Floppy Leaves and Root Rot

[Gwenchanter]

So even though I've been growing Phals for 4 years, I've been very lucky and haven't had any root rot until now. In the past I always re-potted in bark as soon as I brought the phal home, but this year I bought several at one orchid show and didn't have time to repot them all since it was so close to finals week (I'm in college).

Anyway, I bought a beautiful Baldan's Kaelidoscope which was potted in tightly packed sphag. Everything else was in bark or aliflor mixes or more loosely packed sphag, so I water a little more often since the bark and aliflor don't hold much water. Needless to say, the one in sphag probably got watered too much, and lo and behold, the leaves started wilting badly. I didn't want to repot until after it finished blooming but yesterday I couldnt take it anymore because the leaves were just looking so terrible, so I pulled it out of it's pot in full bloom. I clipped off all of the rotted roots and there wasn't much in the way of healthy roots left. Then I sprayed it with fungicide and potted it up in a clay pot with a mixture of bark and aliflor.

I have done some reading and it seems that in this situation.. when there are very few good roots left, most people reccomend the sphag in a bag approach. I understand that the leaves are wilted because with too few roots to absorb water to fill the leaves, the leaves have become flaccid.

I'm concerned that here in Miami with the onset of summer coming soon and with the extreemly high natural humidity, putting an orchid in a bag with wet sphag is going to rot it all to heck. On the other hand, if I just leave the plant in bark, with too few roots, the top of the plant may die of dehydration.. on the other hand, I do keep my orchids outside on a covered patio and the humidity might be enough to keep the leaves alive while the roots are nice and well drained in the bark.

Any thoughts?