Florida Natural Farming?

Epiphyte, do you have a video of how you planted orchids on that huge tree, the seeds that sprouted? My wife is very much into aroids and we have lots of large trees here but the winds seem to have removed all her previous attempts at planting orchid seeds and anthurium seeds, so she wanted to go deeper into the forest. Would appreciate a lot the technical details, how far from existing epiphytes, which location on the tree etc.

sorry, no video.  coincidentally a couple days ago i noticed that our recent severe winds, for socal, had completely dislodged a huge and very old clump of plants including an anthurium from 3 stories up on my tree.  somehow the clump was hanging entirely from its quarter inch drip tube.  basically my big mistake when i attached the bundle was that i failed to attach right next to it an orchid with really long and strong roots… such as a cattleya or vanda.  if i had done this then the orchid roots would have secured the bundle to the tree.  for this purpose something like a typical oncidium with short wimpy roots would have been useless. 

when i attach a cattleya or similarly sturdy orchid to a tree i don’t use any moss.  it goes directly on the plain bark via fishing line.  i use a slip knot technique with the fishing line to attach the orchid as tightly as possible.  if there’s any wiggle room the fragile orchid root tips will break off and the orchid won’t get its roots on the bark and it will languish.  for less sturdy orchids like typical oncidiums i’ll put some moss inbetween it and the bark.  string can work just fine but it isn’t as aesthetic.  in some cases after the orchid has established you’ll need to cut the fishing line or string to prevent girdling. 

for the rest of the epiphytes i use a decent amount of sphagnum moss.  on a table or something i’ll 1st use fishing line to create a moss bundle with a wide variety of epiphytes.  i go around and around the bundle with the fishing line until everything is super snug and i can lift the bundle up without any moss or epiphytes falling off.  then i’ll use fishing line to attach the bundle to the tree right next to a cattleya or vanda or similar orchid with roots that will grow into the bundle and make sure it stays on the tree.

for the orchid seeds, basically i harvested seeds of various epiphytic orchids until i had like a small handful.  i put the seeds in a large plastic bottle, filled it with water, and shook vigorously.  then i slowly dripped it all over the tree.  all the seeds that germinated did so within a half inch of the roots of orchids on the tree.  in my dry conditions that’s as far as the fungus managed to extend from their home in the thick and succulent orchid roots.  i’m sure it’s a different story in wet and humid florida.   

as far as location on the tree… bundles typically are closer to the shady side of the tree, while sturdy orchids are next to them closer to the sunny side of the tree.  in terms of horizontal branches i prefer to put epiphytes on the bottom of the branches.  it makes them slightly less susceptible to being trampled on by the usual suspects. 

staghorn ferns create excellent “pots” for all sorts of plants.  at a local nursery some critters planted some lemon guava seeds on a staghorn attached to a palm…

if you look closely at the top, the seedlings are starting to fruit! 

the old layers of shield fronds combined with the fine roots of the stags create a medium that drains perfectly but also retains moisture.  i’m sure the ph is really good as well.  i’ve seen everything from roses to aroids happily growing in stags.  a guy in queensland that i follow on ig has a queen anthurium happily growing in a platycerium superbum.

that’s cool that your wife is into aroids.  so you can both watch fnf videos together since he’s got a really nice collection of aroids growing among his rare fruit trees.  i’ve always loved aroids and it’s been a trip seeing all the new varieties flood the market thanks to the huge spike in demand that has resulted from their popularity in social media. 

let me know if you’d like any more details.  getting plants onto trees isn’t always the easiest thing, but it’s totally worth all the extra diversity and the associated benefits.