Masdevallia 'Flying Colors' with spots on leaves and older flower

[Salixx]

Hi all and sorry if I ask a lot of questions. I try to search and stuff, but I always end up with "I think this is it, but I'm not sure and I am paranoid."

I like to confer with others with more experience. Unfortunately, I joined my local OS, only to find out they meet on Saturdays and I work nearly every Saturday , so you all are my go to when I need to talk to a person!

I have a Masdie 'Flying Colors' that I purchased on June 25th from J & L Orchids and repotted into an (I believe) 2.5'' plastic Aircone pot the following weekend. The potting mix consists of roughly a 1-1-1 ratio of sphag moss, medium grade perlite (about the size of aquarium pebbles) and medium grade fir bark. I water thoroughly with tap water whenever the top exposed sphag is almost completely dry (interior still has moisture, as visible through the clear pot). My tap water has a pH of roughly 7 (maybe 7.2) and gH/kH around 107ppm if I remember correctly. I fertilize every other week with MSU tap water fert at 1/2 recommended does. It has probably completely dried out once or twice through my exhausted negligence from working too much. It has a new growth started, new roots and has formed two buds and flowers from spikes that were just starting when I bought it.

It gets about one hour of direct morning sun (that I didn't know about until this AM), other than that, it is next to my terrarium and gets low light spill-over from that and the nearby southern-ish window. Night time temperature is usually around 60-63F while daytime is usually 75ish, but sometimes up to 80. Occasionally, it has gotten to 85 when I am not home... the BF cares a bit less about the demands of orchids but he tries. There's a ceiling fan in the room running 24-7, with this Masdie swaying gently in the breeze. Humidity runs between 55-75% depending on whether the humidifier has been filled.

My concern is that a two new masdevallias were growing near to it... about two feet away. I discovered the start of a scale infection on both (these two were acquired from the same ebay vendor). They have been removed from the area and are in my best of a quarantine, but I am a little worried. The Flying Colors is not showing the same symptoms and I haven't found any adult scales, but I want to make sure it's 'okay.' It looks like maybe what I imagine is a bit of heat stress- I hope other Masdie growers can confirm/ suggest something else.

Older flower with black spots on lower sepals (this one's been open since purchase, new flowers do not have these spots)


Leaf with brown, slightly pitted spots


Thanks for any help. I am a sucker for orange orchids and this is one of my favorites, so I hope someone can help!

[silken]

It looks fine from what I can see of the leaves. Ecuagenera told me they will get spots from heat stress. An hour of direct sun every morning likely wouldn't be very good for it. Just keep an eye on it for scale in case they show up. They can take months to show up in my experience. First as white fuzzy immatures, often down low in the crotch of leaves. It looks like white fuzzy mold. I give mine less fertilizer than many of my orchids because I have read that they don't need much.

[Salixx]

Thanks for the assurance that it's probably just the heat stress. I do fertilize less than the other orchids, half strength every other week. I water 2-3 times per week, so it's every 4th-6th watering it gets some ferts. I always flush really well on non-fert waterings. Is this still too much?

I'm not sure yet what I will be doing about the light... I didn't realize that this was happening every morning as it wasn't when I first put it there or at least I didn't think it was. I did purchase a veg ledge a while back that I am filling up with two large Oncid. hybrids and a seedling Zygo. I might try to move it so that they block the sun a bit if I notice more issues/ worsening signs of stress.

[silken]

If you can just hide it behind other plants it should be shaded from the sun. They prefer cool temps and high humidity. I only have two and can't provide a lot of either of those things in summer. But it has survived one full summer and half of this summer so far. The odd curled and folded leaf from lack of humidity, but good growth and roots and blooms.

It doesn't sound like too much fertilizer. It will likely be fine. In nature plants don't have perfect looking leaves either.

One way to keep the roots cooler is to keep the growing pot inside a clay pot or to grow it in a clay pot.

[Salixx]

Yeah, I will fiddle with the Oncidiums a bit and see if I can block some of that light with them. I try to keep the A/C on all the time, set at 60F at night and 75 during the day, so I was surpised to see the heat stress but I did come home one day last week when outside temps were in the high 80's and the A/C was off... that may have done it, I'm not sure.

Eventually, I think I will pot it in a clay pot in s/h to get that added evaporative cooling added in. I didn't read about using clay pots in such a way until I had repotted it and now I don't want to over stress with too many repottings. I will have to see if I can find a square clay pot to set its current pot it (the aircones are square) and get some of the evap-cooling from that until it's time to repot again.

I think imperfect leaves give character. I've got one seriously ugly Catt. but it's impressive. Been to hell and back in the decade I've had it and keeps on trucking!