Keiki or Floral Branch?

[Karen00]

Hello all,

I'm not new to growing orchids (mainly Phals) but am new to trying to propagate them.

I have a Phal orchid that I successfully pollinated about 7 months ago and just harvested four pods about a month ago. The spike didn't die back so I left it. About a week ago I noticed a change to the second lowest node on the spike. It looked like it was starting to swell so I've been keeping an eye on it. Sure enough something is happening.

I have attached a closeup of the node that I'm assuming has differentiated. Is there anyway to tell at this stage whether it might be a Keiki or whether it's going to be a floral branch or will I have to wait a few more weeks? Nothing has been applied to this node.

If it helps any this Phal seems to be in vegetative growth stage at the moment. There's a new leaf coming out of the top of the leaf stalk. I'm not sure if this might dictate what this node might be. Meaning vegetative growth stage is more likely to produce a Keiki whereas flowering stage is more likely to produce a floral branch.

I haven't been able to find a lot of photos of Keikis at the early stages but maybe that's because there's no way of knowing this early on in development.

Thanks for any help!