I don't think it is black rot, but I'm also not sure what it is exactly.

What convinced you to cut so many leaves? If any, I may have cut the one with 10-12 black spots on the underside. Unless something like this is aggressive/quick spreading, I usually try not to be too aggressive myself in the treatment. I feel plants can't always be FCC perfect, sometimes they just grow and have some little imperfections like us humans. We can't all be Miss/Mr. America... :)

Bob

Thank you for your response Bob. I know- I felt afterwards like I may have reacted hastily. I read somewhere that the plant needed to be destroyed and that it would spread super quickly. I am totally fine with it not looking perfect! I just was scared that it would spread to other orchids and also I wanted to save it. I hope it can survive my aggressive reaction. I am interested that you don't think that it is black rot. I have only had the orchid for a couple of weeks but just noticed the spots because they were on the underside of the bottom leaves. I don't know if those were on there when I received it. Thank you again for your input!

Oh dear!! You cut off all of the leaves! That's just coloration from lots of bright light! Orchids color up differently, and especially orchids that have darker or spotted blooms will end up with some color in their leaves, particularly on the undersides.

Please stop chopping up your perfectly healthy plant! Google pictures of black rot. It will be VERY obvious when the tissue of your plant is dying, and it's very important that you can tell the difference between disease, physical damage (a scratch or bumping into something, for instance), and a perfectly healthy plant. Your plant is just tan and happy from the bright light!

This plant is a rescue. The one leaf is damaged from not being watered. The rest of the plant is perfectly fine, tan and all. I have never seen them yet, but I know its flowers will be dark.

This plant is light green and its flowers (one is visible here) is peachy. It gets some full sun, so even though the leaves are light green, its edges have a darker color.

This plant has light purple striped flowers. It also colors up nicely when happy.

This plant has very deep purple spotted flowers, and also gets very purple on the underside of the leaves as you see.

Thank you so much for your help and for the photos Dannie. I feel horrible about chopping the leaves off! From what I had read I thought that it was killing the plant and that they needed to be removed immediately and I freaked out. Do you think it can still thrive without them? Ugh. They didn't even look bad- it was only on the underside of the leaves. I should have posted here first. The leaves that I removed were all much smaller than those that are left and they were the older ones on the bottom. Thank you so much for the pics that is really helpful. Yes this orchid had dark blooms- you can kind of see one in the top pic. And I haven't had a dark one before so darker ones tend to have darker leaves/stems? I hope I didn't hurt this plant too badly. :( I really love it!

It's not written in stone, but leaves can indicate that the the flowers will have a pink/purple color. I have a white phal and a yellow phal, and those leaves are pure lime green, and have never shown any hint of this "suntan."

Your plant will grow more leaves and recover. Going into summer it will probably put out at least two leaves. It may even be spurred to put out growth faster to help itself recover over this growing season, and then slow down once it has its "regular" number of leaves again (in my experience, phals have their "ideal" number of leaves, and if it grows too many, the older ones will yellow and fall to maintain this ideal number ... that sounds weird, I know, but I see it happen on my phals all the time).

For what it's worth, I always thought the one plant I had that was so dark was sunburned, because it's SO deep purple. Then I moved it farther away from the window, and nothing changed, except it didn't flower that year. Similarly, the one with peach flowers has this pale green color and it won't green up no matter where I put it. What I realized is that that's just the color of these plants, and I need to let it go.

Good luck!! We are here if you have more suspicions!

Thank you so much Dannie. Your insight is really helpful to hear. I really hope this plant does grow some new leaves going into summer. About how many leaves have you found to be an ideal amount for a phal? It did lose two teeny buds yesterday but other than that it's blooming beautifully and another bud opened today. Those that fell were like half the size of a little sunflower seed. I was scared they fell off due to whatever was going on with the leaves. Maybe it was something different. I really appreciate you telling me about your experience with coloring too. I've actually been a little worried that this one isn't getting enough sunlight because it is pretty far from the window. Thank you again so much! Your expertise and kindness is greatly appreciated!

Sometimes it's just a simple thing like change in light or temp that makes the buds blast. The plant can take a bit to orient itself to a new environment.

Phals like bright light, but direct sunlight should be kept at a minimum (if it gets it in the early morning or late afternoon, harmless). The room where I keep mine gets very, very bright, and early morning sun. I have found that the ones further away from the window do better when they bloom. The others actually get too much bright light, and this makes them bloom twice a year (yay!), but with far fewer and smaller flowers (boo). Growing flowers takes work, and the plants that get more light than they prefer are tired. Unfortunately, my options are limited, so for now they get a bit of a bright light overdose. I try to hide them behind the sun-loving plants ... not sure how much that helps.

I don't know where you live, but if the weather is nice enough, you can put the phal in a shady spot outside for the summer. The day/night temperature swing in the fall will help it spike again before you bring it in for the winter.

Thank you so much. This is so helpful. I am going to try to be a little more laid back about my orchids not getting a ton of direct sun and also about the color of the leaves. :) it really helps to hear from the experts. It definitely sounds like a balance with the amount of sun so that will take some learning on my part. Your input has helped me so, so much!!! Thank you!

It's very difficult to identify the cause of leaf spotting. Bacterial rot does spread fast but I think spots will tend to be wet or ooze brown liquid and have a foul fishy smell. Spots that are sunken or growing in size I remove, the rest I leave alone. Leaf discoloration can be caused by low temps, bright light, or even calcium/ magnesium deficiencies and they all can look similar.

The St Augustine Orchid Society web site has excellent info and pictures on pest, disease,and environmental damage to orchid leaves.

Thank you James for that resource- I will definitely check it out. And thank you for your insight on the spots too. I didn't really realize before I talked to you guys here how many things could cause it-good info to know for sure. Thanks!