Masdevallia/Dracula in florida heat
 

Hello everyone, I am new here (kinda)

I've been lurking for a while and have been using this forum to answer some of my more specific questions, but sometimes the search button just isn't enough. So I've decided to make an account.

I have recently been looking at Various Masdevallia, Dracula, and Dracuvallia from Ecuagenera but I have not dared to pull the trigger on one because I know these are usually cool-intermediate growers and my only growing area is outdoors in zone 10a heat.

However I have seen some people here use Kool-logs to keep the roots cool enough for them to survive. I have a couple tall terracotta cylinder pots which I could try to emulate this effect with, but I would hate to waste time and money just to kill anything I tried to mount on it.

Any advice to allow these genus to beat the heat?

Welcome to the Orchid Board.

I'm familiar with evaporative cooling because it's still used quite a bit in Arizona, but only when humidity is low.

Evaporative cooling hardly works at all when the dew point is over 55 degrees F / 13C. It doesn't work during our summer monsoon, which is also the hottest part of our year. It will not work during warm parts of your year, because your relative humidity is even higher.

People in cooler parts of the San Francisco Bay area, or right on the coast in southern and central California, can grow these outdoors for most of the year.

The only people likely to keep them alive in your climate will be those who keep them indoors and keep the temperature in the house quite cool. An Orchid Board member, RJSquirrel, grows some of them near Houston. Look up his posts.

There are lots of other orchids that will thrive in your climate, but not the ones you mentioned.

I feared as much...

Thank you for the response regardless!

There are a few Masdevallias that are more heat-tolerant. Masd. floribunda is one of the easiest. I have actually managed to get away with some of the Draculas too. Hit or miss. However at my house, there is the advantage of cooler nights which help the heat-intolerant orchids get through summer days. That is the missing factor in Florida, the hot days often are followed by hot nights. You may be able to get away with it indoors, but outdoors probably not.

1) Grow indoors in an air conditioned room. It doesn’t have to go below 65 F. They’ll do just fine - even the higher elevations ones (ones collected at 1,500 meters or more).

Just don’t go above 80 F - 85 F for their high end temperatures.

2) Get Masdevallias collected from 1,500 meter or below.

Examples:

A) Masdevallia livingstoneana

B) Masdevallia wendlandiana

3) Keep in mind some of the colorful Masdevallias are actually lithophytes in the wild! These don’t like “wet feet”.

Examples of lithophytic Masdevallias:

A) Masdevallia barlaeana

B) Masdevallia coccinea

If you pull them out of the pots they come in when you purchase them, you’d be horrified by what you see.

When growing orchids, my rule of thumb is, NEVER put primary emphasis on an orchid’s flowers or leaves as the strongest indicators of health.

The TRUE primary indicator of an orchid’s health are their roots.

4) Similar advice for Draculas as for Masdevallias.

A few of the lower elevation Draculas are:

A) Dracula inaequalis

B) Dracula lotax

Thanks for the reply! I have built a miniature terrarium that I mist a couple times a day with a small fan for some air movement and It very rarely is above 80f in my home.

I fairly recently received a small cutting of a cold growing Masdevallia, and it has been putting out lots of roots and new leaves. I am very impressed in its tenacity, but this should also mean that my terrarium works as intended?

I have a Drac. lotax x gigas in the mail, along with the warm growing Masd. zahlbrueckneri. these both should tolerate my indoor temps and lighting, in theory at least.

I am quite excited to attempt to grow these two. But would a kelp extract soak help or hurt the new arrivals? They are known for being picky about things in their water.

I water my Masdevallias straight from the tap without issues.

Can’t advise on kelp extracts. I don’t feel they’re necessary, but it’s up to you.

If you have a division, you can do a little case study.

When grown right, Masdevallias and Draculas grow like weeds.

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I don’t mist my Masdevallias, but if it’s not causing issues with rapidly falling leaves or rotting roots, then all I have to say is keep observing them for any unwanted reaction and make the proper adjustments.

Rapid death is usually the result of it being too late to recover.

I currently have a tiny 1 leaf division of Masdevallia microsiphion that’s hanging on! I also have a tiny 2 -3 leaf division of Masdevallia oxapampaensis that’s doing alright. They’re proving to not be that sensitive.

I think ill try to divide one of the new two to test the kelp out! when the order actually ships, that is.

I usually mist the entire interior, not just the plant. the fan eventually will dry the whole thing out so it just keeps the whole operation nice and humid.

Despite the "difficult" reputation they do seem to have quite the will to live! Definitely worth trying to grow.

When you clean the plants up upon arrival, you could get lucky and naturally get some divisions. That’s how I ended up with these itty bitty divisions. The Masdevallia microsiphion I purchased broke up into 7 divisions!