So excited to see a new spike emerging!
Awesome! How can you tell if it is a flower spike or a new root? I can’t tell the difference – it seems like it could decide to be either until it’s about an inch long and I can see if it is heading up or down.
Great question! I know for sure because the picture is from a couple of weeks ago and by now it’s clearly a flower spike.
I had your same question when the growth was at the stage shown in the picture. I looked up how to tell the difference between flower spike and root. What I learned was that two signs of flower spike are:
- Located right below the middle of where a leaf attaches to the stem, because that’s the location of a node that can become a flower spike. Roots can come from a greater variety of locations around the stem.
- Shaped like a mitten, in other words the growth is slightly asymmetric. I believe the thumb is a forming node and the fingers part is where the spike will continue growing. The mitten shape is not present in this image, it developed a day or two later. In contrast, a developing root is fully symmetric/round.
There may be other signs too or these may be incorrect, please share if you know them!
Thank you! I have only seen 3 flower spikes so far (1 a year for 3 yrs) so this will be helpful next time one appears. Ours so far has started what ended up being flower spikes each time in Jan/Feb so around that time we get very excited on any growth :)
