Masd ‘Sunset Jaguar Nightbreed’ yellowing

[harpspiel]

Just got one of my long time wishlist plants, Masdevallia ‘Sunset Jaguar Nightbreed’ - shipped from California and arrived 4 days ago. It shipped without a heat pack due to CA’s heat wave, it wasn’t terribly cold when I got it and it looked green, but this could possibly be either heat or cold damage.

I unpotted the plant and it had mostly good roots but an old dead section that I removed. I soaked it in an RO/alum solution for a few hours (my preventative against snails - I bleach the plants I can bleach, others get alum, which doesn’t even hurt moss) then potted in LFS I recently (a few days before) baked to sterilize. I’ve been keeping it lightly moist with RO and 1/4 strength MSU fertilizer since, sitting in my grow tent at 80% humidity and temps 65-75, next to my Masdevallia lamprotyria and ‘Anai’.

Today I noticed 4 out of 6 leaves yellowing and I’m freaking out a little bit, it dropped 2 of those leaves right after I took the pic. Is it just sulking from shipping/repotting or is there something I’m doing wrong here? I’m quite good at most Pleurothallids but Masdies don’t love me as much as I love them…

[estación seca]

Bump


My impression is these need to be wet, not lightly moist. But I don't grow them because it's too warm here much of the year.

[harpspiel]

Originally Posted by estación seca

My impression is these need to be wet, not lightly moist. But I don't grow them because it's too warm here much of the year.

Wetter than other Masdies? I’m a recovering overwaterer, I can certainly do wetter…

[estación seca]

I'm hoping others join this thread because I don't grow them. When I tried I found I needed to keep them quite wet. When I looked up Masdie culture here on OB I read people writing they kept them wet.

[harpspiel]

Originally Posted by estación seca

I'm hoping others join this thread because I don't grow them. When I tried I found I needed to keep them quite wet. When I looked up Masdie culture here on OB I read people writing they kept them wet.

Oh, you mean Masdevallias in general. No, I don’t keep them wet, that is a recipe for root rot. But it may be a matter of terminology - I keep Pinguiculas wet, and filmy ferns wet. Masdies I keep evenly moist, approaching dryness between waterings (sphagnum stays pliable), similar to Pleurothallis, slightly wetter than Restrepias but drier than Lepanthes…here’s a description from OrchidWeb that I like:
“It is best to water the thin-leaved species as they approach light wetness, when the media is still evening damp to the touch but the pot is light. Thick, heavy-leafed species prefer to approach dryness at the roots, when the media is lightly damp to the touch.”

I was more looking for specific recommendations re: this hybrid or complex, or advice on whether, having just disturbed the roots, I should keep it wetter or drier than usual, hold off on fertilizer, etc. But thank you for commenting and bumping.

[Shadeflower]

REDACTED BY MODERATOR... so I will tag along as a non grower of masdies and just comment that it is still very small looking.

Practically seedling size. Seedlings need completely different care to a mature plant. Like with mature plants overwatering is the biggest issue yet with seedlings drying out is the biggest issue.

So often I see phals sold in the shops here that have been propagated in seedling plugs. Plugs that I am used to growing regular house plants in and would generally be unsuited for mature plants yet the nurseries more and more are opting to grow their seedlings in them. It's something I just recently decided to try myself.
I know I'm going a little off topic with my thought process, my point is just that seedlings are far more fragile, prone to drying out more, especially in the mail.

Never tried an aluminium soak before but seedlings are far more sensitive early on too, who knows, this one has suffered, can be seen but I'm with ES not really knowing what to suggest or why it even happened, like you we can only guess, either too hot, too cold, dried out too much or the aluminium soak was too much for the size of the orchid.

Fertilizing is a long term fix and won't show results for months. Sometimes an orchid will die way before any fertilizing will have an effect since you can't overfertilize (they are very sensitive) it's more a case of fertilizing strengthens the orchid so it develops less problems in future and the orchid that wasn't fertilized properly will develop fungus problems, spots, pest issues, bud blast, poor growth, reduced flowering etc

Once an orchid has reached that stage of poor health it is too late to think of giving it a big boost of fertilizer. It just won't help in time. I am always in favor of treating orchids well but sometimes it can be a little out of our control.

I think it has good chances of recovering but you will just have to wait and see, I don't think there is any miracle thing to do to reverse the main new leaf having yellowed. Just treat it like you would any other, good fertilzing is important, light temps and all the usual basics but at the same time don't expect anything in particular to reverse what has happened. It will either grow out of the issue or not.

[harpspiel]

Originally Posted by Shadeflower

Practically seedling size. Seedlings need completely different care to a mature plant. Like with mature plants overwatering is the biggest issue yet with seedlings drying out is the biggest issue.

As I mentioned, I removed some old dead growth. It’s not a seedling, it has bloomed before, just a fussy plant that had lost leaves in its previous owner’s care as well.

And I’m not asking about giving lots of fertilizer, I fertilize everything at 1/4 strength almost every watering since I use R/O (occasional breaks with straight R/O to flush things). Just wondering if I should use straight R/O, having recently disturbed the roots.

---------- Post added at 03:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:54 PM ----------

I’m really looking for feedback here from experienced Masdevallia growers and ideally someone used to the Sunset Jaguar line - chaparensis, Copper Angel (which was a very popular hybrid when I first started growing Masdies maybe 15 years ago, but I haven’t personally grown it), triangularis, veitchiana.

[estación seca]

Bump.

I know we have Masdevallia growers here.

[harpspiel]

Apparently no other Masdie growers around lately, but good news - it went down to two leaves, but the remaining leaves look good and I can see at least three new growth points now. I think it's going to make it - at least until my summer temps hit!

[Roberta]

I grow Masdies but not terribly well... nearly all do fine with my cool winter nights, but many resent warm summer days. I keep them fairly damp. I favor sphag in clay pots ewpecially for the samallerones - the damp clay helps keep roots cool when it's hot and/or dry. (Bigger ones sphag in baskets, enough mass to stay damp) I get soooo tempted by the beautiful ones on the society sales table at the San Francisco Show, have to put my hands in my pockets to not grab, SF is a much better place to grow them but I keep trying...

Parentage of this one leans toward the cool side. Glad it seems to be reviving!