Unidentified Masdevallia and care tips in Cali

[msphuongsy]

Hi OB,
I received this Masdevallia as a gift and I'm not sure what type it is but the flower stems are turning yellow and I'm not sure what else to do. I have a few Phal and those are doing fine. It sits on my kitchen counter with indirect sunlight and I water it once a week. I just put a tray of gravel as recommended by other orchid care sites to create humidity and moved it to a window still for more air movement.

Any care tips would help.

[jrodpad]

Not sure why the leaves are turning yellow... I have a masdie that likes to be evenly moist - not soaking wet, but moist all the time. It starts sulking if I let it dry out between watering. As a result, I have to water it a little more frequently than twice a week (about twice as frequently as I water my phals).

Also it might help to try and find out the type of masdie if possible. From what I understand there are both warm and cool masdies and if yours is a cool masdie than its happiness will depend on hitting the right low temps at night.

Not sure if that helps, that's just what happens to work for me - hopefully someone with more masdie experience will chime in.

- J

[Tindomul]

A real beauty. Identifying it will take me a long while and maybe never, but I will try.
I would say, its too dry. Not in terms of how much you water it, but in terms of ambient humidity. Masdies all like ambient humidity above 50%. Below that they start to suffer. They also need lots of air movement, since they are sensitive to overly wet conditions. It is hard to keep a plant both humid and well ventilated in our homes. Besides that, even the warm growing species suffer when exposed to really warm temperatures. Even the warm growing species should be grown at temperatures in the 70' and at most low 80s. Dips in the 60's at night will help a lot. If we Identify this plant, and its a cold growing species, then that would mean that the species likes it with temperatures no higher that the low 60's. Good luck, and I will post again.

[Tindomul]

Probably a hybrid.