Dying masdevallia measuresiana!
 

Hello! (Again, again, again...)

I've tried treating my masdevallia with a 1:3 alcohol/water solution to get rid of spots/issues with fungus. I've been spraying it on the leaves 2 times during one week. To keep it away from my other plants (I live in a quite small apartment), I've stored the plant in a closet. It's been in the closet for around five days. After two days in the closet I took it out to examine it after two days and one leaf dropped. Today I took it out after five days in the closet, and ALL leaves dropped except for one. The plant had about 8 leaves and now... one.

I don't know what has caused this. Perhaps it didn't like being in the closet even though I think five days isn't a long time. Maybe it didn't like the alcohol or maybe the spotting/fungus got to it.

Anyway! Do you think there's a chance of saving this little guy? I'm quite fond of this plant and would really like to save it. At the moment I'm not sure if there are any new growths on the way. There are roots, but not many (when I bought it, it had about 2-3 less than one inch roots). It's been a while since I took it out of the growing medium and I can see that it has not been enjoying it. The medium has been 100% sphag.

Here are some pictures of the poor fella:

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

Right now the plant is without medium as shown in the pictures.

Thanks for reading! I really appreciate your help. :)

You may be able to salvage it. Now, I'm no Masdie expert, so I'm answering in general terms, so take that with a grain of salt. The plant looks to be utterly waterlogged. My suggestion would be to let it completely dry out before even considering a pot to put it in. Once dry, my inclination would be to put it in a closed area with a lot of humidity - a clear trash bag or something. Watch it in there, keep the air fresh and humid, and see if it starts to root, or sprout, or in any way show signs of life. As soon as it does, pot it.

Thanks for your reply! I do agree that it looks like it has been waaay too moist (even wet), for a very long time. Drying it out sounds like a good plan, and I can definitely try putting it in a plastic bag.

Would you suggest making holes in the bag or just opening the bag once a day? I have a rather small humidifier that I could but in the bag with it.

You could poke some holes in the bag, and probably it's a good idea. But if you do, stake the bag up somehow so it's not touching the plant; make a sort of tepee for it.

I will! Thanks!
If it loses its last leaf, can I consider it dead? Or does is still have a chance of making new growth?

What are your conditions?

All my previous Masdie leaf drops preceded death. Probably due to temperatures being too high. I have not grown this primary hybrid nor either of the parents. The parents are both cold/cool growers.

Spotting is the first indicator of too warm temperatures. Good air circulation is a must for most/all Masdies. I would try to keep the temps below 22° C, the media moist but not wet nor dry with high relative humidity.

Here are the links to IOSPE of the parents:
tovarensis
amabilis

A very light dose of Calcium might help (I use a Ca+Mg formula).

Well, the temperature is around 20 - 22 degrees here, so I don't think that's the issue. The spotting came when a dendrobium started spotting. I took the dendrobium away from the rest of the plants, but a couple of days later the masdevallia showed the same spots.
My conditions right now are nothing in particular, as I'm rebuilding my greenhouse. They have lights, but that's about it for the moment. Hopefully I will be done building pretty soon.
I've had the masdevallia for about a year. When I received it, it acted out (due to change of environment, I guess) and dropped a couple of leaves. After a week or so it stopped dropping leaves and has been happy and growing since.

Do you have any suggestions on how to keep it alive? Right now I'm keeping it in a small enclosure made of one plastic bag. The plastic bag doesn't cling to the plant and inside the enclosure is also a humidifier. The plant has no potting medium.

Thanks for your reply. :)

I hope you can turn it around - the few masdies I have had get to this point did not come back. I'm also no expert, but I have bought a lot of these guys in a very short time and struggled with pouters and die-ers.

I would worry that sticking it in the closet may have done this, unless you had lighting in there. Fungus really likes moist conditions with no air movement and no light.

I think what you are doing now will give it the best chance to come back. Make sure it's in a dim place (no direct sun), but still has a bit of light, like a northern window.

Finally, I have used alcohol a time or two on my masdies and they really seemed to resent it. I'm careful not to get it on them anymore - you may wish to avoid it as well. I am more in favor of simply removing sections of leaves or a whole leaf if I suspect infection.

Good luck!

Well... I am definitely not gonna try alcohol or closet treatment on any masdie anymore.
The closet had no lights. I think it's a combination of the alcohol and the closet that did this to the poor plant. I did remove leaves that had spots on them, but the problem was that all leaves had spots. Some had many, some only had a few tiny spots, but at the time it had basically spread to the entire plant. I cut off the most affected leaves and then did the alcohol treatment and stuck it in the closet, to keep it away from my collection.
It's kind of sad, though. This was my first masdie and it did good until the spots came.

Thanks for replying!

---------- Post added at 03:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:23 PM ----------

Also, I have a dendrobium that I treated with alcohol, but didn't put in the closet and it's doing fine. I also have a ludisia that I did not treat with alcohol, but it's been in the closet for as long as the masdie. I guess masdies are just... difficult. :)

Not many epiphytic plants will survive sick and wet in complete darkness for 5 days. I would suggest you not try that again with any orchids.