Leaf yellowing with red spots

[heavensent]

Hello, so apparently I am on some bad luck streak :/
On the pictures you can see the orchid in question.
Background:
I bought it two months ago in full bloom. The flowers started looking limp a week after but the plant looked healthy. A few weeks forward two leaves yellowed within 5 days and dropped. The spikes got dry and I cut them of and inspected the roots. They seemed healthy but there was little of them for an orchid with two very branched stems. The deteriorating you see on the pictures happened in a span of four days + some of the roots somehow dried.
The plant came in smaller white pot and I kept it that way, watered about every 5 days. Zero fertilisation. I can also see that some “air” roots where cut.

Could it be a disease or was the plant badly produced? Any other ideas?

[estación seca]

Phalaenopsis do best with warm temperatures, low light and lots of air at the roots. This one didn't get enough water. It can recover and still might flower in spring 2024.

Now that it's out of the container, you can repot. Don't cut off any roots. You can keep it bare-root for days to a few weeks while you gather the materials for repotting. Once a day soak it in water for an hour.

Use a pot just large enough to hold the roots. Many people prefer transparent or translucent pots so they can see the roots.

You can use many different media. What you use will depend on your growing conditions, what is available and how often you have time to water. Medium to large bark works well. LECA for hydroponics works well. For both of these watering can be every 2-3 days during warm weather. You can use sphagnum moss but watering is very different for that. The watering interval is much longer. If you choose sphagnum moss read about it here on Orchid Board for correct watering.

They don't ever need sun on the leaves. Bright shade is best.

There is a good thread here to read. From the left yellow menu choose Forums then Beginners. Near the top look for a sticky thread, The Phal. abuse stops here.

[Louis_W]

Ya i dont think you have any major issues. The plant is dehydrated because it doesnt have a root system. If get it in a pot and dont mess with it again until it has a healthy root system. That will take some patience.

The red is just natural pigment in the leaves, nothing to worry about there. When the bottom leaf yellows and falls off it is a sign that the plant is stressed but in a slow decline that can be fixes with a little care

[Dimples]

If the plant came to you in sphagnum moss, watering every 5 days probably was too much. Moss needs to dry out considerably more than bark, leca, or other chunkier medium or else the soggy, airless conditions can lead to root rot, which would explain why the plant declined like it did. More of a slow burn vs going up in flames.

I have an extra tall 4” plastic pot with a houseplant cutting rooting into sphagnum, sitting on a heat mat in front of a diffused southern window. I water that at most every 10 days, and it could usually wait a few days longer. Listen to the advice ES and others gave you already and it should recover fine.