Brand new and struggling

[Leafmite]

I'm thinking you've never mounted anything on red lava rock...if you set it in water, it wicks moisture and keeps the roots moist. Anthuriums are often sold this way. I have a haraella rectrocalla bare-root, mounted to a chunk of red lava rock with moss and the rock is always damp but not wet. The roots get the moisture they need without rotting. That is what she's done.
People mount neofinetia on these as well.
I grow two Twinkles and cheiroporum and they do quite well in small lava rock chips. I need to buy some larger chunks of lava rock and mount some of my divisions on them.

[quiltergal]

I don't disagree Leafmite. I just think that it is important to master the basics of orchid growing first before moving on to something more challenging like growing on mounts. I also think successful mount culture depends a lot on where you live and your growing conditions.

I've grown lots of things mounted...on sticks, tree fern slabs, and cork bark. Everything did well, but for me it was way too much work keeping up with the watering.

[kheftling]

Hmm, ok...well the roots of the plant are moist, I checked them, so I don't think it's getting too dry. Although the stone is not directly sitting in water. I have it sitting on a bed of small stones within the dish and surrounded by sphag with small stone layer holding the water. Maybe I should add more water in until it touches the base of the mount stone? Either that or maybe I'm not assessing the root condition well? I'll try to take some pictures. They seem pretty fleshed out and are whitish with some brown areas but they don't look shriveled or rotting or anything.

Hehe, I'm so inexperienced at this. Maybe I should have left it in a pot but I was worried my problem last time was from rotting the roots and felt mounting would give me better opportunity to keep an eye on their condition. The pseudo bulbs (I believe that's the term for them?) look nice and filled out and smooth, the leaves have a few dark spots here and there but I was led to believe that could be normal for oncidiums.

Could this all not be related to it being a bit too cold? I thought I might get one of those warming pads you put under seed trays and see if that didn't help keep the window area warmer.

[Optimist]

Originally Posted by kheftling

Well, most of the buds had dropped off one spike (it arrived with two) so I cut that one back just to make sure I wasn't overtaxing. Hope that hasn't made it worse. The moss did feel a bit dry that is surrounding the roots. I didn't think that was the case as the moss beneath it's mount rock is still quite damp. So I gave it some h20. I do need to measure humidity and temp, gotta get that at HD next time I'm there. I was wondering if also it might be the chill as our temperatures just went from 68F to 28F in the last three to four days. Roots looked fine before mounting, and I was pretty gentle with it. Lightly surrounded them with sphag and coconut fiber stuff that it was already packed in the pot with and then tucked it into a natural crevice in the rock and fastened in place gently with some elastic that I thought would keep it firm without pinching the roots. Humidity might be a bit low since we have the central heating on...planning to pick up a mini humidifier or vaporizer. Anyone have suggestions as to a good one? Otherwise the plant looks fairly healthy, still dropped another couple buds today :/

Central heating definitely lowers humidity. I forget to mention here in NM it is mostly warm. Too hot is the problem here. We have a "hall" heater that heats the bedrooms and use a small space heater in the living room during the day.

Humidifying the air is good for you as well as the house. Less splitting and cracking of wood. Less allergies and colds, and less dry skin. Humidifiers are a good idea in the winter for family, pets, orchids (research this topic and you will see).

I keep out large bowls of water, under the orchids I still have humidity trays, and I constantly monitor for dryness.

Seriously, as a newbie, once you have the right approach to humidity and watering of orchids, almost anything else is easy.

[kheftling]

Well I have a large sized humidity tray beneath the plant's dish, and the dish also holds water in the bottom so I was hoping that would assist with humidity. I think I'm going to look into a mini humidifier that will be sufficient for the window space.

[WaterWitchin]

Originally Posted by kheftling

Well I have a large sized humidity tray beneath the plant's dish, and the dish also holds water in the bottom so I was hoping that would assist with humidity. I think I'm going to look into a mini humidifier that will be sufficient for the window space.

I have a desk-top humidifier, purchased from a Walgreen's I think. The water reservoir is a regular size water bottle. I have to refill it daily. But it sure is cute and small. And I just pop off one bottle, put on another one. If you can't find by a google search, I'll try to find a picture of it.