Phalaenopsis w/no leaves?

[pdxmaven]

Left some plants out too long in the yard and the cold "melted" the leaves. Roots are still healthy. I assume that I just keep watering them over the winter and leaves will come in the spring?

On one plant in the above situation, there are two spikes, remaining from last year's bloom. Now I notice that new reddish growth is growing off from those stalks. Looks like the beginning of new flower stalks, though all my other phals, when growing a spike either from the base or out of an older spike, have had a spike.

I am thinking that I should maybe cut these spikes back to the base of the plant to encourage it to put its "energy" into better root growth and leaf growth rather than trying to flower?

[Daethen]

Unless it is planning on growing a keiki on the existing spike. Then you may be killing it off.

[pdxmaven]

whoops, I meant to say, in my original post, that on all my other phals that have produced spikes, the spikes have been green from the get go,at least as best as I remember, instead of reddish/burgundy like these.

How do I know if the spike is going to produce a keiki or "just" flowers? wait and see?

thanks, Susan

[RosieC]

It may or may not survive, it really depends if the rhyzome is still alive. If it is, then it may be able to produce a new crown after a while.

As for the burgundy spike, that could just be down to the parantage. I have some which always produce red/burgundy spikes and others always produce green spikes.

[goodgollymissmolly]

Rosie is pretty close. Plants don't grow from the roots, they grow all the parts, including roots, from the apical meristem located at the base of the stem. Think of it as the junction between the stem and roots on a moncot.
The apical meristem produces the equivalent of stem cells in animals. It produces cells which can become any other plant part as required.

If you killed the apical meristem the plant as you know it is dead. However, killing off the apical meristem removes the apical dominance that was preventing other possible stem sites from developing so if another bud survived the plant might produce a new plant which you are calling a basal keiki, but it's really a whole new plant replacing the original.

Is it worth messing with? Not unless you have a valuable or historical plant because you are starting over with what amounts to a seedling in maturity and it will take a long time (dependent on the genus involved) to become anything. It's generally better to admit you screwed up and go buy a new plant.

BTW, that's why meristem cloning works. Because the meristem can be used to produce new plants because of it's universal cell production. That's also why there is so much interest in stem cell research in humans to regrow damaged body parts.

[CTB]

The exposure to the sun could be giving you the red. Just care for them and wait, leaves should grow again.

[LarryAJ]

I wish you luck. If the plant has new growth there is hope. I have worked from "the other end" - no roots. here is one that I "saved" - but it still has not bloomed after over five years. It is still getting bigger so I have hope.