Quick min/max for varieties?

[Roberta]

Out of curiosity, what is your 80% humidity plant? (I have a yard full of plants that get a lot less than that, some are cloud forest plants that do need sphag or extra watering) So get specific... (The names may still be gibberish to you but they'll start making sense soon. Absolutely necessary when seeing advice, to identify what we're talking about)

Back to "high light" needing to be tempered. If the light level is a little inadequate it might not bloom but won't be harmed. (It'll take a year or so on a blooming size plant to make that determination) But too much will do what you saw, toast leaves, So err on the low side with regard to light. You can gradually increase it if needed, but the burn spots won't go away, and overdoing the light will also stress the plant.

[estación seca]

The plant was potted in sphagnum because the grower found that the easiest way to manage watering. It doesn't significantly raise ambient humidity.

Trays with water and pebble under plants don't raise humidity in growing areas unless the areas are tightly sealed with no air exchange. You will read about using them for the rest of your life but they don't work.

The only way to raise humidity in an area is to put a large amount of water into the air. That means some kind of humidifier, either boiling or evaporative/fan or ultrasonic. Outside is too big for us to modify except right in the path of a humidifier. Enclosing an area in a greenhouse is another way to raise humidity.

Do you have a good hygrometer? Maybe your humidity isn't that bad.

[Roberta]

I grow Masdevallias in clay pots with sphagnum... the sphag holds alot of moisture, and the moisture + clay tends to cool the roots. Where I live it's really too warm in summer for many Masdevallias... the ones I grow are the ones that put up with my conditions. So there are some that accept the compromise, I don't grow the ones that perished. The mounted plants got through our bout of 10-15% humidity by getting watered several times during the day. Ideal? No. But they will tolerate short periods of this sort of insult. So let us know what plant is concerning you, and likely I or someone else can come up with a scheme that will work for both you and the plant. Generalities don't work, there's too much variation between orchids. Need to know "which one" to give accurate advice.

[HiOrcDen]

Originally Posted by Roberta

I grow Masdevallias in clay pots with sphagnum... the sphag holds alot of moisture, and the moisture + clay tends to cool the roots. Where I live it's really too warm in summer for many Masdevallias... the ones I grow are the ones that put up with my conditions. So there are some that accept the compromise, I don't grow the ones that perished. The mounted plants got through our bout of 10-15% humidity by getting watered several times during the day. Ideal? No. But they will tolerate short periods of this sort of insult. So let us know what plant is concerning you, and likely I or someone else can come up with a scheme that will work for both you and the plant. Generalities don't work, there's too much variation between orchids. Need to know "which one" to give accurate advice.

This orchid is a Masdevallia Coccinea 'Leywoods'. I read that it is a cool grower as well. Perhaps I could use an evaporative cooler.

[Roberta]

This one can likely grow outside nicely for you. Shady. A good candidate for the sphagnum + clay (terracotta) pot treatment. Even double clay pot... the sphag gets the clay wet and you get evaporative cooling around the roots, which gets it through the warm days. Your nights are nice and cool. One caveat, though... this one, and most Masdevallias, are fussy about water quality. You'll want to use RO or DI water. I found that my success rate for Masdevallias and other Pleurothallids increased significantly once I put in an RO system. Most of the San Diego area has water that ranges from pretty bad to really awful (liquid rocks). Some orchids are fussier than others... you can get away with city water on Catts, Cymbidiums, Phals and a lot of things. But when you venture into the cloud forest orchids, you do have to pay attention to water quality.

A few days or weeks with less-than-great water won't kill the sensitive plants immediately (if it's not tooo horrid) but over a number of months or a year or two, you'll see failure to thrive.