Phal with signs of rot (or no rot? puzzled)

[lanina]

Hi everyone and thanks for this great forum - learned so much browsing it. I am not only new to orchids but completely new to plants as well and am desperately searching for help. Please excuse my language, I am not a native speaker and am very new to English terms in orchid anatomy and planting medium.

June 20th I got my orchid as a gift, it was beautiful, tall about a meter, six long green leaves, many springs and buds. It continued to flower for about two more months, after which it seemed the flowers and buds had dried out suddenly. The flowers are all gone now and while at first I thought the plant is dying (wouldn't be the first one I'd fail with), after searching the Internet, I realized I needed to cut the spike. Even though it seemed drastic, I cut it all the way down as advised by many sites. Since then, I've started learning about my orchid...I believe it is a Phal (if I'm not mistaken?) and the more I learn the more I seem to worry.

First worrying event was the yellowing of the very young leave growing from bellow the plant (not from the crown) which fell out when just four/five centimeters big. This happened simultaneously with the flowers falling off and spike changing color to brown.The rest of the leaves seem fine, but the very tip of each one (and only the very tip) seem to have dried out - is this normal?

Second, I started observing the roots by looking through the plastic pot (it has holes on its bottom), and while there are many good looking ones, I noticed that one of the roots has gone black at the end, for about 5cm, and another one or two have a part of about 1-2 cm black after which they become normal again. Is this rot? If yes, do I have to cut it out?

I have never re-potted this Phal (nor any other plant for that matter), and hence before attempting such an adventure I really wanna make sure that it's necessary at this point.

The side roots have also gone dry since June, but mostly just on the endings. Do you advise cutting the dry parts of the roots which are sticking out?

I am somewhat encouraged by the fresh new leave on the place of the fallen out one, and by the new leave that seems to be growing out of the crown. Yet, I will be away a lot for the next couple of months, leaving the Phal with hubby alone, and so I really want to make sure it's safe before I go.

As I only started learning about my plant recently (after noticing changes to it) I've added fertilizer to its water only once, about a week ago. I used to water it 1 dcl every 7 days until I read that it is better to submurge it into a bucket of water and let it dry well. I did this for the first time about a week ago and noticed that the side roots came more to life this way.

Last year I lost a Yucca, and I thought I'd never embark on hosting a plant in fear of it dying again. But this orchid was my first wedding anniversary gift from my husband and I really want to try and keep it alive, and happy if possible :-)

Please take a look at it and advise me whether to re-pot, cut off...or just leave it alone.

Thanks in advance!