First order of business: Put that plant in the sunlight. Dends must have tons of sunlight if you ever hope to have a flower. It still boggles my mind why there's info floating around out there that orchids do not want sunlight! Who writes this crap? The fact you live in WI and winter is approaching only increases the urgency for MORE light.

I'm assuming this is some sort of Dend phal hybrid? That's what's usually available in stores in this part of the country. When I grew these, I found simply window light was not adequate to grow or flower these and added some supplemental lighting during the winter. When summer arrived, they went outside in almost full sunlight. You have to remember, sunlight is not as intense here as it might be in FL for instance.

I'll let someone else speak to the other issues you raised, but for the moment - MORE LIGHT PLEASE!

Good luck

Kevin

Seven feet is practically dark. Bring it a lot closer to the window.

The no direct sun is a good rule of thumb, sunburn can happen very quickly, especially if the light is coming through glass. However, it is incomplete. Use the sunscreen analogy. You wouldn't go out without sunscreen in the middle four hours of the day, but would not worry about morning of afternoon sun. Same for orchids.

Latitude of MN is 45 North. Maybe the angle of the sun even in Mid summer reduces the risk of plant sunburn?

Here, Latitude 33 something South, nothing much will survive full (unscreened) Sunlight.

I believe you are correct Arthur.

We're also approaching that time of the year in the frozen north when cloud cover can last for days if not weeks at a time.

I took some brugmansia cuttings the other day, potted them up and placed them in an unobstructed, south window. Even with no roots, they haven't wilted a bit. Sunlight coming through our windows just isn't that intense right now and will continue to go downhill in the upcoming months.

K

ok, I'll address the "repotting in better soil" issue. NO soil...these don't grow in dirt. Not knowing what it's potted in now, I can't say much more, don't even know if it needs repotting, but if it does, no soil.
Lori