Hello... I've been lurking for a short time, since I got my first orchids... I over-watered my lovely Phal, and it commenced dropping a lot of lower leaves... since it was in a plastic pot from the grower, I thought I'd better re-pot it in an orchid pot, or at least in clay... and that way, I could check the roots at the same time to make sure they were ok...

It's a good thing I un-potted it to check... several roots were rotted... I cut them off with sharp, clean scissors, dusted the wounds with cinnamon, dusted here and there with rooting hormone to promote new root growth... and potted it in a clay pot to fit the smaller root ball... I used moistened orchid bark, and gently filled in around the roots... watered it in to settle the bark, using tepid water, and set them back where they were, in an east window...

Can anyone tell me if it sounds like I did it right?? I've never re-potted an orchid before, but I've potted hundreds of other types of plants... how much difference can there be, besides the fact that the roots need loose medium?

Incidentally, the orchid actually turned out to be two separate plants stuffed in the one plastic pot from the grower. I put each one in its own clay pot since I didn't have an orchid pot of the proper size. I left the spike on the one plant, even though it has no blooms left on it... and the other plant actually has what I think is a new spike growing... it looks rather like the first plant's spike, but it's shorter, of course, and growing upward from under a leaf...

Anyway... I hope the crisis is over, and these two Phals will recover and bloom for me... I really love the fuschia/purple flowers...

Any advice anyone would like to give would be greatly appreciated! As I said, I'm new at orchids... I have the Phal(s) and an Epi Radicans that's doing great, so far.