I would suggest dunking it into a bucket of water once or better yet twice a day. Sure there are better choices to mount on. I can think of cork, tree fern and even cedar shingles. Maybe someone else can cheer in because I'm no expert when it comes to mounts.

Most orchids are epiphytes. They therefore grow ON things rather than IN things. The only purpose of the mount is to keep the thing from falling to the ground. It derives no other benefit from the mount.

To prove that point I placed a BLC Sea Urchin in an old tennis shoe and attached a wire to it. That was 7 years ago, the plant is so big now you can hardly see the shoe anymore. I always show it to people at our show lectures to prove that they will grow absolutely anywhere and, by the way, that they are not difficult. If this thing will grow in my old shoe it should grow anywhere for you , I tell them.

The mount is for your pleasure. Mount it on whatever turns you on, the plant could not care less.

Nick

I have to be able to deal with both inside (dry!) and outside (wonderful!) conditions on all of my mounties (7 or 8) and bare-rooters (6-7 vanda types). I agree with the bucket dunking as it is about the only way I can get them wet enough when inside, but then I do the same thing all summer long when they're outside too. My bare root ones get dunked 1-3 times a day, the ones with a bit of spagh every 1-3 days depending on rain/humidity. I'm much more diligent about this when they are outside, and you can tell. During the winter/while indoors I just try to keep them moving forward or not declining, plus I mist more than I dunk, just a bigger hassle/mess to dunk when indoors.

I use cork with a little spagh mainly, but do have a Den Unicum on a shingle. Most of my vanda types are either bare-root in baskets or mounted on cork bare-rooted.

I think Nick's shoe had some special foot fertilizer or something :-). But speaking to how they adapt: I pitched a very iffy cat hybrid that had been struggling for me for several years onto my compost pile 8-9 weeks ago. It now looks better lying there on the side of the pile than it has in the last 2 years, go figure :-) Not sure I'm going to try and rescue it, but still it shows we sometimes try too hard with them.

Now that I think about it, a dendrochilum might look good in an old pair of fancy heels?

Bob

I usually use pieces of tree branches, from 1" to 3" diameter and 6" to 24" long. They're free and look natural. Here's a typical one.
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Hubby found a piece of tree branch, drilled a hole through it, then I attached the orchid with some sphagnum moss with fishing line. What do you think of it?

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I just pulled a dendrochilum off of a burlwood mount (mine came from Oak Hill- one of the last shows they did).. I couldn't keep it wet enough. But I do love mounts for other things; Tolumnias for sure, smaller cattleyas (you can do the big ones too, but I haven't yet), bulbos, and I just put a neofinetia falcata division on a bit of grape vine. I am also starting to mount my phalaenopsis instead of repotting them and it is working well. I think you just have to see what works for your situation.

Beware of dunking plants all in the same bucket of water. This can spread disease. Sometimes virus. Better to hose the plant.

You often see various of species of Dendrochilum around the orchid shows here. They are always potted because that shows off the flowers best. I have 400 Tolumnia hybrids, they are all in tiny pots. Not that there is anything wrong with growing them on a mount but as soon as a collection of anything get past size X mounts become a pain.
Of course there are some orchids that MUST be grown on a mount. Cattleya aclandiae is one in my conditions.

No problem with my collection getting too large, since I'm limited by the number my shelves can hold. I'm up to 43 and 50 would be the absolute limit. This mount was just to experience a new way to grow orchids. Thanks for all the comments though.