I think I hurt my phal orchid!! Pretty Bad

[FNS]

Hello Everyone!! first off, thank you for reading and helping out.

I've never owned a plant and I recently received (on april 19) a gorgeous white phalaenopsis orchid. At first she had about 7 bloomed flowers and 3 nodes and was in a nice ceramic pot. Immediately, after I received it, started researching to know type and care how to.

I watered it the day after (I stuck my finger inside the soil to see if how it was, and then watered it. I had 2 more flower blooms, but after the first week I noticed a few things:
1) One of the leaves was yellow.
2) One of the flowers had withered.
3) 2 of the buds looked odd, like if they we going to withered too.

I watered her on friday (thinking she might be dry), and left her outside and out of the ceramic pot at night to air dry. On saturday after it was dry I put her back in her spot (middle of a bright living room, no direct sunlight and lot of air).

Today 2 more flowers have withered and the leaves keep turning yellow. I know the plant is super sick at this point, not sunburned or in need of drying like I thought.

So I took her out of the pot and examined the root (as suggested by what I read). ALL of the leaves fell off, and the root where white at the bottom and some mushy, sort of green at the top, and smelled of humidity.

I found no bug or anything. I washed and dried the pot, put her in it again with some rocks and moss that were completely dry and took it to shaded, breezy area.

Since hope I the last thing I should lose, please ORCHID BOARD FRIENDS, help me save my dying plant.

Ill buy anything to save her, just not a new plant!! :*(((

[Abbie9]

Well, sometimes when an orchid is moved into a new environment, such as from a store to your home, it goes into a slight shock and adjustment period, which can cause the flowers to wilt prematurely or buds to go through "bud blast" (shriveling before they ever open). Also, yellowing of the lowest (oldest) leaves is part of its normal cycle... so my initial thought would be that the plant is fine, however, you are saying that there are NO leaves left at all on the plant? It would be helpful to have photos, but you can't attach pictures until you have posted a few more times.

White/silvery roots are normal when they are dry, and they turn green when wet. Brown roots are bad.

[Rowangreen]

You've not had this plant very long. Sadly some are already very sick when the shop sells them. It sounds like that might be the case with this one. If you could post pictures that would be good... It sounds like you are doing pretty well.

[silken]

Does your ceramic pot have any drainage? It needs good drainage to prevent root rot. Phals in the wild grow on trees where their roots get rained on and then dry quickly in the breeze. They get a lot of air. So your potting media needs to allow for this and for the roots to not be sitting in damp musty conditions.

[FNS]

@Abbie9: I will add photos as soon as possible!
@Rowangreen: I agree, but I made THE HUGE MISTAKE of not checking the plant when I received it.
@Silken: The ceramic pot has no drainage, but I have taken it out for watering. Now its in a completely dry medium , but I'm thinking of letting the roots out to air dry??

Should I buy potting mix or something to help the plant out??

[rosemadder]

You left the orchid outside overnight?

What sort of weather have you been having lately? Phals are sensitive to the cold, if it goes below 60 at night where you are that might have given it a nasty shock, especially if there was standing water in the crown at the time.

Otherwise, I agree that 2 weeks doesn't seem long enough to do that kind of damage, and the plant may have already been sick. Losing flowers and buds when you bring home a new plant is pretty normal, and not a big deal-- but losing all of the leaves is quite another matter!

[FNS]

The weather in my country is hot/humid during the day and cool at night (I live in the caribbean).

I made 4 more holes in her pot to make air circulate and to get her dry, and also took the moss out and added some gravel rock (the only thing I had). All most all of the blossoms have withered. The roots did smell better today and where drier, but I'm still super worried!!

Should I buy dina grow or something like that to treat the roots?? Or should I just leave her alone to dry and let the blossoms fall, to them treat her? Should I buy orchid fertilizer?

[Abbie9]

I would not recommend moving the plant from one location to another during day/night. Orchids like to get settled into one type of environment and the drastic shifts in temperature/humidity will do more harm than good.

[Leafmite]

How does the now leafless plant stem look? Could this have been caused by crown rot? Phals don't like water to sit on their leaves. Many of them grow sideways so that the water drains off easily.