Masdevallias with brown crispy leaf tips...

[greenpassion]

I recently bought 2 masdevallias from a grower on line. They are in 3" pots and have finished flowering. They look healthy other than a few leaves have brown crispy tips. I'd post a photo but I'm at work. I am totally new to masdevallias, and plan to grow these in S/H very soon. Any suggestions?

[Cym Ladye]

Probably grown too dry, too hot, too bright, too much fertilizer or all of the above. Are these masdies of the cooler or warmer growing type? It would be helpful for you to have that information, as not all masdevallias are happy under the same conditions.

CL

[greenpassion]

These masdies are the cooler growing type.

[keithrs]

What Cymladye said.... Low temps are not as important as high temps....By that I mean keep cool. High temps will make them stress. Try to keep under 78 and above 45. They tend to like cooler temps way more then warm temps. Fertilizer 1/4 strength once a week. Keep constantly moist not too soggy or too dry. Keep humidity up in the 70% range. Good air movement well help.

[Zoi2]

I have a couple of masdevallias I grow in S/H; infracta and infracta hybrids. I keep them around 75-80 degrees in the summer and 60-70 in the winter. My humidity is less than optimal at 40-60 percent throught the year. They seem to do fine, and bloom well.
Joann

[Cym Ladye]

I was given a group of awarded veitchianas and a few veitchiana hybrids. I pretty much ignored them, left them outside with the Cyms but a little shadier all year long and they thrived. Last summer I put them in an open greenhouse (no additional heat) and they were definitely not happy. They are now back outside for the foreseeable future!

CL

[billc]

Originally Posted by Zoi2

I have a couple of masdevallias I grow in S/H; infracta and infracta hybrids. I keep them around 75-80 degrees in the summer and 60-70 in the winter. My humidity is less than optimal at 40-60 percent throught the year. They seem to do fine, and bloom well.
Joann

I was wondering if Masdies would take to S/H. I have to repot mine soon, I may throw a couple in S/H and see what happens. I'm glad to hear yours do well Joann.

Bill

[Discus]

Originally Posted by billc

I was wondering if Masdies would take to S/H.

I seem to recall that the orchidkarma blog had an experiment on this.
Take a look at The Masdevallia experiment: day 160 « Orchid Karma :: An orchid blog

I suspect given their fine roots, they'd probably enjoy S/H more if you had a finder medium than normal LECA; I've seen something called Seramis(?) which is quite similar looking in composition, but much finer grained (and not round). Of course on the other hand, the fine grain-ness may nullify the whole S/H principle of getting both air and moisture to the roots - too small and random a grain size == tight packing and poor gas exchange, and possibly root death.

I can only imagine the next big thing in orchids would be aeroponics!

[billc]

Thanks for the link Discus. I'm still going to give it a shot as long as I can set the plant firmly in the Leca.

Bill

[greenpassion]

Well my temps here are in the 60-63 range at the moment, and the humidity is around 50%, which I know is not optimal. I went and bought a 'whole house' humidifier, and even with that, it's 50%. Don't know yet how they'll do....