Dying Phal Needs Help, Soggy Leaves, Root Rot, and more

[ncdragonfly]

I have a Phal that I bought at Lowe's last year. It was in bloom when I bought it and you never know when you buy them how long they have already been in bloom. I managed to keep it in bloom for another 6 months after I bought it, and then I started to notice that something wasn't right with it. One of the leaves started to get heavy, almost as if it was water logged, but it wasn't turning that yellow color like they normally do when they are going to fall off. It was heavy and squishy, and it regular green color if not a little darker. All the flowers were now slowly starting to fall, but not that fast. I knew I had to make a choice. I either wait for the flowers to finish falling for me to repot it, or I repot with the flower (which I was always told not to do when I started collecting orchids as I was told repotting them while in bloom could put them into shock). So, I made the choice because the plant was still in the original media from Lowe's (you know, all that tightly packed moss they love so much in the stores). When I knocked it out of the pot the roots were all packed so tight and of course they were rotted, hence the problem I was seeing in the plant. I cleared away all the moss so I could see all the roots and I trimmed away all the dead ones. The problem was, the rot had started into a small section of the crown and I was not left with really any good roots. I tried repotting the orchid into some BETTER-GRO Phalaenopsis Mix, and it seemed to start getting better. Two of the bottom leaves eventually fell off, but it did put off a new smaller leaf on top, and just recently it started sending a new shoot out at one of the nodes like it wants to get ready to flower soon. However, its last 2 big leaves and the new small one are still turning soft and drying out. I have not pulled it out of the media to see what the roots are doing. I have been reading online and have read a lot of the posts on here about this bag and sphag method and wonder if that might be a good idea if it hasn't formed good roots. Tonight I did pull away some of the media right around the crown and there is a small nub of a root that has formed that I can see, so I misted it with the spray bottle to make sure it gets some water that way.

Please, I will take any suggestions at this point. I am not ready to give up on this little guy. All my other Phal's are doing so good.