Please help! Keiki? on a dying/dead plant

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by SouthPark

I'm sure that there would be, or could be some technology that would allow a top laboratory (either now or in the future) to grab some cells and form new plants from it.

Well, cloning orchids is done all the time by the commercial growers. (They have been doing it since the 1960's) When they get a plant with the characteristics they want, they can make thousands of identical ones. (Far more certainty than with seed-grown plants which will show great genetic variation, just like children of the same parents don't look alike) But that's how you can get a particular cultivar (the part of the name in quotes) of a particular cross. Clones are (at least theoretically) genetically identical to the mother plant. However, this is a very expensive and painstaking laboratory process. You wouldn't use it to reproduce a mass-produced Phalaenopsis no matter how sentimentally attached to you you are. Time to buy a new plant, and learn how to care for it so that it will grow and bloom for many years...

[SouthPark]

Thanks Roberta! Do we currently have the technology to take pretty much any cell or tissue from a plant, and able to grow those cells to form a new plant? That is, take a leaf (still alive) ------ grab tissue from it, and then clone?

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by SouthPark

Thanks Roberta! Do we currently have the technology to take pretty much any cell or tissue from a plant, and able to grow those cells to form a new plant?

---------- Post added at 10:21 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:20 AM ----------

i

Actually, it's the growing cells. But in a Phal, there can be lots of them - we know that a "node" can produce a keiki. In general, I think they take cells from the crown, because that definitely contains the actively growing cells and are efficient, but other growth points can be used too. Under laboratory conditions, these cells are propagated in the suitable chemical environment (others are more up on the finer technical details, not my field) but once those cells start to grow, they go through a process not that different than seeds. But this is why you can still buy Oncidium Sharry Baby 'Sweet Fragrance' (the "chocolate orchid") some 30 years and probably a few million plants after the cross was made and awarded. Mutations happen - especially if the clones get cloned, however. But the only ways you can get an exact cultivar are by division (only a few plants can be produced, likely expensive) or cloning (the usual process, that's why we can all own awarded cultivars for a reasonable price) The cultivar name is given to a specific plant. A remake - where either the exact same parents, or other plants with the same parentage = the same grex - will yield something different.. like different coloration, different growing habits, other differences in the flowers.

[aliceinwl]

If you want to go all out, Phalaenopsis can be propagated from stem cuttings. This link goes through the process: Orchideenvermehrung Ederer

[SouthPark]

Thanks very much Roberta and Alice. That was great information.

Regarding Alice's comment about phal propagation from stem cuttings - that is very handy to know!

For bribie ----- if I just assume that the stalk is a flower spike, then there may be issues with the regeneration of this orchid.

Just do what you can with this one Bribie. Also, we can definitely help you with orchid/phal care for the future if you need it ----- to minimise chances of your phal(s) taking a bad turn in the health. We can help you out a lot there.

[aliceinwl]

Here’s a lower tech approach that probably has a chance of working with your plant:

[SouthPark]

Nice to see that flower stalks can be used as cuttings. Time is certainly of the essence ---- to ensure the stalk is prepped as soon as possible - so that it can keep the water channels open.