So: Saturday night I sprayed my orchids with combination of neem oil and pyrethrin picked up at local store. Didn't overdo it, but was thorough. Orchids are on shady porch, though must move them at the end of the day when the sunlight slides onto the porch and can shine directly on the plants for an hour or so.

Day after spraying--this might be a coincidence--I notice a quarter-sized brown spot on the leaf of one of my Phals. It wasn't a brittle brown, more like the color of rum. Worried that spray hadn't dried in time and the spot was some sort of fry mark.

This phal had lost its last flower a couple weeks ago, so I had cut the stem back to the next-to-lowest joint. I had also, while examining the roots, noticed that roughly half of the healthy white and green roots were either partially black, or had black parts on them where the root exterior had given way and the strong inner thread was visible. So I trimmed the bad-looking roots. It was doing fine (I thought) up until I noticed the spot. There was something growing in the center of two main leaves....it wasn't a stalk, it looked like a very small green leaf that was bent in the shape of (for lack of a better concept) a taco shell. There were a couple small green nubs around the roots that I hoped were new growth. Not wonderful, but still, promising.

Then came today.

The brown spot is bigger. It has turned white, and only the edges of the spot remain brown. The spot isn't brittle, and when I gently poke it, it doesn't SEEM to be rotted, either. The stem that I cut back has turned yellow. The roots are unchanged. I suspect that I might have over-watered this plant for the first few weeks I owned it (I've had it for roughly 6 weeks). I have fertilized this plant, along with my other orchids, every 10 days or so with orchid-specific fertilizer.

Anyone care to offer an autopsy on my late lamented Phal? I even wonder if maybe it was in a pot that was too big. It was probably 12-14 inches in circumference. I always see orchids in small pots, but I put this one in a big one, figuring that it would have more room to spread its roots. But since the big pots seem to hold moisture a lot longer than the small ones, perhaps I inadvertently doomed it to a constantly-damp life...