Mediocalcar decoratum care?

I struggle with cuttings of this one, I had it mounted and it struggled then too moist. Finally it rotted. Try to find one that is well established

 

Its relatively easy for me, mounted loosely on tree fern,shady and watered often.

 

I concur on them being difficult to establish, I have lost a few cuttings and have tried to identify the cause - either too bright, too wet or a fungal issue. This is my latest failure I believe it may be rotting so am moving it from sphagnum to bark, or may try leca as mentioned earlier after a spray of fungicide.

 

Hi there, the photo you posted does not look like decoratum. It does look like a Mediocalcar though. Do you have a photo of the mother plant with blooms?

 

I was going to say the same... It looks a lot more like my M. versteegii. I got that one on a slab that it was growing off of... I took a wood basket, filled it with sphagnum, used some wires to hold it in place when I inverted it - so the flat surface of the "bottom" of basket, now on top, served as a substrate for the slab. The plant is a rambler, and rather quickly started growing off the slab and rooting into the sphagnum sticking out of the slats. So some roots went into the medium, the rest are just "wherever" in the air but the sphag apparently is providing the humidity that it craves. One note... since it is horizontal, hang it where raccoons can't reach it... I lost a nice one of these to a 'coon that decided to shred it, was near a fence.

M. decoratum has rosettes of small, succulent leaves. Similar habit, it wants to be "on" the medium rather than "in" it.

 

Yes sorry this one is versteegii I got confused, I've now taken it out of sphagnum and popped it in some bark and a spray of phosacid fungicide. The browned leaves look burnt but still looks like I've kept it too wet and got a fungus - it just looks like a plant that wants to be damp... I've banished it from the greenhouse though and is sitting on my windowsill where I can monitor it and keep it on the dry side for a few days. I'll conquer these eventually though may need to stop getting bare root cuttings :-/

 

This is what I did with M. versteegii... it has now grown a lot more.

 

I have mine in a basket with bark it gets lots of water and good airflow+very high humidity. They like frequent water but they don't like to be smothered at all they need air avoid moss

 

Wow that's outstanding, I can only aspire to have one looking that healthy. So bark is now the go and fresh air, what I'd like to try is keep it out of the 75% humidity in the greenhouse and let it air out for a few days to help dry out any fungal issues. Roberta does yours ever sit outside in lower humidity and handle it ok? The backyard is around 30% in Nov.

I honestly think I've drowned it (and my Ceratostylis which mirrors this) by growing in sphagnum and having misting systems run 15s every 5 mins to keep the heat down, or I should've just got an established plant as was mentioned.

 

Hi Roberta, do you have an in bloom photo of your versteegii? M. versteegii should be primarily unifoliate with most blooms heteranthous in nature. I find most plants labeled as this are something else. I highly recommend the Orchids of New Guinea website that has very good keys and in situ photos. Also Ron Parsons has very good photos that he has posted on the web.

 

Just wondering if heat and stagnation may be an issue since you mentioned the frequent misting. I also wonder if it could be more of a bacterial rot if it has been weakened by prolonged heat? I grow quite a few species of Mediocalcar, all in intermediate to cool conditions. Some are in net pots with NZ Sphagnum and some are mounted. I water in the morning and they never dry out...but as others have posted, I have good air movement and the foliage is generally dry by the end of the day. A few photos posted.

variegated decoratum (net basket in Sphagnum)


bifolium in net pot (Sphagnum)


agathodaemonis? Doesn’t match key

 

My M. versteegii (as well as decoratum and pygmaeum) live outdoors all year around (frost-free coastal southern California) Nights can get down to near freezing on occasion but not often, humidity can drop to single digits (usually with heat), not often but when it does, can go for close to a week. When it gets dry, I just water more (even twice a day if hot). Neither these, nor anything else including Pleurothallids seem to care. (Might lose a few Dracula flowers, but the plants are fine)

Here's the plant in flower. Chuck, if not the correct ID, any idea what might be? M.bifolium maybe?

 

Yes Roberta, I would definitely lean towards bifolium and there does appear to be some variation in bifolium in the various clones of it. You should have a real big specimen in a few years!

 

Seeing these pics give me something to work towards....great to hear they can exist outdoors that may be my new strategy at least til things get better.

Re: airflow I have a box fan running 24/7 to keep air moving but put it in a shady more stagnant area since I thought it got burnt, it's just odd since 100's of other plants & seedlings are doing ok but this plummetted. M agathodaemonis seems quite happy in sphag and a clay pot. I don't know if it's bacterial, the little spots are a worry, maybe I can spray it with an algicide but don't want to overload it after dousing it with phosacid antifungal, we've only had odd hot days as summer hasn't started yet here for the prolonged heat.

I know this as a cooler grower, but aren't sure of it's higher temperature thresholds, now I know it can tolerate short spells of lower humidity I might be able to deal with fungal and being too wet as long as I don't wilt it in the hot shade.

 

Every 5 minutes is a bit extreme they need a more wet-dry cycle. Otherwise that sounds like it would work ime. Also i grow them right under Ceratostylis so the care just a bit less light and i water Cerats a little bit more frequently. It stays cool as well with nice night time drops remember it's from the same place as D cuthbertsonii just lower elevation.

 

I realize unfortunately it's my only real way of keeping the temps down, tomorrow and the day after is 40c, some of the plants really seem to like the monsoon effect but I think the ones that haven't (Mediocalcar, Ceratostylis and Den papilio) may have to be excused from the g/h and popped in the dryer shade with the Stanhopeas during Summer.