I think that would be me. I had a rootless phal and I really wanted to try and save the leaves. With rootless phals in the past I've always cut the leaves back to about half their length. The problem is that after the roots are gone, the plant has no way to take up water, so many times the leaves become dehydrated, and the whole thing just sits there looking sadder and sadder by the day. It's a kind of contest - getting roots to grow so the plant can take up water, before the leaves dry up and die. So with this one phal, I cut off the dead roots (which was ALL of them) and kept the base of the plant (where leaves join stem) coated in powered rooting hormone, and soaked the leaves in room temp water about every other day or so. I used a shallow pan with the top of the leaves face down and kept the base and stem area day. I'd let this sit for 30 minutes or so. This time I got roots before the leaves checked out and without having to cut the leaves back. The plant now has a way to keep those big leaves hydrated. Between the soaks I put the phal in a clay pot with damp sphag pulled up around the stem. The plant needs to be kept warm and in bright shade.

And yes, keeping a bag of sphag around is a good idea. It comes in handy for a lot of things. You might also do a search on the "sphag and bag" method. That is another option for rooting rootless orchids. That doesn't work for me because all I seem to get is a healthy case of mold, but then I am in a high humidity area anyway.

If you have mold on the roots I would say it's been to wet for to long and not enough air movement. Letting it air out is a good idea IMO.
Good Luck!!
Pat...

In a pinch, you don't even need the sphag... a damp paper towel in a plastic bag will do. The idea is to keep the poor rootless thing in a high-humidity environment while it decides to grow roots.

Well, we'll see what happens. My humidifier finally arrived today, and FINALLY all the holidays are over, so I have some time to try and baby some of my less-than-happy plants back into better health. AND to put together my growing set up... I need to put up my lighting and place my overwinterers where they will stay till warmer temps arrive - though freakishly, that almost seems like now...it was 72 today. In January.

Sooo, long story short, didn't try it yet, but need to soon, cuz the leaves are starting ever-so-slightly to wrinkle. I appreciate the advice. I hope I succeed, but if I don't, the little guy didn't cost too much and I got some valuable experience.