i did this to a phal once. i think they are very touchy about being repotted. the only times i have ever killed phals is when i repot them and they go into shock and start dropping all their leaves. this one probably reacted to a drastic change in moisture. i don't like the sphag moss for potting media all by itself. it's too easy to get root rot if the balance between roots and media and humidity are not just right. also, the moss should not touch the stem or leaves of the plant or you are waiting for rot to set in. i bought a very nice and expensive phal in an 8" pot filled with sphag and one day after watering it real well, i noticed it started to shrivel like this. all the little 3" pots of doriteanopsis do fine, as their pots are smaller and dry more quickly. in a week the whole plant looked like a raisin. i pulled it out of the pot and all of the roots had turned black and slimy. i trimmed it all off including about 2 inches of the plant's stem that had become soft and mushy, and it had no roots left at all. i re-potted it in bark, and very slowly it is coming back. most of the leaves slowly died off, but the 2 newer ones have survived, and it did quickly begin to grow new roots. the leaves still look really funky and have spots and wrinkles, but they are more firm and leathery again. i still am just barely misting the roots every other day, but it's going to survive, i think. i've been keeping it in less than optimal blooming light, and give it weak fertilizer that should help root growth (i forget offhand which number should be higher for root growth). my once beautiful and lush orchid is now a sickly looking thing, but one day it will rebound and bloom again. the roots are growing into the bark so i think it's on the right path. sometimes you just have to not be squeamish and go for orchid surgery! orchids are tough, and they will come back if treated right. but it takes time. i had a smaller plant shrivel like this after repotting out of moss once, and it did make a full recovery, and in fact is putting out a spike, but it took 3 years.







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