For Swamper - My young Vanilla Planifolia - Page 3 - Orchid Board

lepetitmartien · #21 10-09-2012, 08:59 AM

For cuttings : in a pot, on or two leaves starts in just wet sphagnum, keep it warm (round 25°C is just fine) with indirect sun. Keep the humidity high. It'll start in some weeks. Or in a lighter terrestrial mix, just wet, same conditions.

For the plant :
- warm, it hates cold on roots. period !
- keep it wet, but if the conditions are bad (cold or not enough light so there's no growth like in winter in France) it should dry up before light watering.
- it is better to make loops of about one meter long to put at each time a bit of the liana in the mix. This way, it'll keep wholly terrestrial and the growth will be better. If not, after very few meters (2-3 meters), it'll move to epiphyte beyond and it'll be more difficult to grow (and you'd better have a glasshouse then with 80-90% humidity)
- take care of the aerial roots. A healthy vanilla has healthy aerial roots. Misting them once or twice a day helps.
- Light, the more the merrier. Save if you're under the tropics where a half shade place is better, you can keep it in a direct sun, well exposed area. Mine is facing west, right behind the window in Paris. It has full sun half the day long and it's not enough. People make is flower in south of France behind a south window. The only drawback is heat, it should not cook, so beware of temperatures higher then 35°C where it is.
- Potting mix : like vmijct said, think tropical forest. lots of decaying material, potting soil, well drained with air. Mine right now is a mix of terrestrial orchid mix, with bark bits, cork bits, leca, perlite and sphagnum added in. My 30 years old vanilla is thriving in it. Change it once composted as it'll be too compact and the vanilla will risk root rot at the first bad condition (cold, wet and not enough light to grow).
- you can fertilize each time.
- use a pot with a water tank, it'll help!
- if you give it these conditions, it'll grow 25-30 cm/month, so much for slow growth of orchids.

If you loose the roots, it's cold on the roots or overwatering when the liana is not active. Even if vanilla have no unactive period, they will stop to grow if the conditions are not good enough. Then beware of wetness round the roots !

Vanilla planifolia is very sturdy, it takes a lot of abuse and unadapted conditions to kill it.

If you're in the tropics and the temperatures don't go lower than 15°C, you can keep it outside. But remember of the half shade then too!