this phal is not happy - maybe it's dieing?!?
 

What have I done? What have I done?!?! :shock: This orchid does not look good. The bottom leaf is turning yellow and the stem is dying back. What do you think of the roots? Any advice?

Don't be discourage. I had one similar to it. It looks like some kind of root rot. What I did to mine is washing it with hydrogen peroxide, then repot it in new medium. Leave it relatively dry. Maybe spray it a little if it get too dry, but keep it on the dry side until it grows new roots. It might come back. Mine did.
Good luck!

The leaf turning yellow is probably an old one , if the dark stub is not soft then that is normal .. I would pot it up and take care of it as usual , moist but not wet wet ..

The spot on that lower leaf look like it may have been an area that allowed an infection.
Remove the leaf and the bottom part of the stalk that looks like it has no good roots.
The arial roots above the leaves above are very healthy.
Repot her sans yellow leaf and black roots with the new arial roots in the new media and I think you have a winner ;)

As far as the proper pot size for now put it in a pot that just is large enough for the present roots to fit. in. It will help prevent keeping the new medium too wet. Once it has a good set of new roots you can put it in a larger pot then.

Okay, so I'm going to remove the yellow leaf. I guess I should leave the stem? It's not soft. Should I repot in a 4" pot?
Thanks!

4" sounds rather large for that number of roots. I would get the smallest possible to fit most of the roots. If it was mine I would leave out the top two roots which stick out to the side so that I was able to use a smaller pot for the others. The top two would then just be arial roots.

If the pot is too big you will find you may get rot, and in my experience new roots don't grow as well if the pot is too big. I think the reason is that with a bigger pot you have to water less often, with a smaller pot it dries quickly so you can water more often and the roots actually like that.

Forgot a couple of things above.

You can use old food/drink containers and make holes in them to make smaller pots if you can't buy them.

If you want to use a bigger pot and fit all the roots in, then an old food container can be used upside down inside to reduce the volume of the medium. If you do that make plenty of holes in the upturned food container to ensure air flow.

Thanks for that Rosie! I couldn't find a smaller pot. I'll dig through recycling to see what I find. I found about 5 smooth rocks that are about 1". What about if I add those to the bottom?

Rocks can help in the bottom, although I've found sometimes the water can cling to them and stay damp. They are better than too much media though.