What do I do with all these vanilla beans???

[tennisfreak]

I am growing the vine on a trellis. I wound it back and forth to confine it to the trellis and not let it attach itself to my back porch and I wanted to be able to reach the blooms to pollinate them. A grower in my area said that vines produce quicker when they are forced to change direction rather than grow straight up. I did it the best way quite by accident.

[CodiMN]

Quite amazing...great idea too!

[luckygrower]

Did you hand pollinate the flowers and if so how did you do it?

[tennisfreak]

Yes I pollinated the blooms myself. I used a bamboo skewer and lifted the flap that covers the tube part that the pollin has to go into. Gently lift the flap until it goes under the part that has the pollen underneath. Gently mash the pollen onto the tube. If it is pollinated the flower dries and falls off and the stem becomes the pod. I didn't want to climb all over my pool area to pollinate the blooms, that's why I wrapped the vine on the trellis.

Here is a website that has pictures:

Pollinating a vanilla flower

Penny

[tennisfreak]

Someone asked how long the vanilla vine is. I just added a picture to my gallery of the trellis and vine. The trellis is about 2 feet wide and the vine is probably wrapped back and forth about 8 or 9 times. So it must be 16 to 20 feet long. There are 19 groups of pods, some are under leaves and some are on the back of the trellis.

Penny

[tomancreed]

Wow that is so cool !Do you think one could pull off growing them in side. What's the temperature range they can handle?
Really nice job. Thanks for sharing.
TC

[luckygrower]

Thanks Penny for the link and pictures on the pollination procedure, my plant is only 10' long at this point but am looking forward to pollinating the flowers if and when I have any.
Mike

[gmdiaz]

This is such an interesting thread! And really GREAT info on your pollination technique!

[tennisfreak]

I don't know if a vanilla vine could be grown inside? I'm not sure of the temperature range but because mine is in a large terra cotta container with bricks at the bottom to hold the trellis, I do not bring it in if it gets cold at night. I cover it with a sheet if the temp gets below 40. Also, the vine has completely grown out of the original pot that is sitting in the big container and all the roots are attaching to the trellis, so I water it with the hose. In my case it would be very difficult to grown this plant inside.

[tennisfreak]

A vanilla update.... I went to the WOC last week and asked 12 to 15 orchid vendors if they had personally gone through the whole process to dry the vanilla pods. Only one man said he was thinking about it. He was the young man that made the large containers out of cork bark by wiring the pieces together. I also spoke to several visitors to the conference and no one had any experience. I guess I'm on my own on this - now I need to buy a heating pad and start the process. I feel like a kid with a science project, noting all the procedures, logging the results, taking pictures, and hopefully in the end making vanilla liqueur!!

Penny