Is this growth on my phal a root or a new stem?

[Mercurianmad]

Is this growth on my rescue phalaenopsis a root or a flower stem, and if it’s a root why on earth is it so big and growing up? There are also two roots going into the soil.

[Fuerte Rav]

It's a root. It's big, strong and healthy. In my somewhat limited experience roots seem to grow in any and all directions, presumably searching out somewhere to anchor on to for stability and hopefully to gain moisture as well, not that plants 'hope' as such!

[charlesf6]

One happy root!

[neophyte]

One way to distinguish between roots and stems (spikes) is to look at the tip. Does it look like it has a bunch of overlapping sheaths/buds (think of tree buds)? If so, it's probably a spike. Otherwise, it's a root. Also keep in mind that most grocery phals, after the initial bloom, will almost always subsequently initiate spikes in the winter, so new growths during the spring/summer are usually roots. The phals we see in grocery stores during the summer have been artificially induced to bloom by changing the lighting and lowering the temperature in the greenhouse.

[Roberta]

Sending roots into the "wild blue yonder" is what Phals do... If it likes the medium, it will root there too. If it finds too much moisture or not enough air, it will seek the air that it wants with an aerial root like this. Either way, it's a beautiful root!

[Ray]

I was selling at an OS show once, and a woman asked me “How do you get them to bloom?”. “I have a phalaenopsis with at least a dozen spikes, but they never flower.” We discussed several possibilities, but she seemed to be doing a lot of good stuff.

She later returned with a photo of her plant, and sure enough, she had all the aerial roots growing straight up, carefully staked.