Cypress or cedar holds up well against the weather. Cypress is my first choice. Home depot has some made from cedar already built barely more than the cost of the wood.

The problem with most timbers that hold up well to weather, like cypress, is that they have resins which can affect epiphytes like vanilla. That's probably what happened with your first attempt. Might be worth trying to contact one of your local orchid groups/societies to see what they use for their slatted baskets. Treefern would work, if you could get long enough pieces.

I have successfully mounted orchids on fully dried scraps of rough cypress. The first attempt on this thread was on pressure treated lumber. Those chemicals were more likely to be the problem. The underlying species of the PT is pine, which has loads of resins. Also to minimize resin issues avoid green lumber. Green lumber needs to be air dried for a year to the inch or kiln dried. I bet there is a big difference in terms of rejection of orchid roots, green vs. seasoned wood.
I'm sure cork will work, but you need a very big piece. And it is expensive. Rope might work. There are a lot a variables on rope. What kind of fiber, what diameter, solar exposure, is the rope treated? and more. But it could work.

This post was edited by shavedmonkey on Fri, Apr 25, 14 at 13:22

Thanks for all your help. The new trellis is up(both are in the pictures below -sorry only one posted. I'll try to add the other) and I took one of the Vanilla orchids off the tree and attached it to the bottom of the new trellis. Next I hope to take the BIG one off the tree and attached it to the top of the trellis. Any advice on how to unattach it? Can I cut the attached roots off the tree?

Here's the old trellis and Vanilla orchid. The 15 ft. one is the one I want to attached to the top sections of the trellis. Hope I'm lucky in getting it attached.

Very cool!

Jane

Do it when humid/wet weather sets in, that's when it has its best chance.

In Delray there is a store called the green barn. That is where you can get Maxi-crop. It is Norwegian sea weed juice. This has a natural chemical, humic acid. A root stimulant. Harvested responsibly. That will improve your chance of success.

I'm not sure about taking a long and old vertical vine and asking it to be happy horizontally. But the maxi-crop could help. What kind of wood is the trellis?

Why take it off the palm tree? It seems to be happy.

Yes, it seems to be happy, but I had no way of trying to pollinate the blossoms and they really didn't bloom well. The pods developed but less then half turned in to flowers.
I got the trellis from Home Depot and they said "It's not treated wood". I'll try to get the Max Crop.

I feel happy will be when new roots come out and it re-attaches itself to your trellis.

Are you aware of the intense labor to produce vanilla? The major vanilla crops of the world comes from places where labor is very cheap. I've seen documentaries on making vanilla beans and it is a ton of work.

All that said, I'm sure it will be interesting and learning to make vanilla. I wish you luck and please keep us posted on your efforts.

Mine flower a lot, most are way up out of reach. But after researching what was needed to produce vanilla I've never bothered with pollination. Just couldn't commit the time and effort needed in the process. It is a lot of work over a long period. So I just enjoy the view with vines running all over the trees, and any flowers that come out lower down.