Question
QUESTION: I have a year old plant that is doing quite well in my shower.  I water once a week and mist with fertilizer about every other.  When I bought the plant it had two Bloom Stocks. After flowering one withered and died.  The other remained and turned a darker color.
Over the past 6 months I have 3 sprouts from the base roughly 2" each and a side sprout from the remaining bloom stock.
How can I tell which sprout to train upward and which are roots? Can I train them all upward?

Many Thanks!
Novice,
Brad

ANSWER: Brad, with regard to the side sprout on the old bloom spike, it could develop into either a branch of the flower spike or could be a keiki (new plant forming at the node).  You will need to wait a month or so to tell which it will be.  If it is a branch to bring forth buds and future flowers, you will need to wait until it is at least 4-5 inches long before you try to stke it unpright.  Be careful to train it slowly as bending it too much too soon could break it as these spikes are brittle.  Every couple of weeks you can train it upright a little more until it forms buds and then leave the plant in its position to allow the buds to develop naturally.

Similarly with the growths from the base.  They could either be aaerial roots or new flower spikes and you will need to wait another month to determine which.  If they are flower spikes you can stake them at that time.  If they are aerial roots you can just let them grow naturally and, when you repot, try to carefully pot the aerial roots into the potting mix.  They need to be soaked until green as arerial roots also can be quite brittle and could break if bent too much.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: In a month, how do you tell which is which?  Is there a texture or color difference... Thanks

Answer
Brad, mature roots have a covering called a velamin which is normally a greyish and will turn green when wet. But, all roots, when in active growth, have a green growing tip.  A flower spike is all green,  While some aerial roots are photropic most grow out and downwrd while new shoots are more likely to grow toward the brightest light source. It's all a matter of relative condition rather than absolute simply because, in orchids, the velamin also contains chlorophyll.  These difference will become more apparent as the root/shoot elongates.