Phal. has evil black spots on leaves...Help!

[lmgarret]

A few months ago my Phal.'s leaves began to turn yellow. I blamed it on my lack of watering and too much sun, but now there are black spots appearing on the top of the old and new leaves. Also, when I look under the leaves there are big black spots and it looks as if something is eating a path through the leaves as well. I have attached a picture of my phal. and you can see the black spots at the base of the plant and I also took a close-up of underneath and the top of the leaves (pictures are a little blurry). What is making my phal. unhappy and how do I fix it? This big mysterious black spot problem does not seem to match any mite description and since I don't have any experience with orchids I'm lost! Help! Thanks in advance. Lynnette

Files are actually too big...I will need to find some other way to attach pictures. In the meantime can someone please help me because my orchid is looking worse and worse each day. Thanks!

[mayres]

If you can resize the pics to 800X600 or so and try again it should work. I have had one phal with a big black spot and I watched it closely for about 4 months to see that it didn't spread and danger the plant. In about two days, all of a sudden (at least that is what it seemed like in retrospect) the spot spread down the leaf to the base of the leaf and affected the whole crown area. I ended up having to destroy the plant. If I had to do it again and I really didn't want to loose the plant, I think I would be tempted to try and cut off/out the black spots with a sterile tool/blade. In my case I don't know if rot is what started it or possibly there was a serious injury that just later became a likely spot for disease to get a toe-hold. I acquired the plant with the spot already on it so I don't know what caused it initially. As you have suggested - a pic would help. My guess is that this is not something you want to mess with - will see what others weigh in........mike