Thanks so much for the tips and for giving me hope!

This morning I placed the inner plastic pot in a tray of water to increase the humidity (it's on top of a plastic lid to keep the bottom of the pot up out of the water). I'll try to give it some more window time/warmth too when the sun is not direct.

Yesterday I removed the largest and oldest leaf that was looking really bad. The plant still has 6 leaves - three on each side (plus a small one in the center). One of the leaves in particular is browning from the inside out, kind of a dark mottled brown accompanied by wilting. Do you think I should remove the leaf or leave it?

Thank you again!

http://www.aos.org/orchids/culture-sheets/phalaenopsis.aspx this should help...

Your bark looks totally dry. The AOS sheets from the link above should tell you that your growing medium needs to stay moist. As soon as it appears to be to be dry it's time to water. Drench the pot with water. It can be allowed to soak for a few minutes, then allow it to drain. I like Dannie's suggestion too.

Sheila's right: the roots seem healthy enough, but needs a thorough watering. Don't be afraid to put that pot in a bowl of water and leave it there (I leave mine for 30 minutes at a go when it's really dry). The bark soaks up that water and keeps the roots humid for days.

If the marking on that leaf is sunburn, it's okay to leave it there, but I'll let other people chime in if they think it's some sort of disease. The leaves are best left alone to drop on their own ... unless that have something that can infect the whole plant.

Good luck!

I took that picture right before it's weekly watering. I bet that this new bark is drying out faster than the older bark I removed, due to better drainage, and I need to water it more often. For now I will leave the leaf and focus on more water/humidity/warmth. Thank you all!

your roots for a healthy phal should be plump and green when they turn silver its time to water. You might want to try fwc, it works great.

Dannie or anyone else with thoughts -

My phal is still in the new bark, the sunburned leaf is about to fall, and I've been trying to get it more water/humidity/warmth. The roots visible on the edges of the pot look worse, like they are probably dead. But it is fairly stable in the bark so it might have some support in there somewhere, and the rest of the leaves are still in good shape. I'm wondering if I should try to rehab it with sphagnum and soaked bark like your example above, or if I should just kind of let it be? The ocd tendencies in me reeeeeally want to cut off those dead or rotten roots, but I don't want to cause more upset to the plant if you think it's already healing.

Thanks!

Where do you live? Its important to tell us where you are and how you are growing this plant. What type of light, inside, outside, etc.

To my eye, your Phal is planted to deep. You need to raise the plant above the bark. The neck of the plant should be higher.

Repot it. Then soak that bark for a few hours in water with a little fertilizer. Put it in a bright window, and keep it warm.

Jane

Thanks Jane! I live in North Carolina, and the orchid is in my workplace. So basically gross fluorescents but we have a nice big east-facing window where the plant spends some time (but I try to move it back and forth because that's how it got the sunburn). The temperature is usually kept between 70 and 73.

I repotted it last Friday and included some sphagnum to try to keep it from drying out so fast. I'll water it again today and put it up in the window. The dead leaf fell this morning :)

I did repot it higher up this time - the plant has almost NO roots, so that's stressing me out, and so that's why I put it in too deep last time. Does it seem better now?

Looks potted at the correct height to me.

In a previous life when I was growing some of my orchids in a dry office environment, if I had issues with keeping the media damp I would let @ 1" of water sit in the decorative pot to help the plastic pot's media soak up the water. I would then empty the decorative pot after 6-7 hours or the next day. Be sure to empty it, don't want to let most orchids sit in water too long.

I would not expect or even try to get flowers this winter, but for next year: You may find you have a hard time getting it to re-bloom in an office environment, as they don't usually provide the @15 degree temps swings needed to initiate spikes. Fall is the time to use nature to help in achieving these temp swings, open/crack a window at night or let it sit outside in a very protected (no direct sun and wind) area for a couple of weeks. I'd think it would be safe outside in NC for 2 weeks or so.

Good luck,

Bob

Thank you this is very helpful!