Hi, Selyne,
So it really sounds like the original problems were caused by both over-watering (you found rotted roots) and by water sitting in the crown or in leaf/stem crotches (this is what causes crown rot).
I really hope the remaining plant recovers for you! If it does, or if you get more in the future, here's how to care for them and avoid those 2 very common problems:
Crown rot: (pretty deadly, rapidly progressing, very difficult to recover from)
First, be really careful not to get water in the crown or in leaf/stem crotches at all. For this reason, I wouldn't generally mist or spray Phals, which seem to be one of the more susceptible orchid types. Especially not on a routine basis with plain water. If it needed a shot of foliar feeding or some other kind of treatment (pests, maybe?), then that would be another thing. Even then,
avoid misting/spraying at any time other than the early morning, so that it has time to evaporate/dry off before the cold and dark of the night, which is how the micro-organisms that cause the rot like to live.
But, sometimes you have to do it, or sometimes you might have to really soak a plant, and that could get water in those tight spots, or sometimes you accidentally get it in there. If it happens, you can take a straw and point it into the cavities and blow the water out. Or, I use a compressed air can, the same kind you can buy for cleaning computers. I just am careful to "puff" the air, rather than "hose" it with a long blast, because the air that comes out can get very cold, the longer it streams out. You can actually frost a plant with it if you just shoot a long blast at a spot. On the other hand this is
really effective, even more than a straw, unless you can get a really skinny one and blow really hard.
Other people use just their lips to blow (I hear you can get water in your face this way), or use Q-tips or the corner of a folded paper towel to blot it out, or (I think I heard) apply alcohol and then inverting the plant to pour the water out of there, like swimmers do to get water out of their ears.
If one is
misting/spraying because of a desire to provide elevated humidity, then a way to do this which doesn't deposit liquid water on the plant (which can fill those cavities) is to use nice big humidity trays filled with pebbles/gravel and water.
Here's a post about that - it can be done very cheaply and without hogging up an awful lot of space, if you use square ones rather than round ones.
Over-watering: (causes root rot, also dangerous, progresses more slowly, usually recoverable if caught early enough) The culprit here isn't too much water, it's too frequent watering. The roots like to get good and dry between waterings. At the same time, the plant needs to respire a certain amount of water every day, so, underwatering also is a risk. Lucky for us, the plant can store water in its thick leaves! So the solution is to let it drink up as much as it wants to absorb, when you water it. Immersing the pot in a bucket for 15-30 minutes accomplishes this. Then, it has enough stored water that it can go much longer between waterings than if all you do is wet the roots and immediately let it drain out of the pot.
And, again,
humidity trays also help for this condition too, by letting the plant's own stored water last even longer between waterings.
When immersing, be careful not to let the water be so deep that it reaches and fills the leaf crotches or (shudder) the crown. If it happens, use one of the methods above to get that water out!
When I water this way, I typically notice the leaves or pseudobulbs (on other kinds of orchids, not Phals) start to droop and maybe even wrinkle a little before it's really ready for another watering. A few of hours after the bucket soak, the leaves/bulbs are visibly plumper and smoother again. If they still look shrunken, then I can repeat watering the next day. But never more than 2 days in a row. This repeat watering is only very rarely necessary anyway.
So, none of us can specifically recommend to you "how often" to water, because all of us have different conditions in our homes and geographic locations, and probably not exactly the same orchids either. But the above visible clues could help you to determine for yourself what your plants need and when they need it.
Good luck, please don't let this set-back/disappointment kill your enthusiam for orchids! We've all experienced this and learned from it, and gone on to become more successful and happy orchid caregivers!
BL
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