Question on phal leaf size

[Maru777]

Hello everyone. I have a bit of a pet peeve with some phals I bought, though this is mostly just one in particular. This particular plant came with some humongous leaves in a tiny pot. To this day it has the biggest flowers that I have ever seen in a phal. It is called P. Unimax Angel Love Lisin if it means anything, but this is just an example as this happens with some of the others as well. Anyway, when I bought it it had massive leaves as well but a relatively small root system - that looked healthy, just not very extensive. It grew happily and bloomed very well - 2 beautiful spikes, similar size to the ones I bought it with, I think actually slightly larger. The root system now is massive compared to what it was when I got it yet the leaves are much smaller. I do not get it. I understand that growers have “perfect” conditions but I wonder which conditions this one is missing. It’s too big of a difference. In the picture you can see the flowers though the leaves are a bit in the background but I would say the new leaves are about half of the ones I bought it with. They are not getting smaller or larger now though, they seem to be in an equilibrium state, each new one about the same as the last, but just so much smaller. I just wonder what determines this huge difference in size. I do not think it is nutrients or plant resources since clearly it can support really large flowers with no problem and the leaves are very healthy so it’s not just pushing flowers thinking it is about to die. So why the small leaves? Would light duration impact the size of the leaves? Or maybe they just push more fertilizer? But then why would the flowers still be as big? Just curious what some theories are. I really liked those huge leaves

[Ray]

Maybe your conditions are not "missing" anything, but are actually providing "too much" - light specifically.

Just speculation, but if the light intensity is high, the plant doesn't need the same area of "solar collectors".

[estación seca]

Phals are low light plants. Leaf size on mine went up when I took this to heart.

[Grim Tuesday]

As others have said, when the plant is grown in lower light conditions it feels a need to grow larger leaves, to gather more light. Conversely, in higher light conditions it grows relatively smaller leaves. So, as long as it gets some reasonable minimum amount of light, and not too much that the leaves burn, the leaves are not a measure of health but rather of total light exposure. As long as the plant is healthy and blooming I don't think you need to worry about it.