New flower spike wilted

[thepurpleorange]

Hi everyone, I'm a new orchid owner so am not very good at this but trying! I have a dendrobium that I inherited and it hasn't flowered yet but is growing very well. There is one tall cane about 5 ft tall and a smaller cane (same plant) about 1 foot tall.

I noticed a flower spike beginning to develop from the top of the smaller cane. I got SO excited but then it grew to about 1 mm and the got brown/black and withered away. Can anyone tell me the reason for this??

I also have another smaller dendrobium which is in bud. however although the other buds are growing, one of the very first buds turned black and withered. Why is this?? Too much water?

I've been reading books and trying to figure this stuff out but found nothing so far!! thanks for your help.

[Call_Me_Bob]

were there any drastic changes? ive had that happen to a den of mine for seemingly no reason before though, so it could just be "because" it should put out another spike though

[thepurpleorange]

well, here's an update -- good and bad!

Good news is that you were right, the den with the wilted spike DID actually grow a nice new healthy one right next to the withered one. It's now about a cm tall and I'm pretty excited!

bad news is that I eventually decided to chop off the spike with the bad buds as all of them but one started to fail. There weren't any drastic environmental changes that I knew of. I still don't understand it. I however noticed that on the bulb with the spike, a couple of the bottom leaves started yellowing. and the bulb is slightly yellow as well. I have no idea why this started happening! I've attached a picture so that you can see what I'm talking about. The little dots on it are tiny little ants which I understand aren't harmful to the plant at all. You can see the places where the buds just didn't develop but also see how the only remaining bud is limp and dead-looking. I figured no good would come of the spike anyway so I got rid of it. Any thoughts??

[thepurpleorange]

so I just found out that the wilted spike in the pic is that of a Caularthron bicornutum and NOT a dendrobium!