Growing/mounting Sophronitis cernua?

[Morja]

I have this vision of mounting a little Sophronitis cernua on a small branch of cool looking old mountain wood, and maybe sticking it in a tiny terrarium/glass orb thing if it needs more humidity than I can provide. Does this sound reasonable? Would it crawl along the branch over time?
I think they're just so darn cute!
Any other tips also appreciated.
Screenshot of Google image search for reference.

 

[Morja]

Mountain wood in question- or something like it, because this one is pretty skinny. Easy to find cool old wood in Montana on alpine hikes.
Another piece that is bigger. Someday when I have a greenhouse and am no longer in a camper, I want to hang it branch style and mount something creeping on it. My dog wants it! I have to tuck it away out of reach

 

[Tom-DE]

Leave it on the cork mount if I were you...It is one of the easiest Sophronitis and it will grow faster too.
Give that stick to your dog to play

 

[Morja]

I ended up buying one already mounted, haha. Nooo not my special stick! I'll incorporate it into something... someday

 

[richgarrison]

Maybe this is worth appending to this thread.

Mine was growing well on a teak root. But ‘let go’ and stopped growing well. I just removed it from the root, cleaned it up, and mounted to a fresh piece of cork. I can update this thread in 6 months or so with the progress for infos sake.

 

[Morja]

Maybe this is worth appending to this thread.

Mine was growing well on a teak root. But ‘let go’ and stopped growing well. I just removed it from the root, cleaned it up, and mounted to a fresh piece of cork. I can update this thread in 6 months or so with the progress for infos sake.

I look forward to updates! I'm new to them myself. What do you think about this mount situation? It came like this.

 

[PhilaGardener]

Gonna be a problem later if that puppy wants to play fetch the orchid!

 

[Tom-DE]

I'm new to them myself. What do you think about this mount situation? It came like this.

It looks good, don't need to change a thing. Let it approach dry/dry out before watering, bright light. Based on how strong the new growths look, you might see some flowers soon.

 

[richgarrison]

I look forward to updates! I'm new to them myself. What do you think about this mount situation? It came like this.

watch for active root tips...

i showed a similar mount to that to Peter Lin of DIamond orchids... he immediately started pulling the moss off the mount...

but remember the adage,."what works for you works for you;. Meaning, what i just mentioned about Peter pulling moss off may not be a thing you should do.. but for me, it was.

I'd say keep an eye on it, and watch the root growth carefully. if you see black tips, short roots. worse case, the velum deteriorates.... if that is happening, (carefully) remove the moss. give it a few months to recover and start rooting out...

but if you are seeing good root growth keep up whatever you are doing

welcome to the journey...

 

[Morja]

watch for active root tips...

i showed a similar mount to that to Peter Lin of DIamond orchids... he immediately started pulling the moss off the mount...

but remember the adage,."what works for you works for you;. Meaning, what i just mentioned about Peter pulling moss off may not be a thing you should do.. but for me, it was.

I'd say keep an eye on it, and watch the root growth carefully. if you see black tips, short roots. worse case, the velum deteriorates.... if that is happening, (carefully) remove the moss. give it a few months to recover and start rooting out...

but if you are seeing good root growth keep up whatever you are doing

welcome to the journey...

Excellent advice. I'll do that.

 

[Tom-DE]

Yes, keep your eyes on the moss as Rich said. I used far less moss when I grew things on mounts in my condition. That being said, it all depends on your growing condition--humidity and how fast it will dry out. When I had my mix collection, 75% of my plants were mounted...it was fun but a lot more "work"...not feasible IMO if you want to travel often.

 

[DrLeslieEe]

Cernua has to get a little water in morning and dry completely by night. So based on your growing area, keep this in mind if you use moss or not. You can search for posts on my cernua flava mounted on cork.

 

[Morja]

Cernua has to get a little water in morning and dry completely by night. So based on your growing area, keep this in mind if you use moss or not. You can search for posts on my cernua flava mounted on cork.

I will keep an eye on it and maybe reduce the moss then. It dries out very fast when I have a fan going, but it isn't always on and I'm considering decreasing its use anyway because my humidity is already always so low.
Will do, thank you!

 

[Morja]

So I kept thinking about what you guys said about the moss, and eyeing the plant... it just didn't feel right! I was worried the moss was on there too thick and tight, with the outer portion hardening to cement before the center dried. I decided to wet it down really well and just poke at it a little. I think I was (and you were) right, there was too much moss! It was packed in TIGHT. I found two root growth tips, one on a very rough looking root and another just emerging from a new growth (covered loosely by moss so you can't see it in the after pictures).
Before I poked at it:

After. I left quite a bit of moss on still (being that I have low humidity) , but I thinned out the thickest area and I think the roots will be able to breathe better now:


Hopefully it thrives and I didn't disturb it too much!

 

[Tom-DE]

how is it doing?

 

[Morja]

Seems to be doing alright! Two new leaves, roots making good headway, and as you can see from the purple in the pictures it's kept very bright. No blooms, but I'm not terribly surprised. My ambient humidity has been VERY low since we moved from Montana to Idaho in July. I'm struggling to keep it over 30%, and it's far away from my humidifier. I have another mounted plant, a BV Yellow Birds that I've had for about a year, that threw out a bazillion new growths and is just now finally sending up two spikes. So it seems reasonable for adjustment to my conditions to take a good year. I had hoped for blooms from these growths so I'm a tad disappointed, but I knew it was also probably unlikely. Overall I'm pleased with it. I think roots are happier since I removed some moss.

 

[Tom-DE]

It is doing very well! Congrats!

 

[big923cattleya]

Low humidity will not keep it from blooming.

 

[Morja]

It is doing very well! Congrats!

Thank you!!

Low humidity will not keep it from blooming.

I guess I assumed that whoever grew it from flask before me likely had higher humidity/a different environment, and the switch to my environment could be a shock. I do need to research the natural environment of this plant though. I should also probably mist it daily- I haven't been. It gets a soak or deep spray about twice a week.