Designing a Lepanthes orchidarium

I used a combination of Hygrolon and cork flats and a bit of tree fern for structure. I filled the bottom with LECA, covered that with a plastic screen made by Exo terra ( manufacturer of the terrarium, apparently weed barrier works well for the same thing) and put sphagnum on top of that which I grow things in. No critters

 

The Lepanthes adrianae that Ecuagenera sells is actually Lepanthes sijmii. Both species were published in the same scientific article, but the captions on the drawings were switched, and Ecuagenera based their identification on the article. No big deal because it's an awesome plant no matter what you call it. The Lepanthes hybrid is the most free flowering and prolific lepanthes that I grow.

 

Do you glue the tree fern on the Hygrolon or cork? If not how do you put them together?

 

I glued epiweb backed hygrolon to the glass and glued cork onto that. I put the tree fern directly to the glass on another part of the terrarium. I used aquarium sealant for glue.

 

Was/is unmounting difficult with this design?

 

I haven't really tried to unmount anything once it's become established nor do I plan to. Everything that does well stay permanently. The mounts themselves are also permanently installed. It's not a utilitarian grow space but rather supposed to be naturalistic vivarium

 

If you look in my posts, you can find a thread for it

 

I ment for when the tree fern or sphagnum moss decomposes and needs replaced. Or with vivarium build is this not a problem? Thank you for answering my questions

 

The sphagnum has been a problem and I have had to gingerly tease some out of the roots on the plants when its become degraded. Although as it is degraded, it comes out somewhat easily. The tree fern is a tree fern mount, not shredded tree fern and I expect it to last about as long as the cork mount.

 

That is a great idea. I like the idea using aquarium materials.
Aquarium glues are harmless to the fish and corals. It should be good to use to glue orchids to mounts.

 

I just used it to glue the mounts in place, not the plants themselves. I am sure its orchid safe once its dried, but I would exercise caution in using directly on plants. It has a very strong vinegar smell while drying and I worry it might hurt orchids. Maybe try it with one plant youre not too attached to.

 

I do not smell mine. This is actually same thing as super glue ingredient; ethyl cyanoacrylate gel. It is made to glue corals direct to a rock but, I will test on some orchids before.

 

Yeh, Scruffy, you're using basically super glue. That should fine on plants. They use super glue ( expensive medical grade super glue but it's basically the same thing) sometimes instead of stitches in people actually I would think it wouldn't hurt plants. I was using aquarium silicone sealant, which is different. I'm guessing acetic acid is one of the ingredients due to the vinegar smell.

 

I believe that cyanoacrylate adhesives (super glues) were actually designed to be used for sealing battlefield wounds. Works great on cracks in the skin near nails. Also works great for sticking flowers back on phragmipediums, as they have a disturbing tendency to fall off the day a show opens, and then lay around in perfect shape until the end of the show...

The vinegar smell is the result of the curing process of the silicone sealant - acetic acid is released in that process.

 

Interesting. I never thought about gluing back a dropped flowers. But, I am going to try on to one of my plant to mount on.
Hopefully it stays on until it rooting and does not damage my baby Lepanthes but, I won't be too disappointed even if it does not work for it.