Masdevallia Seramis S/H - Orchid Board

stefandeak · #1 10-06-2019, 04:50 AM

So I decided to try masdevallias again after I kept seeing two sad unwanted ones at the local plant shop for months where they probably would have ended up being thrown away.
One's an Copper Angel "Highland" and the other one is Angel Frost "Sakura".
I never tried S/H before so I thought this might be a good opportunity for me to do so.

So last week, I put the angel frost in this setup you can see in the pics. I rinsed the seramis properly and soaked it for 24 hrs. The clay pot has a hole at the bottom so for the past week I kept adding water to the dish up to the level of the seramis on the outside. It dries up or it gets absorbed really fast - within 2 days. It hasn't been completely bone dry at any point though. Inside the pot the roots are like 1 cm above the maximum level water would reach.

So you can kind of see that one of the leaves started to dry up and also one or two other leaves started to lose their green color and it looks like they will follow. Is this because of the repotting and change of medium shock, or is it something with my setup or is it some other factor? I want to do the same setup for the other orchid, but not before I figure out what's going on with this one first.

Also, I only used distilled water, no tap water at all.

So does anyone have any ideas? Does anyone have experience with growing masdevallias in seramis?

Ray · #2 10-06-2019, 08:36 AM

There is no need for the medium in the bowl under the pot. Use water only, It will consume the volume more slowly.

In my limited experience with masdevallias, lower leaf loss is not at all uncommon when transplanting.

stefandeak · #3 10-06-2019, 10:22 AM

Hello Ray, thank you for the reply!
Well my thinking with the medium in the bowl was twofold:
First to help keep the plant cooler since we still occasionally get 30degreesC temps during daytime, although we should be golden until May starting 1 or two weeks from now.
And secondly to make sure I add water to the same level and not go above it.

Anyway, I'll give your advice a try and see how the orchid will develop.