Phals - great roots, pale leaves

[angeleyedcat]

I've had a bit of luck with box store mark downs with no roots using bark, mounts, or spag and bag, but this group is different. These are the phals that come in the small ceramic containers. They each have an amazing amount of healthy roots but had been forced into that small container with about a cup of spag. I can't imagine how they were able to pack all that in and the plant lived at all. It was dry, packed solid, and hard as a rock. Water or air could not have gotten in. Most of the leaves are a medium to pale green, several have yellow areas.

I've removed each from the container, removed all spag, let the roots soak for about an hour in water and they've plumped up wonderfully, look great. The leaves tho still look the same at this point. I've repotted them in the chunky Better Grow Phal bark mix (all I have) which just happened to have been soaked yesterday while I was doing some potting. They aren't over potted - the roots fill about 3/4 of the 4 inch pots. Since they have great roots I also very weakly fertilized with Schultz Orchid Food (it's what I've got). I just got Eleanor's VF-11 - does anyone recommend using this on these plants?

Any suggestions how to help the leaves? I assume they will either improve or die off hopefully to be replaced with others? The flowers look fine but if the plants don't improve in a few days I'll definately remove them.

Thank you!