Uh-oh!!! Masdie problem!!!

[Gin]

My vote is for wet and cold , last year I moved a supposed cooler grower to the porch it did the same thing . Gin

[cb977]

Okay...I'm going to ease the temps up a little and hope for the best.

It's mounted, a quality plant from the start , I use only rain or RO water to mist them, I've fertilized about once every ten days or so...it's GOT to be the cool temps.

I thank all of you for the input

[euplusia]

For gmdiaz:In general a fresh medium is the best. I use a mix of fine bark, New Zealand spagnum moss, 10% shredded clay (Seramis), eventually 5-10% peat. Fine roots get more sphagnum.

[shakkai]

Just catching up on all of the posts from over the weekend...

Sue, my Madies sometimes do this - and it is a response to some kind of recent stress. Sometimes its beeen after repotting, sometimes its been just moving them to a new location.

For a mounted Masdies, I think it would be difficult for it to be too moist... so your most likely factor is temperature. You might also check the humidity range in your tank. If it dips too low, this could also cause the leaf drop. Mine stays above 80% most of the time (though was down to 75% this weekend, as we've had clear bright days).

I don't grow schroederiana, but none of my Masdies get temps much below 60F at night in the summer, days get into the 70s... Winter temps are cooler, but not by a whole lot. Those aren't the temps that any of the books give as guidelines, but my plants are happy enough to flower.

I hope all goes well!!

[Bolero]

I think cb977 that possibly they are too cold and wet......they don't like to be too wet all the time. I lost a lot of leaves once by keeping them too wet.

They can take a little more heat than you would think. It's hard to know for sure what the problem is but it's good you're trying something different.

[Gin]

How strong are you mixing the Fert.? just a thought . Gin

[cb977]

Thanks Gin...I've decided to ship this 'chid to a new home up north. Hopefully, it'll live

Once that's done, the tank will be more of an Intermediate environment and I shouldn't have too many problems. I'm going to keep the other Masdie in there and add a few of my other minis to it.

I appreciate all the suggestions from the folks here
Thank you

[cb977]

Oh well...another one bites the dust!
The rolfeana took the same downward turn in the past few days and is on it's way to orchid heaven.

I'm emptying the tank and will start anew with plants that I know I have a chance of growing rather than trying to force something to happen that I shouldn't have...

lesson learned

On the bright side, I was going to move some of my existing minis into the tank...but why move them from their happy places, right? Time to shop!

[gmdiaz]

Well crapo!

Susanne, it's exactly as you said, this is a learning experience! I did lose one of the two that I bought. The "Celtic Frost" is still doing ok but looks like it's thinking about going yellow on the new growths that are emerging.

Here's what I am learning from our experiement:

#1
Once the leaves begin to drop, you do not have much time to warm thing up.

#2
For me, the spag n bag treatment was a no go, even when the roots were good.

#3
Some of them, even the "cool" growers actually prefer intermediate to warm temps.

#4
The cooler the temps, the more careful you have to be about fertilizing. . .half the qty you might think would be appropriate.

[cb977]

I agree on #1, 3, and 4...only left out #2 because I didn't even try that

Once the first leaf dropped, it was non-stop action

After speaking to a number of people here on OB (thanks to all of you ), I learned that the temp thing is a very general guide! I hadn't been able to get the tank down to the recommended night temps...and it was still too cold for them! Gin also told me about cutting the low-strength fertilizer we already use to an even lower mix!

I found two plants today that I think I love!
Seems like they shuldn't be a problem for me either. Now, where's that fingers-crossed smilie when I need it?

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