Masdevallia potting advice

[Yamhure]

Hello,

My grandfather was a renowned orchid collector and he passed away recently. He left a very impressive collection of 300+ orchids. I myself love them but never got around to learning in depth for how to care for them. I want to continue his legacy and have just started repotting as many species as I can to take to my apartment. At the moment, I have some Masdevallia Ignea that I just repotted and I used diferent mediums he had in storage. I added a few large grade bark at the bottom and a few charcoal chunks for draining and mixed in coconut fiber and some small grade pine bark as I read they like high mosture. I want them to be happy and thats why I have some questions:


1. Is this potting mix okay? should I add more coconut fiber to retain moisture? what would be the correct proportion?

2. Im not sure if some of the pots are too big for the orchid as I have seen that Masdevallias are kept in smaller containers while having many leaves sprouting out. Is it ok if I put two or three of them in the same pot?

3. how often should I water?

Any other tips are appreciated.

[Roberta]

First, condolences for the loss of your grandfather. Wonderful that you are carrying his legacy forward.

Masdevallias have very fine roots, and do need to be kept moist. The one in bloom is in a good pot for the size of the plant. I think that the others are in pots that are too big. Don't put multiple plants in the same pot. If one gets a disease or some similar problem, it can spread to the others and you end up losing all. Better to get some smaller pots. I think that more coconut fiber would be useful. If you will be growing these indoors, what are your temperatures? Most Masdevallias prefer fairly cool temperatures - especially at night. The clay pots are good, the roots get evaporative cooling. My environment is very different from yours - I grow them outside. Summer heat is the enemy, fortunately nights are usually below 20 deg C (68 deg F) in summer, and I water a lot during the day, some of them still struggle.

[Yamhure]

Hello! thanks for the response and the condolences. Im in Bogota, Colombia. We get alot of rain so humidity is usually between 50%-80%. Its also cool most of the time below 20 deg C and around 10 at night. Ok, so ill try and plant them in smaller pots with a 10% large grade bark and maybe 50% coconut fiber, 30% small grade pine bark and 10% charcoal? What would you do?

[Roberta]

That sounds good for your climate. My goal is the same - most, cool roots. But I think that where you live those conditions come naturally, I have to fight low humidity and warmer summers, "rain" comes out of a hose . I use clay pots, and sphagnum moss - pretty uncomplicated. I also need to use reverse-osmosis water because my city water is fairly high in minerals, which Masdevallias hate. I think the water where you live is much better - of course, rain is the best of all.