i must save this phalaenopsis
I am amazed and thankful that the experts on this forum do not roll their eyes at yet another beginner ruining another plant and move on to the next post. I received an orchid as a present from someone very dear to me. I called the florist it came from, and followed the watering instructions to the letter, because one of my supermarket moss-media orchids died of root rot years ago. Well, I ended up with root rot on this orchid too... in a month, I got limp leaves. I tried to get ideas from the dozens of forum posts I had over many many days... I took the it out of the moss it was packed in, cut off most of the rotten roots, as well as the flower spikes (1 spike I kind of left at about 6 inches), used fungicide, etc. and now for the past 6 weeks the orchid has been sitting as in the picture, and I spray it with a diluted kelp mix every other day (this, from another florist). In the meantime, 1 of 4 leaves dropped. The past few days I soaked the roots in tap water (which I had let sit for 24 hrs b/c I read someone's comment that chlorine may harm the plant but dissipates in a day if you let the water sit) for about half an hour. (this, from yet another post I had seen somewhere). I am in the northeast and the office room the plant is in is very dry. From where I sit in the office, I cannot help looking over at it every few minutes as if watching something on life support. I have seen humidity not go over 22% in this office. Temperature from 65 to about 77. The glass vase the orchid is in, is sitting on a tray with water, but that hasn't had any effect on the readings on my instrument. I see 2 small root-like knobs appearing. Should I leave the plant as is, and not risk moving it, or should I take it home where it's a bit more humid (I have seen it around 26) and I have the opportunity to take it to a bathroom daily where with showers, and running really hot water for a bit, humidity can go up to 76 and stay high above 50 for at least a couple of hours, from my testing? Here are some pictures of this poor plant.
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