May I ask the OP where they have gotten their basic information culture information? I am curious where this information comes from. I see it many times from people new to orchids. I see nothing in the other post that states " Too much light". In fact I see the opposite many times over from experienced growers. I don't understand how the OP arrived at too much light conclusion. A Phalaenopsis is a tropical plant in a non-tropical environment. A Northern exposure and 50º temps would not benefit a Phalaenopsis or any other tropical flowering plant. Would you describe your present indoor conditons & culture? Would you tell us what steps you have taken to cure the "brown spot" problem? Would you be able to provide a photo? Would you tell us where/ when the plant was purchased? The OP has a declining plant. Spraying and misting cures nothing and can cause a variety of problems. You have a yet to be determined problem (I'd wager a lack of light). You have let it go for a few months. I would suspect your phal's problem has not improved. I strongly suspect you will face even greater problems quite soon. Spots don't disappear unless these were spots caused by a sudden shift in light (more) which happens in the fall months. You have brought it inside and the plant is now underlight, "darkening down". The spots would disappear under those circumstances. Plants leaves get darker the less light given. This is not a good thing. There is nothing that resembles Phalaenopsis culture (care). Buds don't stay forever. It's not a realistic expectation. I am not sure how that comes as a surprise to folks new to orchids . It's not the first time that I have seen an OP shocked that their bloom cycle is ending. I am not wondering if it is the price that is somehow associated bloom longevity. The OP posted more than 2 months ago. The plant may have run it's flowering cycle. Why will the spikes will be cut back to the 3rd node? Whay aren't they being cutt all the way down? I'm asking for my own curiousity, where this information comes from? Is the OP hoping the plant will re-bloom from the 3rd node? It is rare event for a phal in more ideal condtions to re-flower, a Big Box phal even more remote, a sick phal, probably suicide The plant needs attention and culture that fits a phal: - An acclimation to proper light. A south or East window supplimented by 14-16 hours of light every day Temps that are in the 75-80º range day and no lower than 60º night A solid watering regime which Richard describes above, not a dip in a bowl of water Dispense with misting if there is a problem. The risk of rot is quite high, especially when the plant is underlight. The plant is also risking over-watering. Misting does not increase humidity around the plant. Misting can cool leaves, leave spots, create rot. The plant needs time to grow a new set of leaves in proper phal conditons. Then it may reflower for you next year Clara

So Ken, you don't have any suggestions as to what can cause the yellowing and brown spots? I just bought these two standards this year. They are in brand new pots with brand new 'storebought' media. The bag from Costco, I do believe. I wasn't clear that the yellowing, brown spots and falling leaves has been a problem since shortly after I bought them in May. After researching online, I thought they might need fertilizing with a liquid fertilizer (I potted them up with Bone Meal Plus, and sprinkled a little Miracle Gro slow release back in May). I don't think giving them a little liquid fertilizer after two months is overdoing it. The bottle says to apply every 8-10 days, and it's been two weeks. I haven't sprayed them yet...just fertilized two weeks ago. I live in the Pacific Northwest, so yes, we have rain in May and June, but July has been a scorcher, think they have been watered consistently, ie not too moist, never completely drying out. They are in a part of the deck that receives morning sun until about noon, I could try giving them more sun...but am hoping someone is familiar with this problem and can help out.

soil is mother earth ... media is what is used in pots ... media is create to manage water .. in a pot .. soil ... dirt ... is near impossible .. in my experience.. to MANAGE... in pots ... eventually it compresses.. and the water sheds to the edges.. and down the side.. and the middle goes bone dry .... and your goal.. is to have exactly all the same media.. in every pot.. so as to know.. that when one pot is dry.. they PROBABLY are all dry ... you dont mention if you made a big batch of your mix... you water.. when your pot needs water ... not on some schedule ... watering every 4 days.. may or may not be proper ... experiment.. to find out.. i would to not water.. until the plant slightly wilts.. and then you will have some idea.. how often to water ... and you can also FEEL the weight difference in the pot ... but .... your problem might be.. with the limited 'flow thru' of dirt in a pot... you may never be able to rewet the pot completely ... and unfortunately ... you will never really know what is going on in the pot ... until you break one open ... the best investment ... really the only investment [other than the seed itself] .... is a high quality media ... i know nothing about worm castings... but as far as i am concerned [probably heresy to the wormers.. lol] .. its just another form of dirt ... you have no structure in your media... things that create large gaps.. so water can run thru the whole ... i am sure you can track down one of the thousands of posts on als gritty mix .... and if you read thru a few.. you should be able to grasp some of the concepts i mention .... especially if you find Als primer on such .... see link good luck ken Here is a link that might be useful: link

Dan, I've used a few different mixes in containers and I like the sound of your sea soil. The problem with containers is that the system is really too small to set up a true organic soil system in them. People do all sorts of things and may technically get away with it, but I my abilities can't do a completely organic soil and get reliable production, since any "help" and you kid yourself that it is "almost organic". That said, I had some luck with a mixture of 1/3 compost (Black Kow Composted Organic), 1/3 peat & 1/3 perlite in summer but you must watch it doesn't get waterlogged. I know it sounds strange, but raw perlite is "organic". You could put some of those fancy rock dusts in there and dolomitic lime and give it a whirl. Problem is at some point your plants will need the nutrient boost of something like Miracle Gro, which is not organic, but not as bad as some make it out to be, either! There are some Fox Farms hydroponic/organic and Dutch Master hydro organic ones, but these things are really cost intensive and there is no way I could afford to even evaluate them. Tomato-Tone is organic and you can use some of it (the affordable option I would use) but a lot of experimentation is necessary to get it right in a bucket. Those are the tools I would use. There are others that are more expert than I am in this forum on organic methods in a container, but the problem is that ingredients and climates can vary enough that a lot of experimentation is necessary anyway and it is a bit much to ask of a container considering the nutrient demands of a big tomato plant. And a bigger contaner ( say, 25 gallons) can be costly to fill with organic nutrients only. There are other much more economic ways to go if you drop the requirement of deriving all nutrition from "organic" sources, for example pine mulch, etc, is cheap but offers no nutrition so it doesn't get you anywhere nutrient wise, though it might help you save on perlite. I can't answer whether your tap is appropriate for your plant, even knowing the pH is 7.5. That's because it will be the interaction among the tap, soil ingredients and amendments that determine the pH of the container. For example, if your soil starts on the acid side which it likely will it needs to be neutralized with some lime, but you can do what I do ... put less in and water with alkaline water for a while. Clearly that is not an optimal situation but to be honest my plants do fine despite all the issues with pH, and my tap is pH 7.7. But this is a fragil relationship and the only way to now for sure is to pH test your soil while you grow toget the hang of what's happening, if you are really enthusiastic. Just because it works for me, btw, doesn't mean it will work for everyone. We get lots of rain here and that frequently washes trhough soil mixesand I purposely open the tops wide to encourage that. No residue builds up from the tap or any of my not-organic supplements due to the rain. The common wisdom of hydroponics of a vegetative and a reproductive period fertilization schemes doesn't seem very pronounced to me when growing the tomato for the long haul. To be perfectly honest, I think all these mantras about vegetative stages and drastic changes during flowering stages are geared towards high value crops LOL. Really with tomato plants you want to keep the nitrogen at a baseline, low in all of my scenarios. You are not growing vines, they get quickly unmanageable for indeterminates and make few tomatoes, and most everyone here seems to agree that being pretty stingy with nitrogen is the way to go. That's the opposite of what you've done. When I grow my tomatoes, my seedlings have only 1/2 to 2/3 the nitrogen the producing plants do, so my nitrogen rate actually increases for me. At the end I back off though because the plants get less productive and unmanageable so there's a lot of give and take. Hope that helps a little, because nothing is as easy as it seems, so most people find something that works and get pretty stuck to it. Cheers PC