How to prevent loss of lower leaves in phals

[vegetalmatter]

Just bought another bellina, this time for its roooound beautiful leaves that I just love. When repotting, I sadly found its root system to be seriously lacking. It had a few new roots starting, but 80% of the existing roots (which wasn't much to start with) were brown and mushy. I understand that orchids will lose bottom leaves to balance out a lack of roots. In the case of this bellina, its leaves are quite massive and I am certain the root system is not proportionate.

Are there any steps I can take to help it NOT drop it's bottom leaves? (or at least slow it down) Keep it moister? Warmer? Spells and rituals?

[WaterWitchin]

Oh vegetal matter! Please don't mention spells and rituals the day before Halloween and a full moon! Hasn't 2020 been enough!!

I'd keep it very humid put some KelpMax on it, and maybe on a seedling mat for awhile. Don't water "extra" but make sure any new green root tips that get going don't dry out.

[camille1585]

Sometimes I think it's more complex that just balancing out root and leaf mass. I have a Phal with a very large and healthy root system, but it will never keep more than 3 leaves. This year I tried to give it perfect care (I tend to periodically neglect my plants when life gets too busy) and even though it grew 3 new leaves, it also shed more than usual, still leaving me with 3 leaves... I think I need to try spells and rituals next!

[estación seca]

My observations: When growing in my house, humidity 30% at best, phals carried 3-4 leaves. Moving to a sunroom with 40%-60% humidity, the same individuals carried 5-6 leaves. When I began using an evaporative cooler and humidity rose to 60%-80%, the same individuals carried up to 10 leaves.

[Ray]

My guess is that it’s a cultural issue.

A few of my more mature phals had 4 or 5 pairs of leaves, but I got sidetracked and didn’t repot them soon enough (they were in sphagnum), and the bottom two pairs turned yellow and dropped.

Another anecdote that supports that, leaning toward temperature: I have a friend who retired to Central America. He grows phals in inorganic media, but waters the hell out of them daily. As a spiking experiment, he kept them above 85F for 2 to 3 years. They grew like mad, with each plant having at least a dozen pairs of leaves on plants 15”-18” tall. (They never bloomed, but with that massive of a “resource generating and storing” mechanism, when he did give them a period of cooler temps, each of them threw 10 or more spikes.)