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pleurothallid-l - [pleurothallid-l] Masdevallias in hydroponics, in clay balls and under lights

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  • From: Ron Maunder <pondeeza@enternet.co.nz>
  • To: pleurothallid-l@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [pleurothallid-l] Masdevallias in hydroponics, in clay balls and under lights
  • Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2004 14:25:18 +1300

Bill,

Can't help you with that combination exactly but here are some
comments which may be of interest.

We grew a heap of cutflower Masdevallia coccineas and their hybrids
plus a few cooler species in one of our Disa hydroponic tanks a
couple of years ago. Because the tanks run continuous flow (in 15mm
water all the time) we used Disa mix for them which is shredded
sphagnum plus shredded styrene foam 2:1 or 1:1 to open the mix up and
let air through. When winter came and water temperatures dropped to
8°C or thereabouts the Masdevallia plants started to sulk so we sat
them on benches for winter. They had grown beautifully in the
hydroponics to that stage. No hand watering required!

Come time to return them to the tanks and the Disas had taken up all
available room so the Masdevallias stayed where they were. In summer
they needed drenching every day to keep them damp! In that situation
the styrene opened the mix up too much. We now have half our
Masdevallia plants in 100% moss and the others in 100% pinebark. The
moss ones need watering at least twice as often as those in bark. It
is dried, not live moss.

I'm sure the Masdevallias would have done well in Flood and Drain
(also known as Ebb and Flow) hydroponics (as do Disas) but in our
situation a reservoir of 400 litres would be needed under each tank
for Flood and Drain whereas a 20 L bucket is enough for the method we
use.

Clay pellets should work fine but you may have to experiment with the
pellet size and the "dry" time if you settle for Flood and Drain.
Under lights? The Coccineae section would need higher illumination
than some other sections I would say. Can't help with growing under
lights - thank goodness as electricity prices are going up 10% here
any day!

Ron Maunder New Zealand



  • [pleurothallid-l] Masdevallias in hydroponics, in clay balls and under lights, Ron Maunder, 03/19/2004

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