Could you post some pictures? They would help a lot.

How often do you water?

I will be happy to post some pictures tonight after my toddler goes to sleep. I water, in a soaking manner, once a week. It lives next to my toddlers cool mist humidifier that runs every night from 7pm to 7 am.

what do you all think??

How much light is it receiving and from which direction (East, West etc.)

What kind of climate do you have?

How do you know when to water? Do you just water on a schedule or do you check the media/roots of the orchid?

Is it still in the same pot/media that came with the orchid when you purchased it?

It gets a western exposure, so bright indirect light from 1-4 and the direct light from 4-6:30. I am in 7B, Lubbock, TX (hot, dry and windy). Although this orchid stays inside where we keep the house from 68-72 year round. It lives next to my son's cool mist humidifier that runs everyday from 7pm-7am. I water it every week or when it seems unusually dry. It is still in the original pot (plastic but has several holes all over the sides and bottom) and media (seems to be a mixture of bark and spag)

i have never ever taken the orchid out of the pot to check the roots.. should I do that and post pictures?

Squishy and limp leaves can be caused several ways:

1. Too little watering. Roots will be white-ish and firm when dry, they should turn green when wet.

2. The roots are rotted and the orchid can not take up water. They'll be brown and squishy or brown and papery if they are dead/rotted.

3. Bad leaf sunburn, which I don't see in the pics.

I'd carefully pull the plant and check the roots. Place it back into the same pot when done and let us know what you find.

The lighter color is probably from receiving more sunlight than it was receiving prior to your purchase, a western exposure window as you describe is about the max light the phal should receive.

Good luck,

Bob

Ok, Houston we have a problem! The older roots look terrible! I guess this is why the plant is putting out new roots outside the pot?!? Is it my watering or bad planting media or most likely a mixture of both? Should I soak in Superthrive for about an hour this morning? Any other suggestions??

Here are some shots of the pot

So after thinking about this for a little while, what does it mean if I have both white-ish roots (underwatered) and black/dark roots (overwtaered)... how is that possible unless my mix just doesn't drain equally?

As far as having both types of roots, I'd guess they are in the beginning stages of having some real issues. Anything brown and squishy cut away, keep the white ones. Safer to error on the side of cutting a little too much as opposed to too little in my opinion.

I'd say you caught this in time and the phal should recover as long as you get the watering down. In my experience, a healthy phal in bark should be watered @ 1x week when kept indoors.

Bob

And avoid the direct afternoon sun. In general, orchids love the morning sun and most, especially phals, do not like the afternoon sun, the hottest. All that becomes more acute at lower tropical latitudes. Some places up north phals will take morning sun or so I have read. All the rest of your culture is OK. Deal with the light...

In my opinion as long as an indoor phal is at least 1 foot from the west window, you'll not have any issues with sunburn/too much sun. If it were going to get sunburned, it would have already happened after 1 month. Sunburn usually becomes apparent within just a few days of over-exposure. I think the more light you can give a phal, the better the flowering when the time comes.

Outdoors is a whole other story though, Harvey is right as far as a phal would burn-up in your described west-facing exposed outside location.

All that said, I don't grow phals in west windows (none convenient for me), but I have grown them in south windows in winter, no issues for me as long as they were set back a bit from the window so they didn't get the 12-3PM sun. Also, I'm in southwest Ohio so there are some latitudinal/sun-angle differences between our locations.

Bob

Another round of questions:

1. I have not repotted this orchid yet. I have left it on the kitchen counter (where the above pictures were taken) with all of the planting media removed, all of the dead roots cut off, and I have put a moist paper towel between the roots and counter (it has since dried completely). I also rubbed the roots down with hydrogen peroxide. Have done the correct thing with letting it "air out"? How quickly should I replant it in new medium?

2. Once I have it replanted, how soon should I fertilize it?

Over the past week, the plant doesn't seem to be declining or improving- it's just kind of blah, the same.

1. I'd replant ASAP. More than 1 week of being bare-root with no daily moisture after being potted may cause some issues. I'd use a bark mix similar to what it was in previously, be sure to pre-soak the bark for a few hours before using. Keep it on the dry side for a week or two after the repot.

2. I would not fertilize for the first 2-3 weeks and then follow a "normal" fertilizer schedule, which for me is using fertilizer every 3 out of 4 waterings year round.

Good luck,

Bob

You are right, westoh Z6! Another problem I have noticed, so called extensive light exposure. This condition is not sunburn, but will affect parts of the leaves, or whole leaf. Afternoon sun can be a culprit. I left my phal under LED light once which was too bright (but cool, not hot), got the same pattern on leaves.