Phal rescue

[orchidprincess]

I just rescued a tiny little Phal from the home depot. It is the smallest orchid I've ever seen the whole plant is about the height of my hand and in a little ceramic pot. the plant originally had two spikes(?) but one is yellow and soft. I pulled it gently from the pot and it would appear that part of the root system is rotting. The other spike looks very healthy and has two buds about a week away from blooming. It's planted in phagnum moss and seems to be holding too much moisture. should i take it out of the moss? how can I save the healthy spike?

[solay]

You definitely need to re-pot into a bark mix to save the healthy one from rot. You'll need to remove all the dead and soft roots first.

[Hummer344]

I second the above

[mayres]

If you can take a digital picture and post of the entire plant - roots and all - when you have it stripped of ALL the sphag we can give you a good idea what condition the plant is in and what to expect. In severely declined plants most of us recommend removing ALL spike material so that the plant can focus its repairing energy on leaves and roots - you didn't note yet the condition of the rest of the plant? How many leaves - are they nice and stiff and smooth - or floppy or striated, etc.