Masdevallia with spots on leaf underside

[Mel]

Funny thing with the temps. I had a Masd. Floribunda outside and it got cold damage. I believe the temps went below 55 that night.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by Mel

Funny thing with the temps. I had a Masd. Floribunda outside and it got cold damage. I believe the temps went below 55 that night.

Masd floribunda does not grow in the same elevations as Masd coccinea and Masd vietchiana.

Masd floribunda is an intermediate growing plant and can be found in mid elevation cloud forests.

Masd coccinea and Masd vietchiana are high altitude growers.

The worst high altitude growing Masdevallia for a hobbyist who doesn't have subalpine conditions is Masd selenites. This is even harder for people with intermediate to warm climates to grow without having to build a special cold Wardian case. The highest temperature this one should experience is 70 F!

Not all Masdevallias should be treated the same, because they're a large and varied group of orchids.

For example there are warmer growing types such as Masd impostor. If you tried growing this one cold, it'll immediately die off.

[camille1585]

Wow King, you know a lot about masdies! I have only Masdie bicolor, and it had brown spots under the leaves when I got it a year ago. It grew a lot, and strangely enough didn't get more spots this summer despite the heat. The day temps were mostly in the 90s but the plant even put out spikes this summer. Do you think that low night temps counter balance the high day temps? At night it was usually in the 50s. Unless this masdie happens to be more warm tolerant.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by camille1585

Wow King, you know a lot about masdies! I have only Masdie bicolor, and it had brown spots under the leaves when I got it a year ago. It grew a lot, and strangely enough didn't get more spots this summer despite the heat. The day temps were mostly in the 90s but the plant even put out spikes this summer. Do you think that low night temps counter balance the high day temps? At night it was usually in the 50s. Unless this masdie happens to be more warm tolerant.

First of all, I forgot to mention, it has been a while, good to see you back on.

Okay, onto the Masdevallias...

I used to be obsessed with Masdevallias, still am.

My collection in the past was 1/3 Pleurothallidae (Masdevallias, Draculas, Pleurothallis, etc). The other third was Bulbophyllum.

Phalaenopsis was actually less than 1% of my past collection. I used to have over 500 different kinds of orchids. Now I only own just under 70.

Unfortunately, I had some personal problems and let a lot of plants in my collection go. (I kinda regret it, the situation was not worth the trouble of losing my plants.)

I had a good collection of them, both hybrids and species.

I didn't grow Masdevallia bicolor, but I'm aware of them. I believe they're cool to intermediate growing. Not really warm, not really cold. I think most people should be okay with these. 90 F is kinda warm, but I think it can take it. There's just gotta be good air circulation and you might have to water more often.

Does this help?

[cirillonb]

I found with my collection which live indoors year round and rarely get above 75 deg F, that air circulation seemed to be the determinant in getting spots. If my fan was off for a couple of days (or my wife put something in front of it) the spots began to appear to stop occurring once circulation was reestablished. Of course the existing spots were there for the duration.
Nick

[RosieC]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

Masdevallia coccinea and Masdevallia vietchiana are pretty cool growing. If your hybrids have those in their bloodline, then they can tolerate temperatures as low as 36 F with no problems whatsoever provided they're protected from frost. The usual low end tolerance of these two plants should fall around 45 F. The top range of temperatures they can tolerate is around 85 F or 90 F. Ideally the high end temperatures for Masd coccinea and Masd vietchiana should be about 75 F.

Mine is actually more in range than I thought then. Ok the high end of the range, but the max is about 77F which is not as far off the max as I feared.

The min is currently 59F but in the place I have it that should drop significantly over the winter.

I've not managed to get a pic of mine tonight, but I'm pretty certain from the descriptions that heat is the cause (it did get even hotter last month). Hopefull if I can start to keep it cooler it will not get any worse.

Thanks everyone!

[Mel]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

Masd floribunda does not grow in the same elevations as Masd coccinea and Masd vietchiana.

Masd floribunda is an intermediate growing plant and can be found in mid elevation cloud forests.

Masd coccinea and Masd vietchiana are high altitude growers.

The worst high altitude growing Masdevallia for a hobbyist who doesn't have subalpine conditions is Masd selenites. This is even harder for people with intermediate to warm climates to grow without having to build a special cold Wardian case. The highest temperature this one should experience is 70 F!

Not all Masdevallias should be treated the same, because they're a large and varied group of orchids.

For example there are warmer growing types such as Masd impostor. If you tried growing this one cold, it'll immediately die off.

I agree about floribunda .whats unusual was it was not growing well in the warm east window I had it. I will jsut watch to make sure temps dont dip below 55 for it.