A new pot/medium combo is not necessarily the answer. It could be that the medium inside the pots has simply broken down and so is retaining moisture for long. Orchids generally like to be repotted every couple of years at the outside.

Or you could try adding in some lava rocks or another non organic material to help aerate your media some more. You could also top dress your pots with some sphagnum moss to help keep the tops moist. Careful, though, because some Paphs don't like sphag.

Hope this helps.

Julie

Oh, I should have mentioned that last year I repotted in a commercial orchid medium consisting of fir bark, charcoal, maybe lava- I added some sphag moss- just a bit. The medium still looks pretty well intact.

Thanks.
Barbara

If you live in the woods in the Bay Area, think about the possibility that the issue is light. San Diego is very much sunnier than the Bay Area, especially in winter. And woods nearby, and you've quadrupled the problem. If you need heat 9 months of the year, I'd venture your windows don't get any sun.

Unless you are giving supplemental light, it is probably way too dim for orchids to thrive, even the phal.

Like Julie, I would also have recommended a repot. But given that you have already done that ... Sometimes new bark stays too dry right after a repot. Certainly for phals, you should pre-soak a bark medium so that it retains some moisture. The number 1 cause of stress in phals after repotting is caused by lack of moisture-- the new medium staying too dry, the water just runs right thru without any of it staying and the plant gets too dry.

Give them a soak for a half hour or so, and then water on an as-need basis. It may be less than once a week if your house is dim.

If you don't get at least two to three hours of sun in a window in your new house, you will have to provide artificial light.

You might consider using the skewer method of watering. Take a shishkabob skewer, the kind from the grocery store, trim it down and put it into the medium. Leave it there and the next time you think the plant needs water, take it out and touch it to your cheek, lip, or the back of your hand. If it's dry or nearly dry, water. If it's wet or damp, don't water. How wet or dry the skewer is before you water will depend on the type of orchid.

you could try LECA in semi-hydro. it would keep the roots moist w/o causing rotting. but if you have low humidity, you would still have to mist your plants.