What are they mounted on? It would make a difference - tree fern, the roots will burrow into the mount - cork, roots go into the nooks and crannies and hard to remove - ditto on the grapewood - cedar board - those can be soaked for a long time and you can gently scrape them off the mount, I use my thumbnail. The phal and paraphal should be easy to switch if mounted on the smooth surfaced mount.

I have a couple of Tolumnia from Andy's and they are truly on a stick, with the roots going round and round the stick. I can't come up with a solution to remove them without major root loss.

I know zero about the rest of your plants. Hope someone else can answer your question and the one I tacked on to your post (thanks:>).

Brooke

How big are the mounts? If small enough, why not put the mount inside a pot or basket and put bark/spag around it. I've done that with no root loss and it saved me watering problems in winter. They are still mounted but the pots hold more humidity around the roots and they dry out less. Some I don't even have any media inside the pots, just the mounts.

I have some wood baskets which I add a sphag top-coat and sit the basket in a plastic container with water on the bottom. The wood basket absorbs the water and keeps the roots hydrated. I can get a week between waterings with that.

Jane

Brooke - Thanks. Everything's on smooth sticks except the loddegesii's on cork, but it'll never miss the ends of a few roots, believe me. No roots on any of the plants are wound round and round. That does sound like a problem for the Tolumnias.

Jane - thanks, too. Only the Den draconis is large, but it's tall, not wide. Do you put your mounties in wood baskets and then down in the plastic, or do you have other plants in the baskets?

Whitecat8

I believe the leafless ones need to be mounted to expose their roots, like Chiloschista pygmeas and Ghost orchid, they do their photosynthesis through their roots.

I stick the mount in a wooden/plastic basket and sit that in one of those plastic salad containers from the supermarket. They are rectangle and about 2inches deep.The mount just sits inside the basket. The 'feet' of the basket sit in the water and the wood basket slowly absorbs the water. I throw some spag loosely around mount and it keeps the area moist.

I also stick a mount in a clay pot and sit the pot in the same plastic container. The clay pulls up the water and keeps the inside of the pot damp. The mount never sits in the water. Cuts back on watering. I use cork for mounts and it stays dry. This works for me and I've never had a problem The roots seem to love it. I've left the mounts in the baskets and hang them outside in summer. Its a lazy way to deal with mounts. The roots stay nice and plump. I'll see if I can find some pics.

Jane

I grow a couple of Encyclias in very shallow pots (bulb pans I guess) with pieces of lava rock. That might work for your Encyclia bracteata. When I had mine in regular pots, I noticed that the roots all seemed to stay near the surface and those that did venture down into the pot didn't do that great. Since I moved them to the pans, both are growing great. The roots still seem to like growing right on the surface, but the lava rock holds a bit more moisture than a mount so they don't need that daily care. Since the pans are so shallow, there isn't enough medium to stay wet too long.

I wouldn't use plastic bulb pans, but rather clay with a few more air holed drilled into the sides. If I remember correctly Bachmans in Plymouth carries the small sized ones I use.

Oh yes, I've also been growing my Laelia lundii this way for a few years.

K

Thanks, Kevin,

I know what you're talking about but haven't looked for any small ones. Do you choose the diameter of the bulb pan by the size of the root mass?

How do you get the plant to stay on the lava rock until the roots grab hold?

Lowe's seems to have lava rock in quantities under 5 lbs., or whatever huge amount someone mentioned the other day.

Whitecat8

Brooke,
What sort of stick has Andy used to mount your Tolumnia? I've found that it doesn't make much difference in results if they are grown on a treefern mount or underpotted in a rather arid mix.

Perhaps you can just tie or tack the existing mount onto a larger mount and new roots will do the right thing. That might be better than doing drastic surgery.

That is what i did with my B. nodosa when it outgrew its treefern mount. Just found a square of weathered hardwood and tacked the treefern mount onto it. The plant is growing new roots out on the newer section of mount.

Cannot tell you the optimum time to divide, repot, unmount your Tolumnia because it depends on your Growing conditions.

Arthur - thanks for the tips. I have no clue what type of stick this is but it is about the size of a fat cigar - very smooth. The one actually has roots wrapped totally in a circle, plus roots up and down the stick.

I think I will mount the stick on a tree fern mount and let it rip. I'm really not interested in potting it because it would have to be in a 2" pot/

I recently purchased a specimen size C. gaskelliana that was originally on a tree fern mount but was put into a wood basket and will soon need to move to a bigger basket. Makes it so easy to repot!

Brooke

WC - I've only found one size of the clay bulb pan. I think it's about a 5 inch diameter. Since it's so shallow, it doesn't really matter if you put a small plant in it. The roots aren't going to rot because there's no place for them to go other than outward. To make them stay in place I either put a couple of large rocks over their roots or tie a piece of string across the top of the pot and over some of the roots or the plant itself.

Thanks, everyone. Lots of options and food for thought. I'm less grumpy about the mounties already. Whitecat8