My Vanilla Bean Project

[JanS]

Earlier this summer my wife and I got a 4 inch long Vanilla planifolia at a local (San Diego) Hawaiian festival. My wife is a major "foodie" so she immediately started thinking genuine vanilla beans for use in the kitchen. I looked the subject up and it turns out (including some past posts on this forum) that you indeed can get vanilla beans from an indoor grown plant...but only after a while. V. planifolia is a vine so it grows up trees. The general consecus is that it will start flowering when it gets to @ 8 feet tall.

Yikes!! My rooftop greenhouse barely houses me (6'2") so I had to think of an alternate solution. I figured one way is to wind the plant around a "tree trunk" to gain some lengh-vs.-height. My wife's parents lived in Arizona and we used to collect various desert artifacts when we visited them - that gave me an idea: As the attached pictures show, I took a piece of chola cactus wood, stuffed it with moss and used some plastic garden sprinkler pipe and 2 pieces of 1/4" plastic stock for a base. Then I firmly attached the plant's pot to the cactus stick using a stainless screw band. The point is that plant and post are solidly attached together so in the future they can be moved or expanded together. Finally (picture 3) I put it all in a bigger pot and anchored with white quartz pebbles to fill the space around the inner pot and give the whole thing bottom weight. I soaked the moss in the cactus trunk, since each leaf section on the vanilla plant also sends out a root.

Well, it's been about 3 months since we bought the 4" plant...and the sucker is the fastest-growing orchid I have ever owned - it's a weed!!! It lost no time digging the aerial roots into the cactus trunk and I keep having to turn it around the trunk since it just wants to keep going straight up. Total length must now be just under 3".

With this growth rate, we'll be having vanilla beans by next summer!! - Seriously, V. planifolia seems to be an extremely easy orchid to grow - but you hav eto manage its sprawling habit...

[merkity]

wow that looks great.

[Silje]

Cool!

I've got a vanilla polylepis that is in the start phase right now, and I've been puzzling as to what to do with it to give it a chance to grow, and still be able to keep it inside the green house. This looks great!

[Rowangreen]

Looks great! I've heard they don't mind if the distance isn't straight: it's fine to wind them up and down the same support several times!

Anyone know if all species are as good for bean production? I've a chance to get a Vanilla crenulata
and I'm tempted, but wondering if I should save the space for a planifolia if I want beans? Since it's planifolia most people seem to grow?

[dope.fatboy]

Vanilla planifola is one of two species that have any value for making vanilla extract and even still planifola is far and away superior. I wouldn't spend my time trying any other species.

[JanS]

Here's an interesting statement from Wikipedia's description of vanilla growing:

"Left alone, it will grow as high as possible on the support, with few flowers. Every year, growers fold the higher parts of the plant downward so the plant stays at heights accessible by a standing human. This also greatly stimulates flowering."

So folding the plant down to limit its vertical growth is not just convenient but gets us more beans!

As far as species, planifolia is the most cultivated for bean production, tahitensis is commercially grown in French Polynesia but apparently this is actually a strain from crossed planifolia and odorata. V. pompona is grown in the Caribbean and Central America in small quantities. As "Fatboy" says - if you want beans go with planifolia.

[Rowangreen]

What if I probably don't want large amounts of beans, just a few? I'm not really bothered about getting 'the best', just something I could use and a bit of fun. It sounds like quite a range can produce useable beans?

Having said that... right now there are probably a few things that will get bought first... it may end up being part of a discount bulk buy though!

[Junebug]

They do grow rapidly when they're happy. Get ready...my 4 year old planifolia is potted in a 7" pot, seated in a 12" pot, seated in an 18" pot. Last year the 12" pot was weighted at the bottom with a few inches of river rock for support. My plant is supported by sturdy stakes of bamboo tied at the top like a teepee and I've been wrapping the vines round and round and up and down. It looks like a 6 1/2' Christmas tree and with all the foliage, pots and medium it weighs in at about 100 pounds.

[BradGC]

Looks like fun!

I actually looked into it before growing orchids and before knowing that vanilla grows on orchids.

The only tricky part is pollination, I don't know if I read the article properly, but commerically they hand pollinate the flowers and then the flowers take 9 months to mature. And the plant will take about 2 Years to flower from cutting.

Here's an article and page with some really good info:
Vanilla Beans/Pods from Vanilla Plantations Of Australia - Vanilla Beans Cultivation/How to grow vanilla beans/100% Organically Grown Tahitian and Bourbon Vanilla Beans

And one last thing, a little thing that i love to do with vanilla is put the bean in the sugar jar, it smells great and every time you make a tea or coffee you get a nice vanilla "hit" when opening the jar.
For proper vanilla sugar in desert making you put it in a tightly sealed Jar with castor sugar and leave it sealed for a few months.

Good luck!

[vmijct]

I pollinated and cured the pods from my vanilla pompona. Pods were placed in vodka and produced good vanilla. Short pods though. I didn't realize it was pompona until I got pods. It was sold to me as plain folia.