Failing Growths on Masd. rolfeana

[ghuylar]

Hello!

I was hoping someone could give me some insight to my difficulties growing this Masdevallia. For background, I am not familiar with the Pleurothallis alliance, and only own two-both of which have been given to me in trades within the past 6 months or so. While both are staying alive, neither are flourishing.

I have been getting new growths periodically on this plant, however once they get about a half inch long, they dry up. It has no trouble producing growths, just cant mature them. I was told when I received the plant that it did not have a great root system, but I am now starting to get new flushes of roots.

I unpotted it to see if I could see any clear issues (photos below), but I could not tell anything other than the roots were worse than I expected. If you have any advice for me on how to prevent this issue from persisting please let me know! Or if you have any advice on pleuros in general I would love to hear it

Thank you!

[Roberta]

What medium are you using? It looks like this plant is really trying... Most of the Masdevallias (including this one) like to grow on the cool side. I have some growing in net pots (Plastic baskets) with loosely-packed sphagnum, and others in sphagnum in clay pots (where there is evaporative cooling) In summer nights are in the high 60's to low 70's F at night, days can get close to 90 F. (They don't like it much, but with extra water will put up with it) Humidity is mostly around 40-50% mid-day which is a little low for Pleurothallids in general but they'll put up with it (I give an extra watering at mid-day when it's hot)

[estación seca]

The growths drying up reflects inadequate water to the plant. That can be any combination of not enough watering, poor roots, high temperatures or low humidity. A plant with poor roots generally does better at the lower temperature and higher humidity ranges of its comfort zone.

[ghuylar]

Hi Roberta,

This has been kept in a mix of large bark and pumice with small pieces of shredded sphagnum moss. It is the same medium my friend gave it to me in, which I had just assumed was suitable since he primarily keeps pleuros. It is kept in a small 2 in clay pot and watered every other day. Temp is approximately 70 F and humidity around 40% (standard home conditions)

---------- Post added at 10:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:29 PM ----------

Hello estacion seca,

This plant does have a very poor root system and is just starting to push out new roots. Temp is around 70F and humidity is relatively low around 40%. Any recommendations?

[estación seca]

Originally Posted by ghuylar

This plant does have a very poor root system and is just starting to push out new roots. Temp is around 70F and humidity is relatively low around 40%. Any recommendations?

Make sure it doesn't dry completely, but don't leave it soggy wet. Can you put it inside a makeshift terrarium to keep the humidity higher while it grows new roots - could you find a used small aquarium? Or a very large jar?

[Carebear2]

The media you descibe sounds great but on your picture you have clay balls attached to the roots which confuses me, are you using bark and pumice or clay balls?

Not that it really matters - both should be fine.
It could be temps, could be lack of water, could be a nutrient imbalance or overfertilization but if it has just recently produced the new roots and the new growths were dying before this then it will have been due to the poor root system and with daily watering should pull through

Personally I would rinse the rootball in a strong shower to remove any debris, then tug on each strand of roots, if the sheath pulls off, pull it off. It the sheath is firm and doesn't pull off easily it is still ok. I can see some of your old roots are still ok but most look dead and will not provide any water to your plant - only the new green roots will - you need to water these daily but remove the rotting roots first or they will rot further

[Roberta]

Carebear2, I don't know how many Masdevallias you grow, most tend to prefer a cool environment (Masd. rolfeana is definitely in that group)... but Masdie roots are very fine so the advice about the assessment of the roots (valid for other types such as Catts and Cymbidiums) would be quite impractical, and counterproductive for a Masdevallia or other Pleurothallid. Here we have a plant with good new growth, but not much below the surface. Humidity, as well as cooling, are the critical factors for this group of orchids. They are also quite particular about water quality. The OP did not mention whether RO water was used (or if local water supply is very low in solids, it may not be necessary) This group needs to be grown on the damp side (never never dry out) but still need air. The OP lives in a very good climate for growing these, with a lot of cool, gray days and high humidity.

[ghuylar]

estacion seca,

Perhaps it will temporarily fit in the mini terrarium I have on hand, or maybe a gallon ziplock bag would work. I'm thinking that spraying the roots may be better than traditionally drenching the media since the root system is so small. Any advice is welcome!

---------- Post added at 09:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:09 AM ----------

Carebear2,
I am using bark and pumice. The person who grew this previously used leca for a period of time and later stopped, however some roots had attached to the leca and I didn't want to remove it for fear of damaging the few alive roots I have.

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by ghuylar

estacion seca,

Perhaps it will temporarily fit in the mini terrarium I have on hand, or maybe a gallon ziplock bag would work. I'm thinking that spraying the roots may be better than traditionally drenching the media since the root system is so small. Any advice is welcome!

Actually, a good drenching is very useful - it pulls air into the root zone and flushes out salts and detritus that are damaging to roots. My own experience with Masdevallias in general is that they got a lot happier when I started using RO water. If your water quality is good, you may not have to, but these are fussy. A possibility is to put it in a net pot, then put that into a clay pot. Clay holds moisture, and then as it dries helps to provide cooling.

In fact, is there someplace that you could grow these outside for much of the year? Winter is too cold, they certainly need to be protected from frost. And if you just happen to get some bright warm days it would need to be shaded.(Masd. rolfeana is one of the more forgiving species as far as heat goes...) But the rest of the year, your cool, cloudy, rainy climate could make one of these quite happy.

I took a look at my Andy's Orchids tag for this species, he has it labeled "intermediate" so that indicates that it is more heat-tolerant than many in the genus. It doesn't need much warmth (probably keep it about 45-50 deg F) but it certainly doesn't require heat (or want a lot of it)

[ghuylar]

Roberta,

I will keep that in mind, thank you for the tip!

Also I do keep it in a clay pot, and the water in the Seattle area is generally very good quality so I have not had any issues. I could potentially grow this plant outside in the fall and spring under an eve so they aren't kept soaking, that is a good suggestion! The only issue would be that night and day temperatures generally have large differences in temperature so the outdoor growing season would most likely be short.

Since I made this thread roughly a week ago I have not had any dying new growths, so maybe things are making a turn for the better! Will keep everyone updated, and of course I appreciate any information that y'all want to throw my way