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Thread: :help: My mazzies are shedding leafs!

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  1. #1
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    Exclamation :help: My mazzies are shedding leafs!

    I is gonna die! My bleedin' ultrasonic thingy died a few days ago and I had to move my mazzies...and now they are shedding leaves! Crispy lovely green leaves! The draculas cannot be bothered in another window, hanged, the mazzies are miserable. I planned to repot them tomorrow, seeing that they just dropped their last flowers.
    Any suggestions on potting media? How about epiweb or hygrolone? Any experience?

    Help me Obi wan kenobies, YOU are my only hope!

    Laura

    *LEAVES
    Last edited by PetSlayer; October 20th, 2012 at 08:04 AM. Reason: Typo:p

  2. #2
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    Name:  Orange mas res.jpg
Views: 190
Size:  121.4 KB By the way, this is how she looked a week ago, she is an UFO (coz I can't call the label saying masdevallia hybrid an id tag)

  3. #3
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    Oh well, I changed the lot of them (5 draculas, 2 masdevallias). All I can say is that healthy roots, especially om the orange one, were...rather missing. I wonder if I should make a pictorial with what I did coz despite the rather large amount of viewings no one had an answer .

    Hopefully they'll survive, I mounted them.

    The Draculas that I achieved in the first shopping spree have flower spikes I think, they were hidding in the moss. Can't wait to see the flowers! Lots of root rot on my last aquisitions but I tackled a lot today...

    Cheers!

  4. #4
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    Did the move change their temperatures any? Generally, masdevallia like it pretty cool.Posted via Mobile Device

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    Laura, the reason you only got a few answers is that very few people grow masdevasllias and draculas. In warm countries they can only be grown in specialised terraria because they die quickly if temperatures stay above 20 degrees C for prolonged periods (temperatures around 25 to 30 degrees C can kill them in as little as a single day) and even in temperate countries we find that many species they do not grow well in mixed collections and are best left to growers that specialise in cool-growing, high altitude, cloud-forest orchids.

    From your picture it looks like you're trying to grow your masdevallias and draculas together with a phalaenopsis and a Dendrobium bigibbum hybrid. I'm afraid that's never going to work. Either the masdevallias and draculas (cool growers) are going to suffer from heat shock or the phalaenopsis and dendrobium (hot growers) will suffer from lack of heat.

    I grow a number of masdevallias and draculas and I think the majority of them are very poor indoor subjects. Ideally daytime temperatures should not exceed 15 to 20 degrees C and at night they should stay around 8 to 12 degrees C for proper growth. They also require extremely high relative humidity (70 to 85%) with daily watering and excellent air movement all-year-round (high humidity without enough air movement always leads to rot with these pleurothalids). There are a few intermediate growers among the masdevallias, but in general they need cold temperatures and are best grown in a cool greenhouse or in a high-tech terrarium with temperature, humidity, light and fan controls.
    Last edited by serama; October 21st, 2012 at 02:40 PM.

  6. #6
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    Good evening guys!

    Thank you for the answer Tony! It explains EVERYTHING!

    And yes Jason, the temperature in the area were the mazzies lived before the humidifier died is rather low - it is about 10*C now at night, never goes above 15 *C during the day.

    They get a fair amount of light, it's a west window in front of wich some huge pine trees grow. Light is cold there, warmer in my south window where they stayed for about 6 days total. (That is why I LOVE ORCHIDS, if you are a dotting mother as I am they give you very sharp nudges very fast compared with other plants, I feel that they are more or less always saveable because of that).

    I just checked the temperature at the levels where the draculas are and it's 17*C. Considering that the damage on them was minimal, and the ones that I had for longer are sprouting flowers, as I noticed a few hours ago when I had my panic repotting, I guess they will be fine where they are. They get a daily shower and a dunk in the bunk every other day, they took to it like cats to fish

    And I just move my makeshift mounting with the masdevallias back to their favourite window the moment I saw your postings guys, THANK YOU!

    The info about them is so bleedin' fuzzy that I am running on trial and error since I got them.

    I shall post some pictures in about 20 minutes, gotta upload them first. Think I'll make a new thread in the repotting/root department and BD will get to move it where he thinks it's best . I have a feeling the internet is already roamed by a bunch of confused swedes that bought them because they were cute and they were told in the shop that they are easy and now are fretting because their very expensive flowers are rather unhappy.

    Cheers,
    Laura

    Oh, and I will brag in the phrag photo thread as well
    Last edited by PetSlayer; October 21st, 2012 at 03:15 PM. Reason: P.S.

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