Vanilla planifolia in bud...want to pollinate!

[IncurablePlantHead]

Originally Posted by Daethen

Does anyone know about how large the vine needs to be before it thinks of flowering? I know mine are a ways off as they are 10-14 inch long cuttings.

Mine was at least 10 ft long before it began blooming.

[Daethen]

O M G!!! And my hubby talked me into getting 3 of them. Should be interesting in my little 6 x 8 greenhouse.

[No-Pro-mwa]

Originally Posted by IncurablePlantHead

I had a vanilla orchid a few years ago that grew all over a sugar apple tree (Anona squamosa). It had flowers every Spring for a few years. I never tried to pollinate the flowers. To my surprise one cluster of flowers set fruit and there were 3 "beans" that grew through the first part of summer and then turned black and rotted during the height of the rainy season. I have no clue what pollinated the flowers. To my knowledge, its pollinator does not exist in South Florida. The vine succombed to a nasty bout of cold weather 4 years ago the likes of which I had not seen in 20 yrs prior nor have I experienced since.

Are you sure they were rotten? They are black when you buy them. It is so sad you lost your plant, I think you need to plant another one

[IncurablePlantHead]

Originally Posted by No-Pro-mwa

Are you sure they were rotten? They are black when you buy them. It is so sad you lost your plant, I think you need to plant another one

I'm sure they were rotten.....bugs and all. I read an article once describing the process of preparing the mature vanilla bean for use as a culinary spice. It was not a simple process. As I recall it involved burying and fermenting and other time consuming processes.
Anyway the vine I had, was given to me by a guy who was removing a large tree from his property and there was a huge mass of vanlla vine hanging all over it. He had cut it in 4 or 5 ft pieces and made a pile of them. He threw probably 20 of them in the back of my truck. I put a few in 3 gallon pots with a bamboo stake.
I tried to sell them for 10 bucks each and no one would buy them around here. In hind sight, I should have listed them on Ebay or something. I ended up throwing most of them away. Today, I see them for 50 bucks for that size of an established cutting.
I should get another one. Its just hard to pay that for something I just threw away. I have like 100 other orchids some of which I paid well more than 50$. Again, its just a psychological thing.

[No-Pro-mwa]

Indeed that would be a hard pill to swallow I can't believe no one wanted them for $10.00. If I lived in Florida I would have gotten several and planted them outside.

I didn't know it was so involved to make the beans. Doesn't it make you wonder just how people figured that out.

[rosemadder]

I only ever see little tiny cuttings for sale, I guess it would be crazy expensive to get one already at blooming size.

Are there any vanilla orchid hybrids? I'm curious what might come out from them. Even if it doesn't produce anything tasty, some longer-lived flowers would be nifty.

[OCRC_Dir_China]

Yes a Vanilla plant mature enough to bloom can be somewhat expensive.

Some believe that Vanilla shenzhenica Z.J.Liu & S.C.Chen could be a possible hybrid of Vanilla somae Hayata; but from some of the published Chinese papers has disproved that belief.

Vanilla is a much missed understood taxon; and as to date I believe that only about 35 vanilla plants has been DNA tested for their lineage.

[lepetitmartien]

And I may add, most of them DNA tested are New World species and a handful from Africa and Asia. And x tahitensis of course. ^^

Got still some articles to read, but each time there's DNA testing, they find out hidden secrets of Vanillas, species that are not, links unknown… We still need a complete revision of Vanilla with a consolidated taxonomy.

[My Green Pets]

Here's the follow up: Success! All of the flowers I pollinated have taken, and the 'beans' are beginning to swell!

And as I often do, I have put it all together on video, submitted here before the experts! Your thoughts are highly valued!

[No-Pro-mwa]

Not an expert, but I will say very well done. Thanks for the update. So you know how long before you will have beans?