Masdevallia Maui Lollipop in Bud
 

Haven't posted in a while, but I wanted to share this triumph. I have been trying to bloom a masdie for a while. I picked this plant up last summer. Needed repotted badly. I got a good deal on it. So I got it home, put it in a net pot lined the bottom with hydroton, then a layer of chunky bark, followed by a layer of sphagnum moss, very thin at the top of the pot. I water it with tap water when the saucer is empty. Two to three times a week. I've fertilized it maybe twice?

So far I have found three buds. I hope I find more. I was going to repot it again this year, because the pot I used still seems a touch small for it, but if it's happy, I'm not messing with it!!

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Good job! It looks like there is still room in that pot :)

Ah this is so cool! I pocked up a Maui Lollipop last fall. It was my first Masdevallia, and has grown three new leaves since I got it. Hope I will see some flowers someday!

I've always read that hybrids are easier to bloom than species and have found this to be true. Mine grows new leaves like crazy. It has sat in this window since I repotted it, so I think giving it lots of light and consistent moisture is the key. This window is over my kitchen sink and I grow dendrobiums and cattleyas on the windowsills on this side of the house.

Maybe? I was thinking I might repot it again since it was seriously overgrown in its last potting situation. But now that it's blooming, not touching it!

Congratulations! :)

Way to go do post pics when it blooms. I am still struggling with mine but I am guessing as a whole the hybrids are easier to bloom even though my first to bloom hirtzii is not a hybrid. I have bloomed all but one of my hybrids and one of them is spiking now.

I finally got them all re-potted but they had a bad summer. I finally killed one of my species and nearly killed my Dracuvallia, it looks really bad.

I love them but need to find a better solution come summer time.

This one lives in my kitchen window. In the summer, I have an umbrella up on my deck outside that keeps it from getting a ton of direct sunlight. I also water it a lot more on hot days. I think the trick to keeping the roots cooler is air exchange around them. The masdies I have in net pots seem to do the best. The ones in clay don't do as well, but clay is supposed to stay cooler. So I'm not sure. Right now I have one in each in this window and both are doing well. My veitchiana, I nearly killed. It's recovering from my poor treatment of it. It started out with mealybugs and then got a case of leaf dropping that I managed to stop when it had two leaves and about five good roots left. It's on the mend. I potted it up in a pot with hydroton, mixed bark, topped with moss and put it in a clay pot and kept the saucer filled with water all summer long and that seemed to work. It now has about a dozen leaves. I'm so bummed. It was a gorgeous plant, in bloom when I got it. Now I won't see blooms for several years. The Maui Lollipop though... I'm in love. It's a hybrid of Masdevallia Mendozae and something else, so the flowers look like little goldfish. The first bud opened today. I have about ten spikes on this plant, all told.

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Nice!

Better pic of the whole plant. Two buds open this morning. I love this little guy. http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...2392b87288.jpg

That is a nice plant. I did think about getting one of those big plants when they had them but have stopped myself from buying nay more till I get them figured out more. Mine have all now gotten those black spots on the leaves and I'm not sure if it is a humidity problem or not.

I have all mine now in clay I will see how they do and maybe try the net pots. When I got my first ones Brian potted them up for me in clay pots before he sent them out to me. But in the summer when the sun changes it shines in the window in the early morning and makes the pots to hot.

I have an old fish tank I am thinking about putting them in come summer. I don't know where I will put it however. I need to get something fixed up down in the garage but that would take some doing.

When I get the ones I got from J&L they had theres potted up in spagh and tree fern and so that's how I ended up potting mine in. I ordered some tree fern and mixed it with spagh. I have enough tree fern to last me for ever.

I so want a veitchiana. I also really love my Dracuvallia and I did get one bloom off it last summer. It had a bunch more but the summer did all the rest in. I kept trying to take them outside at nigh just to have the wind blow them over and out of there pots. I can't believe I didn't kill them all.

I think my ignea is getting spikes for the first time in 2 1/2 years. Don't tell it I said so as I am so afraid it is going to blast.

If the sun shining on the pots heats them up too much, put a barrier between the sun and just the pot. This could be as simple as putting the pot in a foam coffee cup, or as complex as building a decorative box to set on your windowsill to hold the plants.

Nice job with the hybrid! I'm curious about the veitchiana. What temperatures was it in when the leaf drop started happening? I have mine double potted in clay with sphagnum and perlite but I'm not sure how it would fare in my 80 degree F + summer temperatures. Also, is ignea more sensitive to temperature than vietchiana? I was told from one report that they live in similar areas but another said it is more heat sensitive.

I will have to give this some thought. It might work. I also have an old fish tank that I remembered the other day and am wondering about it. Not sure where I would put it. I am now just waiting as they were so in need of a re-pot and most of them seem to be doing better. But even though I have a humidifier over the top of them I'm not sure there still getting enough humity.

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I wish I could answer this for you but I don't know. I have read that the ignea will take more sun than some. If I ever get the vietchiana I may find out. If I get this ignea to bloom it just might get me going again on them. I have been feeling bad I was not doing right by them.

Amazing! Love it!

I believe my veitchiana had problems because it was too wet. It's hard to keep a masdie too wet, but I drowned the root system every other day to help get the mealybugs it was infested with to surface. This helped deal with the largest portion of the population, but I believe that the side effect was root and leaf rot. I stopped doing the soaking and switched to treating the plant with Bayer Rose and Flower. Managed to save two leaves and about five good roots. I purchased the plant in a five inch pot. It's now potted in a two inch pot. I hate that, but I finally managed to get it back to happy.

It survived my 100 degree summer just fine, last year but I grow it indoors in the AC.

Thought I'd move the discussion on masdie culture to a combined topic discussed on a thread of mine

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...tml#post793996

Mine just finished blooming! I love this plant, the color is so vibrant it's unreal.

Doesn't look so little to me. That plant has abundant growth. But I can see why you love it. :) Good job hanging in there with it.

You mentioned earlier about clay pots n baskets. From what I know (which ain't a whole lot) is that some Masdie species love colder roots, which the clay provides. The basket gives more air flow movement which provides a speedier drying for the roots before they are needing new water supply. As to which species prefers which? can only research-research-research or do the trial by error thing I suppose..

I think your vietchiana is benefiting from the water-filled tray in terms of added humidity than maybe moreso than from hydration. Just my opinion. If it were me, I'd have the pot still over the tray but raised on bed of drenched rocks/hydroton/lecos whatever. That way the roots aren't in a constant sop wet condition and get a chance to dry a little. The pot still gets some moisture uptake and gets a cooling boost but not so much it's in a bog-like watered condition. Again, just my opinion, but maybe it's because I'm so 'root-rot leery' from some of my failure experience with other plants.

How do you get these guys to bloom?
Mine's growing tons of new leaves but no buds.

Also, mine was huge when I got it, so I divided it into four plants(all of which are growing like crazy).

Thanks for sharing!

It might take it longer if you divided it. If it is growing leaves then patience is what it will take.

I was told to divide it when I got it because it was strangling itself from too much growth.

Yes I have a couple that might need dividing also. But I am just saying that after an orchid gets divided it takes some time for them to recover. So be patient and hopefully it will bloom soon. Is this your first Masde or do you have others that have bloomed?

First one(err four)

Good luck, and hopefully it will bloom soon.