# Wood for mounting?



## MissMorbus (Jun 17, 2007)

Will wood from a Pecan Tree work for mounting orchids? I was working in the yard today, and noticed an old limb we cut from our Pecan tree laying in our brush pile. It looked completely dry and perfect for mounting, so I drug it out and cut it into pieces. It's been there a while (probably over six months), so it's well aged. I had to treat one of my non-orchid plants for a nasty mealybug infestation, so I went ahead and sprayed down a piece of the stick with the same insecticide (Ortho). Do I need to do anything else to it? Will pecan wood even work?

*edit*
Oops...I just realized I typed the title wrong. It should say "Wood for mounting?" Sorry about that.


----------



## Candace (Jun 17, 2007)

I fixed the title for you. I know fruit tree woods are fine for mounting, like apple and pear, but I'm not sure about pecan. Some people bake the wood in the oven on a lowish temp for an hour or so to make sure any critters in it are dead. I believe walnut has oils in it that are toxic to other plants so I'm hesitant to say pecan is o.k. Maybe someone will know for sure.


----------



## Ellen (Jun 17, 2007)

Has anyone used driftwood for mounting? How have you treated it to get the salt out?


----------



## Tom_in_PA (Jun 17, 2007)

Ellen said:


> Has anyone used driftwood for mounting? How have you treated it to get the salt out?



I have used drift wood. I soaked it for a day or two then left it sit out and dry. I repeated this process many times until the water it was soaking in had the same TDS reading as the original water it was soaking in. I then left it sit out in the weather for another couple of months just to be sure 

The plants I have mounted on it seem very happy and are growing fine.


----------



## Heather (Jun 17, 2007)

Candace said:


> I fixed the title for you.



Dang, now I can only *guess* what the original title was.


----------



## Candace (Jun 17, 2007)

> Dang, now I can only *guess* what the original title was.


 Hehe.

Tom's got the right way to use driftwood. Although, since it's so much work I'd probably just stick to the cork or fern mounts that I've already got.


----------



## MissMorbus (Jun 17, 2007)

Thanks for fixing the title Candace! It was originally "Wood _from_ mounting?"

I didn't know that walnut wood has oils in it that are toxic to plants....that makes me a little nervous about using pecan.


----------



## SlipperFan (Jun 17, 2007)

MissMorbus said:


> Thanks for fixing the title Candace! It was originally "Wood _from_ mounting?"
> 
> I didn't know that walnut wood has oils in it that are toxic to plants....that makes me a little nervous about using pecan.


I don't know about pecan, either. But my understanding is that it's the roots of the walnut trees that have the toxins. Plants won't grow anywhere near the roots. I don't know about the wood, itself. I don't think any part of the walnut nut is toxic, but I could be wrong.


----------



## Rick (Jun 17, 2007)

I have had a Cattleya schilleriana mounted on a walnut slab for about 3 years now, and it does fine.

I also have a bunch of long term mounts on locust and thats also supposed to be rot resistent.

I haven't tried pecan but I doubt it would be a problem. Some of the more resinous and aromatic things like pines and cedars may cause problems but I haven't tried them either.


----------



## MissMorbus (Jun 18, 2007)

I have an herb garden planted around the base of my pecan tree, and it's never hurt any of my herbs. That probably means the roots aren't toxic, so hopefully it will be fine for a mount. I guess there's really only one way to find out....


----------



## NYEric (Jun 18, 2007)

Walnut allergy is one of the most common. With drift wood I bleached it then soaked it. Pecan? I'm trying to resist the 'mounting' jokes!


----------



## Candace (Jun 18, 2007)

Let us know how the pecan mounting goes! Maybe try it with a plant worth experimenting with.


----------



## likespaphs (Jun 18, 2007)

SlipperFan said:


> I don't know about pecan, either. But my understanding is that it's the roots of the walnut trees that have the toxins. Plants won't grow anywhere near the roots. I don't know about the wood, itself. ...



it's called allelopathic. i think it just comes from the roots but i'm not sure.


----------



## MissMorbus (Jun 21, 2007)

NYEric said:


> Walnut allergy is one of the most common. With drift wood I bleached it then soaked it. Pecan? I'm trying to resist the 'mounting' jokes!



:rollhappy: Yeah, I snickered a little while reading through this thread. 



Candace said:


> Let us know how the pecan mounting goes! Maybe try it with a plant worth experimenting with.



I will. I have a Haraella retrocalla that I plan to mount (NYEric oke on one of the pecan sticks. It has a bud right now though, so I think I'll wait until after it blooms to move it. I will definately let everyone know how it works out (hopefully for the best).


----------



## Ellen (Jun 21, 2007)

Tom, Thanks for the info. Do you remember about how many rounds of soaking it took to get TDS down to an acceptable level? There's so much really nice driftwood around here that it seems a shame not to use it for some of the orchids.


----------



## Tom_in_PA (Jun 21, 2007)

Ellen

I was doing about a dozen pieces ranging from small branches (1"-2" diameter) to big hunks of thicker branches (4"+ diameter). It took a lot of soaks, at least a 5-6 weeks of soaks (not sure exactly how many times though). This is not including me leaving them out in the weather for 2 months. 

This might have been over kill but I have some great pieces of wood for mounts that were free, look great, and the plants love them


----------



## lindafrog (Jun 25, 2007)

How about cherry , maple , aspen and corkscrew willow for mounting orchids. Is it best to use a small amount of NZSM to attack the plants or best to just tie them on.
Thanks for the help from
Lindafrog


----------



## Candace (Jun 25, 2007)

I personally have always used moss because of my lack of natural humidity here in CA. I think it depends on where you live(relative humidity), type of plant and how often you water. Anything mounted directly on wood is probably going to need daily watering, especially in the warmer months.


----------



## Rick (Jun 25, 2007)

lindafrog said:


> How about cherry , maple , aspen and corkscrew willow for mounting orchids. Is it best to use a small amount of NZSM to attack the plants or best to just tie them on.
> Thanks for the help from
> Lindafrog



I use maple allot. I haven't tried cherry because its smooth and peels easy so it doesn't seem to be good for attachment (although its pretty). I suspect aspen is about the same, as well as sycamore and birch.

I do have a few things that came in (and still are) on manzinita, which is very smooth. It doesn't take much to push roots off of it, and all of the plants on it are still secured with fishing line.

I always use a pad of moss to start a mount, but once they get started it usually breaks down. Sometimes live moss kicks in and takes up the void, but usually its just a bunch of bare roots.


----------



## Phal pal (Jul 4, 2007)

*'Would' Mountings*

I have mounted an Oncidium on a 'diamond willow' fork that I found in the woods. I left it in the garage for a number of weeks at sub-zero temp and then washed it thoroughly before mounting the plant on it. I added some spaghnum moss for moisture retention and wired the whole thing together with some standard twist ties. The plant has put out a healthy new shoot and I'm hoping to convince it to bloom this fall when the light starts to disappear (or at least reduce). I tried another on a piece of fir from the bottom of a Christmas tree. It continued to grow but it didn't produce any blooms (although it had been a prolific bloomer before my experimentation started). I enjoy the experimentation even when things don't turn out right for a while.


----------



## NYEric (Jul 5, 2007)

Photos please!


----------



## Ellen (Jul 8, 2007)

Tom, Thanks for the info. I'm soaking the wood now, and will continue to do so for the next two months or so, changing the water every few days.


----------



## Scooby5757 (Jul 10, 2007)

From what Ive read, my grandparents have two VERY large balck walnut trees in there backyard, the whole thing carries the toxin. It mostly concentrated in the roots though. I don't add the leaves, the little sticks the leaves are produced on that drop off seperate (i guess it is like a petiole), or the walnuts to the compost pile. I've heard it suggested by Mike McGrath on NPR radio to take the walnut droppings and compost them seperately then use it as a mulch in areas of high weed concentration. Kinda like a "killer mulch" 

Beautiful trees, but what a freakin' mess. They put out the leaves, about a week later which is about mid June, they leaves start to drop, the tree gets bare by mid aug, the petiole stick things start to fall, then when those are done falling the walnuts start until nov-dec. These guys drop s**t from spring to winter; great looking trees though.

We still have hostas, leriope, a whole bed of impatients, and painted, maidenhair & ostrich ferns planted around them at the base and they seem to be ok.


----------



## Phal pal (Aug 27, 2007)

*wood mounting*

Took me a long time to get a photo done. We've been busy this summer and I was waiting for the plant to recover a little.


----------



## Ron-NY (Aug 28, 2007)

Rick said:


> I have had a Cattleya schilleriana mounted on a walnut slab for about 3 years now, and it does fine.
> 
> I also have a bunch of long term mounts on locust and thats also supposed to be rot resistent.
> 
> I haven't tried pecan but I doubt it would be a problem. Some of the more resinous and aromatic things like pines and cedars may cause problems but I haven't tried them either.


I don't know about pecan either. I am glad to know about locust, for I am experimenting with it as well. There are many locust trees in my area. They use the wood for fence posts because of it's resistance to rot. I saw a recent mount in a friends greenhouse...very cool...it was the thickened vine of bittersweet with more than one vine wrapped together. I have also used old growth lilac.


----------

