First thing I'd check for is root rot. That is the most likely reason a phal would have trouble taking up water. Carefully flip the plant over, and cup the soil in your hand. Ease it out of the pot gently without disturbing the root ball or allowing the whole thing to fall apart. Roots should be white or green and hard - any brow is rot.

On another note, you should stop misting, and stop leaving water in the tray. Standing water will rot the roots quickly, and the leaves on these orchids need to be dry at all times. Wet leaves on these can quickly become diseased, and misting can also cause overwatering.

Thank you oldmangroot! I emptied the dish and checked the roots, no rot that I can see. I will stop misting and see if it springs back.

Where do you live? What part of the Country or World?? It would be helpful to give more specific information so we can help.

Jane

If the roots are okay, then it's just not getting enough water. Give it a soak in a bowl for an hour or so, once or twice a week. If you have fungus gnats, definitely treat the water you're soaking it in to combat the larvae. I almost lost a few orchids to fungus gnat larvae before I even figured out what was happening!

They bounced back, and the new leaves were shiny and healthy, but the damaged leaves never really got back to normal. They were firm, but still leathery.

I'm in New York City, and the orchid lives in my office at work so the temperature is pretty stable at around 76F. It's on a north facing windowsill and doesn't get any direct light.

I sprinkled in some Mosquito Bits to combat the fungus gnats and it will supposedly release BTI every time I water. So now we think it's under watered rather than over watered?

I don't think anyone here thinks it's overwatered. The leaves are very clearly dehydrated. If you're watering it a lot and the leaves still look like this, there's trouble with the roots, but you say they look okay. If that's the case, it needs to be soaked, a lot, and then given a few days to dry out, and then soaked, a lot, again.

I am also in NYC, and keep about 14 orchids in an air-conditioned office. The temp drops at night, enough that they spike at least once a year, but 7 of them have just spiked for the second time. I mist the roots daily (it's very dry in here), and thoroughly flush them all with water at least once a week, at the sink or by submersing in a large bowl of water.

I have an orchid in that exact pot you have, and it dries out really, really fast. You have to bring it to the sink and really water the heck out of it. I water mine like that twice a week, and mist the roots/bark daily.

Fading phales are easily the most asked question and usually easily resolved. There should a newbie FAQ section available for people to scan and compare... here are some notes on my last post about wrinkled phales..

"when you see leaves wrinkled same as in the pic, your plant is loosing or has lost most of the root system.

If you want to keep plant alive, remove flower spike, pull plant out of pot, remove any dead root (brown/mushy/dried) and rinse, then let dry for a day. Next, get a pot a bit smaller than the original by about a third, get some quality sphagnum moss, soak it and squeeze air out of it and repot plant. Keep water to a minimum as you want to partially stress plant to put new roots without killing it. When new roots start, you can resume normal care.

Phales do not like fertilizer buildup on media, it will burn/kill their roots. It is important to flush media once a month with good quality water (less than 200 ppm)

"

That looks underwatered to me... I would begin by upping the amount of water you give it (or weekly soakings).

I gave it an hour-long soak yesterday, and made sure there was no water at the bottom of the pot. I'll keep a close eye on it to make sure it's not drying out too much between watering. I do spray the aerial roots once a week with miracle grow orchid food (0.2-0.2-0.2), do you think I should reduce to 1-2 times a month? I am following its instructions and feed after watering only.

If you're spraying it with fertilizer and never really soaking/rinsing it away, the build-up could be an issue as well. I'd hold off on feeding until it starts showing some improvement. Just keep going with increased watering schedule and see what happens.