Phal: In bloom, new leaf, and possible new spike.

[mandirose1]

My husband brought home a NoID phal from a big box home improvement store. Very sweet.

The poor thing looks very confused... It's in bloom, (though a sad one, only 3 flowers.) There is another "mitten" coming off that spike. There is a "root" growing out of the base on the opposite side of the spike. It's too little to say what it is for sure, but so far it's moving up the base... She is also working on a new leaf.

Whew. The media is sphag moss, (of course,) and it's kind of nasty. Varying shades of normal brown, dark brown, green... Smells like dirt. That's normal enough, right? It was pretty wet, but I cut a bunch of holes in the crappy container, (that really thin clear stuff,) and it seems to be drying out okay but still quite damp in the middle. Roots at the outer edge are green and plump. Roots near the crown seem thin and are dark brown, though still firm.

Should I do anything? I feel like the plant doing all these things at once is just going to stall it out. I can't really fertilize it to help it along, as I don't want to soak that moss for awhile, and I'm pretty sure I shouldn't repot it, since it's in bloom... Or should I? Should I just cut the spike so it can concentrate on all the other crap it's trying to do? lol

Thanks for any help! I'm obviously a newb!

[WhiteRabbit]

They can multi task
I just stick a skewer in the media, as close to the center as possible, to help me determine when to water. And you can watch the root color.
Many Phals don't miss a beat being repotted while in bloom, if you don't mess with the roots too much - but there's always a chance of bud or bloom drop - so it's up to you ...
I've had good luck using a skewer and watching root color, and waiting for the plant to finish blooming before repotting.

[mandirose1]

Thanks for responding!

Yeah, the media looks like junk so I think I'm going to repot. I'll feel better giving it some food to help it along too. I just can't wet that sphag in there. It's so dense and it'll stay sopping wet for days the way it's packed in there.
I figure that I'll probably get at least one more flower to look at after if the rest fall off since there's a mitten coming off the top of the spike.