Dying Phal! Hardly any roots

[moerae]

Hi everyone,

I am hoping you can help me! I am a newbie, and I think I have abused my Phal in all sorts of ways, the poor thing.

Here is the story: My boyfriend got me this phal for Valentine's day from the grocery store. It had two flowers and three buds, which bloomed under my care. It seemed like the plant was thriving, until one of bottom leaves turned yellow and fell off...

I read that this could be due to overwatering (though i was careful to do it only when the bark looked dry). Upon examining the roots through the clear plastic container, I though some of them looked mushy and kind of brown. It was in a bark medium, or so I thought. Soon, another bottom leaf started yellowing... I decided to repot though the orchid was still blooming well because I read that root rot will slowly kill the plant. When I took it out of the pot, to my surprise, the medium actually looked like dirt with just some bark thrown in! Or perhaps it had decomposed pretty badly because I overwatered it, or I got a bad one... I don't know, but I once I cleared off all the dirt, the root system looked bad, even to me...

I cut away the rotted roots, but since some of the root were only mushy in the middle, I left them with the wiry part attached; the bottom part of the root was firm to touch. (I now realize is a mistake... The brown wiry thread is apparently useless to the plant? You live and learn, right?). I repotted in one of the bark medium mixes I bought after soaking it. I left the plant sitting in the plastic pot, but a couple of days later, again noticed some more decaying....

I did more surgery and cut the roots off, including the wiry stuff, to the point I deemed to be healthy (which is quite close to the crown); I also dusted a little bit of cinnamon on the cut edges and repotted it, but there are hardly any roots left . The roots that you see in the pictures do seem okay?

I did not cut off the spike though, because the attached stake is helping the plant sit in the pot. Couple of the flowers have wilted as you can see, but the spike has not yellowed and the other leaves still look green, so I am still hoping the plant is salvageable. Although there are these two dark spots on a couple of the leaves; they were there all the time and haven't spread or anything, so that is not something to be worried, right?

After repotting, I read it was good to mist the leaves to help the plant, so I did that (didn't water anymore after the repotting though). This morning I got excited by something green coming out of the crown, but now I have noticed white wrinkly things underneath the bottom leave, so I don't know if the plant is now diseased? Could it be crown rot? Or is this normal and am I just freaking out for no reason?

Do you think this phal can survive? Should I cut off the flower spike to the base to help the plant concentrate on root growth? Does my repotting look okay? Sorry for all the questions! I am obviously very worried. I would dearly like to save this plant, as it has some sentimental value, and I hope I haven't doomed it completely . Praying for a miracle here...

I am attaching lots of pictures so that I can hear you verdict!

Thank you so much again!

Cheers!