# Dischidia Ovata, how best to mount grow?



## pdfCrazy (Feb 28, 2012)

So I wanted some watermellon Dischidia for quite some time. Finally got a decent cutting a few months back. I've been growing it potted in a s simple soil mix that fairly well areated, but moist. Bu I can find little info on this plant. I understand it is epiphytic. How best to mount it in a tree ferned viv? Does it need bright light, or? Is it best mounted towards the top, where it will trail down, or will it climb and attach with roots/tendrils. Any advice would be great...Thanks!


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## Zach Valois (Jun 7, 2012)

I would be interested to hear what kind of results others have had with this taxa. I personally have tried a couple different things. I have tried many light levels, terrestrially planted in epiphytic orchid mixes, mounted on cork, mounted on foam backgrounds, and potted in long fiber sphag. 

It has been very hardy in my experience. However, I have found it to grow best in moderate to bright light, in a light open terrestrial mixture (long fiber or New Zealand moss mixed with fine bark). Had exceptional results even when placing the start in leaf piles with moss at the lower levels of my enclosures (generally towards the front, as to have clear view), strategically resting the terminal growth on branches in which in can climb onto. 

Growth for me has been slow to moderate, with best conditions being with moderate light in a loose well ventilated medium. When mounting on cork, this plant does not seem to respond well to such restrictions. I would imagine that you would be able to make moss pockets in your background of nodes of branches and have good results. I have not tried growing this in a more standard soil mix, but I will likely try this out of curiosity. Others seem to have good results in well drained hanging arrangements with moderate to bright light.

Zach


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## Otis (Apr 16, 2006)

I have never grown Dischidia (da-shid-ee-a) in soil before but have had good luck mounting them to cork. The ovata seem to like bright light, mine is grown very close to the bulb/top of the tank and has been in bloom for about two years. It is loosely mounted with a little bit of sphagnum. It gets the chance to dry out often, and can take mistings a once a week or more if it really dries out. Most Dischidia really don't like to have wet feet and can rot quickly if kept in constant moisture. Usually I err on the side of dry, if they're not getting enough water they will "warn" you and you can start watering more if need be. Once they start to rot it is a little bit harder to stop the process. 

If you're mounting to tree fern, just do it like any other plant I suppose. It will root itself in the tree fern so the piece doesn't need to be small, you can have it so most/all of the root is touching the tree fern and not hanging free. They're very hardy plants and some will grow in lowish light but I have not experimented with ovata to see how it does there. My guess is that it will do better in medium-high light though, most from this group like it pretty sunny. Hope this helps!


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## frograck (May 1, 2005)

For me, dischidia ovata grows best in bright light, mounted high in the viv, and allowed to stay fairly dry.

To establish good roots from a cutting you need to mist it very often, or pack wet sphagnum around the root nodes, but once a mounted cutting has nice roots, let it get dry often and keep the lights bright.

I have a bunch of ovata in soil, in a hanging basket as a house plant in a south facing window. I neglect it, let it sry out, and it is growing like crazy and putting out dozens of blooms.


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## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

Yes, as already suggested, the best way for most of the laminate foliage types is to make a bundle of moss and attach the bottom most (oldest part) of the cuttings on top of it and keep thet moss damp until the cuttings root. After that, they will fend for themselves.

Oh and its pronounced, Dih-skid-EE-ah.


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## pdfCrazy (Feb 28, 2012)

OK, so to put together everyones advice, it sounds like I should mount this high up, good to bright light, keep the roots wrapped in spagnum, not soil, keep it dry but mist it occasionally. I can do this. However, the "technical" aspect of attaching the spagnum and plant seems to be harder to do in reality on tree fern. I tried to attach a little tolumnia orchid with cotton thread using a needle, and that just wsnt happening. I guess I could try fishing line, I dont know how to get it "threaded" through the tree fern though. Makes me wanna go to town with a tube of silicone.


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## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

You can do it as two separate steps. Take the cuttings and a little pile of sphagnum and tie the cuttings (just 3 nodes worth or so) to the sphagnum. Then use a bent paper clip formed to the shape of a big "U" and pinch it around the sphagnum/cuttings and into the tree fern. Just make sure the paper clip ends are long enough to go almost all the way through the tree fern to the glass on the back for optimum anchoring.


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## pdfCrazy (Feb 28, 2012)

thanks Antone!


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