it. All those long roots have grown since it's been mounted. Hasn't bloomed - I don't suppose it's big enough.

I'd definitely recommend using a bigger mount than I did. Neos are pretty small, but they get crazy long roots

[Shandra]

Originally Posted by WhiteRabbit

Well - I have a small neo division mounted on a small piece of grape wood I got at the pet store - one of the few orchids that has done well for me mounted in our quite dry summers. During spring, summer, and into fall, I alternate days, spraying just the roots well one day, soaking the mount the next. During extremely hot dry weather, it gets an extra spraying later in the day as welll. The piece of wood I used is quite small (the plant was very small), but I didn't take into account the really looooooong roots Neos get, so most of the roots are growing into the air. Mine has not grown roots into the sphag on the mount at all.

I initially had used twine to secure everything - that didn't hold up well - so then I just used some twist tie - doesn't looks real great, but has held up well.

So, not the greatest looking mount in the world, but the Neo has seemed happy. I had recently been thinking about potting it, to reduce how often I need to water it, and something has attacked the wood, but Idk, cos it's done well mounted. The moss is old and no doubt icky now, but no roots really growing in it. All those long roots have grown since it's been mounted. Hasn't bloomed - I don't suppose it's big enough.

I'd definitely recommend using a bigger mount than I did

Wow. Those are crazy roots I don't even know what mine look like yet. Will be repotting and mounting soon I hope. How do you soak it, how long and what do you soak it in? Also do you need to put moss over the roots when you mount or do you leave them exposed?

[Shandra]

I was thinking of using some kind of rock. Not sure what is best? Any suggestions or info about mounting on a rock? And a little off topic but does anyone know if orchidweb is a good place to order moss from?

[WhiteRabbit]

Originally Posted by Shandra

Wow. Those are crazy roots I don't even know what mine look like yet. Will be repotting and mounting soon I hope. How do you soak it, how long and what do you soak it in? Also do you need to put moss over the roots when you mount or do you leave them exposed?

I just soak in a small bucket, plain water, or water with fertilizer -if I'm watering other plants out there just for as long as it takes me to water - might be 5 minutes, might be as long as 30 minutes - I try to give it a good soak - 20 minutes or so, with fertilizer once a week. If I'm not watering other plants I just run water over it or spray it well.
Cover roots with moss when mounting - you can use just enough to protect them from what ever you use to secure the mount, or more if you want more moisture retention. I covered the roots it had at the time I mounted it - subsequently roots have not grown into the moss - don't know if that's just mine, or what

[s.kallima]

Shandra, you can read my thread about mounting a Neofinetia on lava rock : here
The plant is doing so great on this mount that I have added two more miniature Neos on the same rock! And I am planning for more rocks soon...

Otherwise, I have one Suikaden mounted on Douglas bark inside a terrarium and it is doing great.

You can also look at this blog, I cannot read Korean, but if you browse in the old blog entries (below the picture you have pages numbers from 1 to 40), you will see some amazing mounts, rock or wood (some of my favorites are page 23, 24 and the crean of the cream page 28!)

[DelawareJim]

Shandra;

Try a search on mounted Neofinetia on Flickr. There are some truly inspirational pictures there.

My first Neo was mounted on cork back in August 2008. Here's a link to the thread with a couple of pics.
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...first-neo.html

This was it back then:


This is it today:


This is a division of it I took about a year ago and put in semi-hydroponic:


Cheers.
Jim

[Auger]

Originally Posted by Shandra

And a little off topic but does anyone know if orchidweb is a good place to order moss from?

You don't need to order from orchidweb, you can order from where ever. If you only have 1 neo and you want to mound, you probably only need about 5-10 grams of sphag. I'd go for the AAA sphag.

Regular sphag: questionable quality and about 4 inch strands
AAA sphag: about 6 inches
AAAA sphag: about 8-12 inches
AAAAA sphag: 10-18 inches