Masdevallia bicolor - Page 2 - Orchid Board

Tindomul · #11 01-11-2009, 10:25 PM

Great looking Masdies!! Love them.

s.kallima · #12 09-09-2009, 08:02 PM

Camille, do you still have this M. bicolor, how is it growing ? You seem to be the only one on the OB (aside of me) to grow this species.
Mine is very slowwwwwly growing (but it was in poor shape to start with).
I just wanted to know if you grow it in sphagnum or other medium, and ho do you keep it cool ?
This summer I kept it outside in the shade but the temp where quite hot here (in the 30's celcius).
I repotted it today into pure live sphagnum with a bottom of clay pellets, it has nice young roots.

camille1585 · #13 09-10-2009, 02:29 AM

My bicolor is doing great.

I got it a year ago as a division, and it has at least tripled or quadrupled in size since then. it's constantly growing leaves. It was originally potted in a very fine mix (that looked a bit like wood shavings). I was going to put it in sphag in the spring, but I left it the way it was. I might put it in sphag soon now that the mix is degrading and I don't know what it is. It survived the summer very well despite the day temperature being 35°C and above, sometimes above 40. I think what helped was that the nights were fairly cool on average (around 12-15°C) since in France I live up in the hills. It seems warm tolerant to me, since it even put out 2 spikes during the summer. I hope to see a lot more spikes this fall!
How is yours doing?

s.kallima · #14 09-10-2009, 11:38 AM

Thank you Camille for the info. I am glad yours is doing fine. Mine must be missing something, it does grow, but very slowly (5-6 new leaves this summer) and the leaves stay very short (3-4 cm). Hopefully the new sphagnum I put it in yesterday will help...

camille1585 · #15 09-10-2009, 12:35 PM

Strange that yours doesn't grow well. How are you growing it? Mine gets quite a lot of light, fertilized 125ppm N only every 2-4 waterings. I let it get a quite dry between waterings, which is seems to like. Don't know what else, it just seems to thrive on neglect.

s.kallima · #16 09-10-2009, 01:06 PM

Since April it is outside, est facing balcony, morning sun until 10 am (but in the shade of other plants). I was keeping it very wet, maybe that is the problem, but the pure live sphagnum was drying fast and I did not fertilize much.
Thanks a lot, we'll see if I can do better...