resurrecting an orchid

[rikmoor]

Hi - new to the boards, and not a green thumb, so go easy on me please.

My mother gave my wife a dendrobium orchid about 4 years ago when my wife's mother passed away. This orchid has been struggling for the entire winter. At Christmas I repotted it using sphagnum and an orchid soil blend from Lowes - there were 2 main stalks and they separated during the repotting process - so I potted them in 2 separate pots. One in an orchid pot - the other in a standard nursery pot with lots of slits cut in the sides for air and drainage. To date, the one in the orchid pot is gone. The second one has sprouted air roots (I think that is the term) and the stalk is looking bad near the soil. But the leaves are nice and green.

The orchid lives by an east facing privacy glass window but there are large trees that block early morning sun. So it gets very good, diffused light through the day. At this point I'm misting the leaves and air roots with rainwater with about 3-4 pumps of the spray bottle each morning. Then once a week, I pour about 3-4 tablespoons of rainwater from the spray bottle on the soil. I did that this morning before pic below and the soil looks weird because only part of the soil was darkened by the water - it hadn't absorbed throughout the soil yet.

So what to do with this lone stalk that has survived? Do I cut the bad looking stalk off and plant the air roots? Do I not touch anything since the leaves are green? Should I at least stake the little guy so it is standing up instead of leaning over?

Any tips or suggestions? Thank you very much!!

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