Masdevallia infracta dropping leaves....please help

[Ross]

Susan, please see my post under your "beginners" forum. Cross posts really don't help get a better response. This board is world wide and European members tend to see posts and responde early in a typical North American day. Asian members tend to post or respond much later. My advice (please don't take this as any sort of criticism) is post once under the appropriate forum then wait to see what develops. Any of the Mods can move your post (at your request) if you don't think you are getting proper exposure. Cross posts tend to lead (ultimately) to confusion. Which one did I post to? Hope you get an answer you can deal with. To sum up mine, I think you may have had your plant in too low light, with not enough air movement and not enough moisture. I doubt the spots are insect-related, so Neem won't help. Thiomyl may help.

[jbigio]

Hi all
I grow Masd on a fairly large scale. Right now I have over 400 Masd plants. My experience with some of the traditional held beliefs about Masd is as follows:

First no plant, Masd imperticular will just lose leave for no reason. The number one cause in leaf loss is stress. This can be from temperatures being to high, not enough air movement or to much or to little water. When a Masd has leaf loss we tend to water them more thinking we are helping them adjust when in fact we need to do just the opposite and let the plant dry ALMOST completely between watering. Air movement is as important as temp with these plants. I have a ceiling fan, a room size humidifier and a pedestal fan in my plant room going 24/7

Second as for mix, the rule of thumb is fine rooted Masd should be grown in moss or a moss perlite mix (what I use). The thicker rooted verities can be grown in a small bark moss mix. I grow all my Masd in moss perlite with no bark or mounted. I have found when I have a plant that is going through a leaf loss problem that mounting it will solve the problem about 75%of the time.

Third temp. Warm tolerant is a relative term when it comes to Masds. Any temps over 75 startes to stress them the species are more sensitive to this then the new generation of hybrids.

Forth watering, I water the mounted plants twice a day since the air movement tends to dry them faster. The potted ones are watered when the surface moss is dry or just slightly dry to the touch remember that the moss pulls the water down to the roots so when the top is dry the middle and bottom is still wet.

Lastly light levels.The thicker leaved plants can take higher light levels then the thinner leaved variates. I grow all my masd at Phal light levels. This seem to work for me. Hope some of this is helpful
Joe

[ronaldhanko]

I want to emphasize something Ross said. In my experience the single most important factor in preventing leaf drop is air movement. The difficulty often is that good air movement drops the humidity and that is not good either.

[daybird1650]

I have around 200 Masd's-they are addictive. It definetly sounds like overwatering.Although a lot of the literature says to keep moist I think it needs to dry out just a tad-especially down at root level. Old sphagnum has a tendency to compact,retain too much water and not let air circulation to roots and eventual rot. I use AAA grade Nz sphagnum with tree fern fiber and pot the medium loosely. If it comes in moss I leave it in moss and usually repot upon purchase. Air movement is important.It does sound like you are on the right track.
Much luck!!!

[betoguerrero]

I think if needs some extra time to be confortable in the new grow area.... maybe the plant needs less light...

[missmorbus]

Thanks everyone for the help! I've been busy lately and haven't been able to give an update. The plant didn't end up making it, but I think I've learned from this. I definitely think the problem was overwatering. I'll have to give it another shot (plant ordering time ).