A smaller plant (unless it's a mini that never gets big) isn't as strong as a bigger plant and will have a harder time surviving than a big old honking thing with the same kind of break. Nature will provide the cure. Just give it the best care you can as if it was a healthy plant and it will survive or not. We all lose things from time to time since most of us don't have perfect conditions, or we get careless from time to time. About the humidity bag: you have to be kind of careful here, because inside one of those bags are the perfect conditions (warm and humid) for *pseudomonas* a bacterial rot that is *the* killer of phals. I do bag the leaves of stressed phals, so I wouldn't say don't do it. But I would say don't use a ziplock bag zipped shut. My preferred method is to put separate bags on each side so the middle crown area stays open to the air, and is not covered by bag. I also clip them so that there is a little gap for air exchange. That still leaves plenty of humidity. If for some reason that doesn't work, I put a single baggie on somewhat loosely, leaving spaces for air to get in. Keeping open air around the broken crown area is especially important for you, since the broken stem is a perfect place for pseudomonas to get a start. Confined, airless spaces with high humidity are rot heaven. And speaking of rot, if the break was jagged, take a fresh new razor blade and cut it so its smooth (smooth = less of a rot heaven than jagged) But I don't think you need to treat it like an invalid-- it's not sick, just broken. If the roots are strong, it will use its strength to put out a new crown. Most plants, and definitely orchids, usually have reserve, unused buds they keep for just such a disaster as a broken crown. Since you have spikes, it might develop a plantlet or two from the spike. Watching to see what it will do to survive can be a lesson and a thrill itself. While you're waiting for this one to recover, it helps to buy a new blooming orchid-- So Cal must be heaven for finding blooming orchids. That will keep you from worrying and fussing and blaming yourself unnecessarily. Nature willbe the cure, not so much anything you do. Good luck.

Your phal: I have saved several of these "scraps" as I call them. No intent to be derogatory, just descriptive of what's there-- no roots and two tiny leaves. Let's be nice and call them "remnants". I have also lost many more than I saved. So the probabilities are against you, but it's possible to save them. While Clara is right that it *can* be a long time before they bloom, it does depend on the vigor of the original. I had scraps of Baldan's Kaleidoscope and Little Emperior bloom the year after I brought them back from scrap-hood to normalcy. Just 3-4 flowers, but enough to warm the heart and make a nice show. It's now two years after remnant-hood and they have a 20-24" leaf span. You have to get fresh medium. Just buy a small bag of sphag. The reason for fresh medium is that the old stuff has the bacteria that originally rotted the roots in it, plus who knows how many months/years of accumulated fertilizer salts, plus is likely to be broken down. You wouldn't even put a healthy plant in that, much less a tiny remnant. Phals actually like to be repotted, and you get a 3-month or so growth spurt after giving them fresh medium. This is especially true of tinies, that don't have resources to fight against contaminated medium. Such a tiny plant belongs in about a 2" pot, clay preferably. If you can afford a small bottle of Dyna Grow KLN (it's a rooting hormone), give it a 20" float in the KLN dilute solution, and then put the KLN in your watering water for the next months or so. Loosely cover the top of the pot and leaves with a gallon size baggie, or provide good humidity some other way. DON'T MIST! Not unless you want to add crown rot to the tiny scrap's problems. In a tiny clay pot, keep the sphag barely moist. That means *watering*. If you are worried about getting it too wet, use a teaspoon or medicine dropper. In my own experience, for a plant with no roots, they often establish faster if I cut the big leaves in half. So I would cut the big yellowing leaf in half. This is what you would do with a rootless cutting of any plant, and it works with orchids as well. It allows the plant to conserve moisture because there's less transpiration surface. The leaf beginning to yellow is a sign that the tiny scrap knows it can't support it. Letting it concentrate on growing roots and needing to support only the tiny new leaves gives it a better chance. As you see, the scrap will cost you more than $1 in the end. But it's very exciting to succeed with one, and very good when it finally blooms.

Keep it the same way you were keeping it before she had her accident. Just keep an eye on moisture levels, it may want more or less depending on how the plant reacts. Just don't do anything else to shock it and it should be fine.

PRO AVOID MISINFORMATION tapla As a younger man, I worked in a lab for The Jergens Company, developing hand cleaners and hand creams. Even though Ivory AND Dawn dish detergents work hard to leave potential purchasers with the impression they're miraculous unctions so gentle to hands they should be applied straight from the bottle at least thrice daily, they are very phytotoxic to plants for the reasons I noted above. And it's not just the detergent that's toxic. The chemical dyes, and perfumes they contain are toxic; and the ingredient methylisothiazolinone is extremely toxic to aquatic life, as well as a skin sensitizer/irritant that causes dermatitis ........ so just how gentle CAN these dish soaps actually be to hands? Extremely high levels of sodium in sodium laurel sulphate and sodium laureth sulfate (surfactants) both contain Na (sodium) at levels toxic to plants. Vegetable soaps from natural oils (like palm and coconut oil) that contain long chain potassium fatty acids are the least offensive/toxic to plants (Safer's and other brands of insecticidal soaps), and much, much different than dish soaps. These long chain potassium fatty acid soaps are very effective on mites, but if mites are the only concern, they'd be overkill. All you need for mites is a thorough spritz of 1-2 parts of water and 1 part rubbing alcohol (the 70% isopropyl stuff) every 4 days to keep mites under control. Avoid misinformation