How To Mount Orchids On Trees (Informational)

In my growing conditions, I cannot attach orchids to trees

But that is something that a lot of you are blessed with a wonderful climate, and you can

My tree is going to be this one right here, but I will tell you how to pick a tree and the best tree

and we'll go through step by step, even though I'm going to do it here, and I'm going to put it in my charium back

If you're new to my channel, thank you so much for watching. My name's Amanda Matthews, and I just share my tips of how I grow orchids indoors since my outside climate ain't that great

The first thing you want to know is if you can grow orchids outdoors

And if you live in the U.S. D. Zone 11, which is Southern Texas, Florida, Hawaii, Caribbean, Southern California, all those states, you can grow orchids outdoors and attach them to trees because year round your weather is a great

agreeable to orchids. Everywhere else, you're going to really have to watch those conditions because they can either get very hot or very cold. Now, if you are not in the United States, you will need to read up on what orchids you have and what temperatures that it will qualify for. What are the best growing conditions that it has? So follow those rules to see if you can attach your orchids to trees outside or not. If not, just stay away from that. Just

them indoors, hang them on mounts, or do a charrarian type setup like I have here

And that's what I'm going to be doing today. I'm going to attach a few telumnias on here and put this log inside my charium

Drive in that kind of climate. Now just don't go out and tie it on the first tree that you see

You need to pick a tree that does get shade in the afternoon

The bark needs to be rough and uneven so the roots can attach

If you have a tree that the bark comes off in chunks or hunks and big pieces, the roots are going to attach to that and fall off your tree

You don't want that. You want a bark that doesn't come off in chunks and that is rough

If you have a very smooth tree, it will not work. Great trees for this are the oak, palm, citrus, avocado, anything that has rugged bark

Now when you have a tree outside you will notice that part of this tree is going to be darker than the other side So if this tree was still actually a tree you can see that this part right here was darker

That's where the water trickled down and it's moisture. That's where you're going to want to attach your orchid

Don't get the side that it's light because water will not naturally trickle down this side

It's going to trickle down on the darker side. and if that is also in the shade, you've got a great place to tie your orchids

Now, if you are mounting a dendrobium to a tree, it will want a little more sun than a catele will

and if it is in shade, it will only produce roots for you instead of flowers

So make sure you get that dendrobium a little side on the sunnier side and keep it in the sun

You'll want to observe this all during the day, because morning sun, sun, all the way to evening

sun, how much sun will this orchid get in this spot? If your tree does not have any darker or lighter size, you have no idea where to attach it

Look for lichen, the little whiteose on your tree. That is where it is very humid and the air quality is great and they are also getting water

They know where the best spot to tie your orchid to, so follow their clues

Where there is a lot of lichen, you can attach your orchid right there

If none of these items match up, just pick a south-facing side on your tree and make sure that it gets some sun and not all afternoons

Another thing to consider is how much light does your orchid get

Because there are high light, medium light, and low-light orchids. If you attach a highlight orchid to a place that has shade that is 80% shade, it's not going to grow that great

And if you have a really shady orchid like a pathopetalum that doesn't like to be mounted, by the way

because there are some semi-terrestrial orchists that do not do well mounted, but like that shade

So make sure you will also observe what kind of orchid you have and where that is going to be attached to the tree

Make sure that you get one that is drought resistant. If you get an orchid that loves humidity, it's not going to do well on any time

type of mount, whether it be indoors or on a tree. So make sure that that orchid does have a high resistance to being dried out because on the mount or on the tree it is going to dry out a lot faster than it would in a pot with spadden moss and orchid bark When is the best time

to attach the orchid to the tree? Right after the blooms have fallen off and you only have the

flower spike and you start to see those new roots appear, that is the perfect time to attach this orchid

to the tree. Those roots have not yet adjusted to the new potting media. When you take them out of the old potting

medium and put them on the tree, they will not feel it as much. I'm going to do these little

telumnias and I'm going to attach them to this tree just one by one. And since these do not grow

very much, they will not spread out. That is a perfect example to start on. But you can start on

a phalanopsis. You can start on the orchid that you have. Before you actually, you actually

get into mounting, make sure you have a visual of where you want your orchid on this mount

Some mounts in our mind will be great, but then when we start mounting, we'll see this

really doesn't work at all. So have a visual, have a map of where you're going to plan it out

And what I always do, and this really gets me because see this right here

See this. These are name tags that should be in pot. They're not because I repot like three or four, five, six at a time and I'll take the little name tags out

When I get done, I see all these five pots together. I'm like, okay, which pot goes with which name tag

So always make sure that you have a paper and write down like on the log

This orchid goes here. This orchid goes here. This orchid goes here. And it's great if you have a notebook to do this with

I do suggest this one here, which I made, and it has all kinds of information in there that you can write down

It's a journal notebook. So you can write down, like on the space here, you can draw your log and write down which orchid is in which spot

So that is on Amazon. You can also see it on my site, and you can see the link down below

And I know this is a two-part video, so just to please the YouTube algorithm and think that this video doesn't suck like you're clicking away

and never coming back to this video, please give it a like, a comment

so there is some interaction because I know the best part is the next video but if you won see the next one without watching this one so I mean we got to please the YouTube gods here to get this video out

So please give it a like or comment and say which orchids you have mounted

What benefits does your orchid have when it's actually growing on the tree

The first one is the perfect light and shade because inside you'll probably have to have artificial lights

Or you'll have to have a good window that gets sun in the morning from around two hours of the morning sun where your orchids can actually thrive in that

The second benefit of attaching your orchid to a tree is the water quality

Your water will already have the nutrients that that tree is going to bring down as the water trickles through the bark

And when there are thunderstorms and the thunder cracks, it's going to have extra nitrogen in there

So all these extra nutrients are going to be already in the water

It's going to be free of chlorine. You won't have to use reversed osmosis or distilled water or any kind of treated water that you have

The rain will already provide the perfect fertilizer for your orchid too

And the third reason is drainage. Drainage, drainage. The number one problem in orchid care is root rod

And that's because we get potting media that doesn't drain as much as it should

So being attached to the tree, those roots are exposed, and they will get the water they need

and just swish it away like they need to. So that is what is perfect for orchids

Now I said three, but they're actually five, because the next one is pollinators

Your orchid will attract the right pollinators that it needs, so it will not be inside

and you know attract what fruit flies so it will attract the pollinator that it needs and the orchid

will overall be healthier and the fifth one is wind circulation that orchid is going to dry out

extremely fast and if you do not have your orchid on a tree you will need an overhead fan on

circulating the whole time on to the next video which you can click right here and if you do not

want to get into that video. And if you already know how to mount, you can click this video over

here, which is an Excel sheet, which you can download for free on my site. So thanks so much

for watching and happy cultivating