Anyone have experience with mounting epiphytic plants lik...
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I mean, you kinda just use some fishing line to trap it in moss against the thing you want to mount it on, and you want to be mindful of not trapping any of the plant structures in a way that would be problematic or damaging during its future growth. You’re going to want to use something that will not rot/degrade for a long time, because the plant is going to attach pretty firmly to it after a time and removal will cause damage to the roots. That said, I would not attempt this unless your home is consistently at high humidity (living in a tropical zone with consistently warm temps and an ambient humidity of 75+% inside the home year round) or it’s going to live inside of a plant cabinet/large terrarium.
I technically live in a tropical zone, but AC keeps my spring/summer humidity in the 55-75% range and the humidity is more 50-65% in fall and winter when it’s cool or cold… and I would not mount any of my orchids because I think they would dry out too quickly and it would be much more difficult to keep them warm in the winter.
So if your climate isn’t conducive to being able to keep them moist and warm on a wall year-round but you really like the idea of displaying something mounted, consider doing a google search for a “wall mounted pot”… there are some options that will look nice and keep your plants from drying out as quickly as they would if they were mounted with moss on a plank or somesuch thing.
I technically live in a tropical zone, but AC keeps my spring/summer humidity in the 55-75% range and the humidity is more 50-65% in fall and winter when it’s cool or cold… and I would not mount any of my orchids because I think they would dry out too quickly and it would be much more difficult to keep them warm in the winter.
So if your climate isn’t conducive to being able to keep them moist and warm on a wall year-round but you really like the idea of displaying something mounted, consider doing a google search for a “wall mounted pot”… there are some options that will look nice and keep your plants from drying out as quickly as they would if they were mounted with moss on a plank or somesuch thing.
I mount mine in a sphagnum moss ball no bigger than a tennis ball.
I take a piece of wood I like. I use window screen that I buy in rolls on Amazon. That way I can make a wrapped pocket against the wood with the top open and then tuck my plant inside.
Use long fibered sphagnum. It's easier to work with. I use twine to tie it all to the wood (that's the hard part). I tie it really well with twine until it is sturdy against the wood.
I like using the window screen it really makes it easy!
Link to screen
https://a.co/d/iNxFTGc
Link to long fibered sphagnum moss
https://a.co/d/6BCrXaZ
After about 6 months they are attached and you can remove the twine đź©·
I take a piece of wood I like. I use window screen that I buy in rolls on Amazon. That way I can make a wrapped pocket against the wood with the top open and then tuck my plant inside.
Use long fibered sphagnum. It's easier to work with. I use twine to tie it all to the wood (that's the hard part). I tie it really well with twine until it is sturdy against the wood.
I like using the window screen it really makes it easy!
Link to screen
https://a.co/d/iNxFTGc
Link to long fibered sphagnum moss
https://a.co/d/6BCrXaZ
After about 6 months they are attached and you can remove the twine đź©·
@smushface Thanks! I live in Florida and have known several people who have grown orchids and Staghorns successfully outdoors here. Humidity is not an issue! Haha! It stays high yearround.
@Araceae Thank you! I’m going to do this. I think my fern is still too small but I really want to mount an orchid.
@LaneyLichen for a hot, high-humidity climate like Florida, that makes sense. **Be careful not to trap the crown of the plant under any moss or line you’re using to anchor it**, or it will get slowly crushed and new growth will get trapped and break. Choose a mounting surface that is rot-resistant. Recommend watching some YouTube videos on orchid mounting, and visually analyze how people are doing it and ways you think their technique may either make future growth and maintenance problematic or easy. When you attempt mounting the plant, make sure the roots are hydrated to reduce the likelihood of damaging/breaking them and make it easier to shape them in the way you need for your mount
If your goal is to mount them outside on a live tree or something, be careful to ensure they are mounted sideways or upside down so that any water that falls into the crown from above can drain away from it via gravity.
If your goal is to mount them outside on a live tree or something, be careful to ensure they are mounted sideways or upside down so that any water that falls into the crown from above can drain away from it via gravity.
@LaneyLichen with regard to damage by bad mounting, here is an example of bad mounting… I received some baby novelty phal orchids that were badly mounted, the mounting crushed their crowns and broke their leaves… basically you want to ensure that any growth point on the plant (base of crown and root tips) will have the freedom to continue growing wherever they want want. The larger one initially had a few more leaves that fell off because they were broken (or hanging by a thread and fell off within 2 days) by being crushed by the mounting, and they both had signs of a new leaf or two that had tried to grow and just broken because it was trapped under moss. The roots are also barely attached to the base of the plant / hanging on by a thread. The first one was worse but I didn’t start taking photos until I had started unmounting it and saw the extent of the damage. I have been rehabbing them on top of moss in a humidity dome
