Is Vanilla planifolia plants hard to grow?

[Tim P.]

I was looking into more orchids and was wondering if this would be hard to grow... I think that it would be fun to have some vanilla

[zxyqu]

Well, where are you located, and where would you try to grow it. You really need light, warmth, and humidity to consistently get this little bugger to play nice. It just doesn't do well in a house, but should do fairly well in a good kept greenhouse.
I've done pretty well on getting a little cutting to grow up, but it's a Christmas present to my folks in Florida, where it should grow nicely year-round.

[Otis226]

I too thought it would be nice to grow some vanilla orchids, until I saw what the vines look like when they're obviously happy. I saw one about 35-40 ft tall growing on a tree down in Ft Myers FL. and I've seen some pretty big in greenhouses too. So I decided to leave it alone. Even being in FL, I'm really too far north to keep 'chids outdoors year round.
Cheers,
Tony

[glengary54]

Here in my greenhouse in Central Florida, it grows like a weed. But if you are wanting to grow it for it's "vanilla bean", good luck. The drying and fermentation process takes several months and at any point in the process you could lose the bean to mold or rot.

[zxyqu]

And the plant itself has to be some 20' or so before it will flower. It's a bear for sure, but again, totally worth it if you can pull it off

[Leafmite]

No, not difficult to grow. You need to really like growing large vines but they have an attractive leaf. Living in Ohio, even putting it outside during the summer, might not be enough for mine to bloom. If you must grow it indoors part of the year, you will need a heavy clay pot, ten inches at least, a mix that is loose but retains some moisture (mine is 1/2 small lava rock, the rest a mixture of miracle grow orchid mix, sand, perlite, and vermiculite) and some sturdy PVC pipe to make a trellis of some sort. PVC can easily be added to as the vine grows and it doesn't rot. The vine has roots along it that need to be kept 'moist' and I think I'll look into getting coconut fiber matting to wrap the pole so the dryer winter air won't harm them. I have only had mine since February and it had a bit of a setback when I put it out too early this spring but it is taking off now. If you grow piper (peppercorn), this one takes the same conditions. They often are grown together. I hope this helps,
good luck,
leafmite

[SweetAddy]

I just picked one up today, myself, and am curious as to how it will do in my place. I keep most of my plants in our bathroom above the washer/dryer under T5 Sunblaster grow lights, and they all seem to be doing well (it's only been a year). It stays warm and humid in there and the 'chids seem to be mostly reblooming and growing well.

My vanilla is in a crappy plastic hanging basket and potted in soil... so I *may* sit down with it tomorrow and explore the possibility of repotting it in a different mix. I'm also going to need to figure out a system for trellising or controlling the vining, because I see several runs that are already beginning to look a bit leggy.

[littlefrog]

I have a couple variegated forms of vanilla that seem to stay quite a bit smaller compared to my 'normal' one. Haven't bloomed any yet though.