Vanilla.. Um... HELP!
 

The Story... Of a plant known as "Betsy"
Betsy..so ...started as a clipping from a local Orchid greenhouse, here in Florida.

She was sold us as a "Vanilla"...
With the cook in me, screaming buy it, the orchid lover screaming "BUY IT NOW!"....

Needless to say, I succumbed and pulled out the wallet.

I got Betsy home and placed her in a bark pot box with some orchid bark on some orchid bark, up against a trellis in the corner of the house.
I had put the planting in the corner of the house, with a pebble lined humidity tray.
I watered once a week, and fertilized with Schultz's once a month.

Then, I did the unthinkable, handed over the care over "Betsy"....to, Mum, (thought: well, it worked for me I made it to nearly 6 foot)

I jumped on a jet plane to the Middle East.

Mum kept up the routine and informed me that "nothing had happened"
cue "the doom music." :shock:
I was later informed via telephone that a change in the AC humidity unit and a metal, pot stand, and splurge at the Florida, and a humidifier on that "new AC system" a change in AC, and the whole mess on the AC wall mount and a new household AC had occurred and a new trellis had been "taped on" in my absence.

Fast-forward 2 years...and... we reach...
Today, my arrival.
:yikes:
I see the clipping... now a plant has sent fleshy orchid root as I am used to calling them from her third leaf.
Now on this greenish wrinkley mess of a root down in the midst of the "moisture tray" which is dry.... is a root fan that appears like the withered hands of the Styrofoam monster known as spaghetti with a side of cottage cheese vomit spread in a fan on the pea sized pebbles of the moisture tray....

I am sure you can all picture the twitching of your intrepid hero.
This clipping has now gotten dried roots and tendrils ...
The vine which now appears to have blackened leaf tips and buds at each of the three branch offs also appears unhappy. The rotten 2 inch section at the base sitting under the trellis IN the orchid bark appears like a soggy woman's set of nylons.

Mum has looped the plant over the trellis and Betsy's leaf tips are black the root tendrils appear dry and shriveled.

At this point I'm nearly catatonic on the floor in tears....

And yours truly is staring at that one fleshy root...
:nailbite:
Something has to happen...

Cue the sprint to Home Depot purchase
a 14inch pot terra cotta plastic,
one bag of miracle grow "Orchid" mix,
one sprinkle of humidity control miracle grow mix,
two x 4 foot wood fan trellis,
box of nails
and the Best select "dendrobium" Orchid mix I could find.

Now comes the emotional bit!
It's September and ...
I'm repotting
Trying to build a 6 foot fan trellis straight out of Frankenstein from these two 4 foot ones I bought. I have hammered my fingers into hamburgers... Bled out on the patio stones... and can't stop staring at the plant.

Then the soil nightmare...
The play by play in the terra cotta plastic pot goes... Miracle grow Orchid mix CHECK,
hand full of pea pebbles,
hand full of select mix,
the root of the vanilla,
the 8 qt bag of select mix,
the base of the "Vanilla" orchid named "Betsy"
I put my feeble attempt of a my red stained 6 foot overlapped hammered Frankenstein fan trellis in the bark and soil.
Betsy appears a bit sad with the dry tendrils of roots the remains of the vine tangled around the old straight ladder trellis are draped, in an 8 foot shaped snake.

For the Pièce de résistance I put the whole deal on wheels than then...
I place this "mess" over a PVC moisture tray (read two "manly giant handfuls of pea gravel").

I water until I see a lip of clay color in the bottom of the moisture tray. I'm happy as I've watered with the mist setting on my Mum's new bendable nozzle {three foot handle adjustable hose nozzel (that I also impulse buy) from Home Depot}.

I then proceed to drag this mess out to the South west corner of our mesh covered pool patio Outside in the Humidity and PRAY!

Pictures when I can figure out how to get this camera thing hooked up and uploaded.

Hoping everything will be alright. Begging and waiting for the forum Gods to tell me everything will be ok... Sleepless in St. Petersburg.

Now for the glamour shots.
:blushing:
This shot shows the trellis, the potting medium. Please note that the sprinkle of soil on top is just that.. a sprinkle. I hoped it would give me some indication of the watering and humidity around the plant.
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...nilla_post.jpg

Here is a money shot of the root snaking it's way down to the new location in the potting medium. I'm hoping what I have done is good and drastic enough to allow her to turn around and be happier than she was before.
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...illa_post5.jpg


This is the topmost bud. This picture has me quite worried. I left the plant happy with swollen buds and a stable potting now this...
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...illa_post2.jpg

Here is a picture of that massive silvery root that ended up down in the moisture tray of the previous pot. There is also an image of another bud tip gone dry...:scratchhead:http://www.orchidboard.com/community...illa_post3.jpg

This next picture gives me hope... I think I can see a swelling of what appears to be a bud...:( Time will tell.
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...illa_post4.jpg

Thanks for all the help and input.

African violet mix is a great medium for vanillas. They like moisture, so keep the medium moist, not soggy and thoroughly mist the entire plant at least twice a day during summer.

Sorry, I can't offer any help or advice - but love your writing! Great story - I was on the edge of my seat!
Keep us updated please!

It is going to live. It has a future now that you have come back. I cant grow vanilla even if I wanted to: I have frost and indoor growing will just make it sad. It needs to be outdoors with the humid atmosphere a gentle breeze that will caress it lovingly...

Water Water Water. Vanilla does grow real slow in the winter and a times stops altogether. But when the days get longer and the temp gets a little warmer they will grow like a weed. Oh did I say water it often? They grow in the everglade and I see them growing well with the ground underwater.

Thanks for the tip Flhiker...
I was hoping that after living at a controlled 78F for the majority of those two years this sudden run of 90F would do some good to speed the growing along. I was hoping the temperature the mildly brighter spill light would make Betsy think it was summer.:evil:

Thank you Junebug!
The entire plant as it tip to roots? Ok that I'll do. Our humidity is hitting 60% now so I thought the watering would need to get more intense.

As a side note I'm still kicking in the fertilizer once a month.

:blushing:
:bowing
Believe it or not... My orchids matter that much to me.

I'd be shocked if the vanilla didn't thrive now with the right conditions and Florida has the right conditions. I have one here in Ohio that spends the majority of its time indoors but this summer, when it was outside, a neighbor's kitty attacked it (really, kitty, the fruit trees aren't enough?) and it's starting over and doing great.
Leafmite

I may be panicking early but...
 

:bua:I woke up and noticed blackness....
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...8_533x800_.jpg
Notice it hanging off of the right hand side of the picture..
:bua:

On a brighter note...
I could almost pop with pride IT'S BACK!!!!:dance:
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...6_800x533_.jpg

then there was...
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...7_800x533_.jpg
So I am trying to recover a bit of my frayed nerves...

I have decided to start misting the trellis... not that it will be good for it as the whole thing may just decide to grow algae and rot. I remember an old gardener telling me in a thick British accent... You pull the plant with water and earth like an Indian snake charmer. She'll follow if you are kind.

Rest in Peace and God bless you Granddad!
We all miss you!

I have mine growing up a post wrapped in moss...floral moss. That isn't the greatest because I have to spray it wet every day. Sphrag (or anything else!) would have worked better. I attached it to the post with floral wire. The moss gives it something to sink its roots into so they don't dry out, necessary here in Ohio for inside the house.
Leafmite

I was hoping to update after a year... But things being as they are with the situation in the Middle East, I took a bit longer to get back home this time.:(
I thought I would add some pictures to update on Betsy's status.:waving
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ouve-grown.jpg
Apparently, someone snuck in a variegated Vanilla buddy for Betsy and now the two are permanently intertwined on the trellis. :evil:
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...aking-hold.jpg
I have also noticed a little tendril from the "SNEAK" headed right down into the water... INTERESTING!
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ky-vanilla.jpg
Heaven help me when I have to re-pot.

I thank you for all the help suggestions and support.
Now that I have gotten over the panic stage I get to pace back and forth like a father in the Birthing Suite waiting for Betsy to decide to bloom.

Any suggestions on the sort of alcohol I should use to cure the beans? (or is that me getting baseball gloves and football pads before the Doctor says "it's a boy"?)please.gif

You use alcohol only to make extract. You first need to get it to flower. then you hand pollinate it to produce pods (beans). when the pods mature you need to dry them PROPERLY (it takes months) then and only then will they develop that wonderful vanilla smell and taste. I personally would use the beans without making extract. split the bean and scrape out the seeds and make anything requiring vanilla. save the bean and add it to some sugar to make vanilla sugar. Lot of work. that's why it's so expensive.

http://www.orchidboard.com/community.../HPIM13651.JPG These were wild ones I found in the Fakahatchee Strand

Betsy looks much better and she'll probably be twice as large this time next year. Keep us posted.

Geez, Otter - I thought I had obsessive relationships with my orchid plants, but you've definitely topped that! I am glad I read your exhausting story on my employer's time (hmmm, that would be me, so I guess I didn't get away with anything...)

There seems to have been a spike (pardon the pun) in vanilla growing interest on this forum lately (myself included). Here's a really good link to much information about growing, pollinating AND curing vanilla beans:

Vanilla - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Judging from the photos in the above link, others I've found on the internet, and descriptions of the plant's flowering and vanilla bean production - both Otter's and my plants have a long way to go to achieve the kind of stem thickness (and leaf size) that seems to come with flowering. Just like you Otter, my wife can't wait for our own vanilla bean harvest, and has enough recipes collected to take care of a hundred pounds of beans :biggrin:!

HAS ANYONE WHO PARTICIPATES IN THIS FORUM ACTUALLY MANAGED TO GET A VANILLA BEAN ON THEIR VANILLA PLANT AT HOME OR IN A GREENHOUSE???

Pleeeease, let us anxious Vanillians know!!

Ok... here are the measurements so we can make it all lubriciously empiric...

Betsy's initial stem width
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...milimeters.jpg

Betsy's initial leaf length
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...23-400x600.jpg

Betsy's Current AVERAGE stem width
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...milimeters.jpg

Betsy's Current Average Leaf length
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...milimeters.jpg

I'd love to see some numbers from wild flowering orchids as Jan mentioned... It'd give me a great benchmark!

oh, and then the sneak's numbers
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...stem-width.jpg
and length
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...eaf-length.jpg
:evil:

(quiet!)

I'm growing one for 30 years, at home, and no, I didn't. But I only learned last year what to do : light light and light. As it's on a window sill in Paris, facing west, I doubt I'll manage without artificial light.

I know a member of one of the french forum did managed to get flowers and beans, but he's just south of the Loire (a river important for climate divisions in France) and with a veranda. He did this in 2011, it's too early for 2012.

Note that one trick is used in plantations: they cut the growth end a bit a few months before the flowering. But the main thing is the light.

I'll take measures of my planifolia to check with yours.

My 4 year old planifolia bloomed this year, but I didn't try pollinating it. Maybe next year. This is a photo of one of the blooms. Vanilla planifolia - Orchid Board Galleries

I had a feeling light had something to do with it... Maybe looping it over itself letting it grow out... Misting the support daily... letting the soil get quite humid. Then suddenly in Spring... WHAM! Letting the leader see a wedge of light all day long... A LOT OF LIGHT TOO... Just to test this... I rolled the plant out from under the awning. It spends most of the day in reflected sun that passes through a fine mesh screening (saw the same screening on one of the plantations). The leader peaking out of the top of that loopy spaghetti mess that is Betsy was the first to feel this flash...
I pulled her out just far enough to give the tip day long exposure under the screeing... It looks like the tip went crazy! It's gotten quite fat!
What worries me is that soon we will be seeing some major dips in temperature... even as low as 17C(68F)! Now that all this sun and plotting is JUST beginning to work.. THE WEATHER DECIDES TO GO ALL NOEL on me! :fire:

If the Vanilla is active, and it'll be most of the year for you (it's not in winter here) it'll like to get the feet slightly wet, not damp. Beware it'll hate to have both cold and wet… (ending in no roots)

Air humidity 80-90%, you can mist the aerial roots once or twice a day.

For the temperatures, the bottom limit not to reach is 15°C. It likes a little down at night of 2-3°C, and it can grow between 16 and 35°C (so 16-32 to 19-35°C) but it thrives home in the mid twenties.

For light, it's a LOT (20000-40000 lux) so full sun where I am, in the middle of Europe, but half shade with maybe some weeks a year with more under the tropics. Note that sunny does mean cooking. ;) You'll have to adapt to your situation.

I am in Ohio so, no, I am not expecting blooms. I grow a chocolate tree, cinnamon tree, allspice, peppercorn, etc, so the vanilla is just a part of the collection. I don't expect to get chocolate beans, either. :)

Um chocolate tree?..;)... as in cocoa bush?..:shock:... as in you chew the leaves like the Inca and... GET HIGH?:evil:
Now LEAFMITE... that could be something quite serious.:whistling

Is she crying?
 

Updates from indoors. After a great deal of huffing and puffing.. some back breaking... and casters... all due to preventative measures before cold front blew through.. I blame Sandy....
Betsy was moved indoors.
Her soil remains moist... the pebbles in her saucer seem moist... I noticed something strange...

Betsy is producing a very watery substance from her apical bud. To investigate I put a dab of tissue into the area (which is basically a little well of fluid) and found water... There isn't a distinct smell that I can sense. There has been no misting or watering in this area... My question is why and what could it be?

I grow Theobromo cacao (not cocoa). At first glance, it can be confusing...that is why I hesitate to use the scientific name. I love to collect unusual plants but I am most interested in those with fragrant leaves or that produce fragrant flowers or fruit. Rather dull, I know, but at least it is a step above collecting rocks...my other hobby from childhood. :)
I don't know why you are finding water but I tend to use alcohol to prevent rot if I have reason to worry.

THE DRIP KNOWN AS THE TERMINATOR!!!
 

It's BACK!!! Not a couple hours and the water is BACK! This is going to drive me NUTS! I SWEAR I didn't get a drop of water near the apex. I've been watching this closely and I can't tell WHERE in the region it's coming from...I'd whip out a camera and take a HIGH QUALITY shot but... It just looks like a little cup of water.:shock: I tried dabbing the tip with a kleenex and every 10 seconds THERE WOULD BE ONE MORE DROP WATER in the tip! please.gif WHAT IS THIS STUFF?!??!

This is indoors, right? No other plants above, no leaves above, the roof isn't leaking, you don't have kids that like to water plants, a leaky pipe, a male dog...?

Nothing will fit above her. BETSY is HUGE! I moved her indoors over two weeks ago. There is no source of water anywhere near this apical growth. I couldn't pee that high if I was on a ladder,let alone some Great Dane or airborne dachshund.

I have never seen this on mine and can't imagine what it might be. I hope someone else will know. Wow. Good luck!

Updates...the water fountain from the apical bud seems to have slowed. I did notice a huge sagging large loop of stem that at its widest measures 3/8 inch (1 cm) this section is higher than the apical bud. I wonder if some sort of siphon has been set up.

The apical bud had rocketed up in position something like 10 inches (25cm) so maybe this water powered ratcheting allows for bridging sections of tree limbs for upward progression.

Any thoughts on my weirdo theory?

Is it at least slightly sticky? It may be just sap. If so, I wouldn't bother, save removing the stuff to prevent fumagine to start.

Don't try to taste it, as Vanilla sap is irritant and allergenic.

I've never had this on mine btw.

Difficult to envision your bridges and hoops without a pic.

Are you sure there's no local condensation right up the vanilla, and drops going down?

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...752DA_MOVE.jpg

I drew in an approximate location of the tip last night I watered as usual this morning with a mist on the lower 1/3-1/4 of the trellis. (I wanted to thank you for advice concerning making sure this plant does not go pure epiphyte to avoid problems of maintaining humidity. lepetitmartien)

For reference the 5th leaf from the bottom gets water and then nothing higher.

Also the looping idea is BRILLIANT for keeping this plant compact as stretched out this thing would be at least 18 feet (6 meters) tall.

I noticed the water has stopped nearly completely now the bud is higher. At no time did I ever see any sap on the plant in that region and the consistency of the fluid was VERY VERY RUNNY. There was no odor, not slime, no stickiness... just a watery feel.

The water is back! I've noticed it leaves a white residue down the stem of the plant that is white and chalky. I had put this up to TDS in the local water but now this almost looks like a champagne flute filling at the tip in the picture. There has been drop in the stem, no wrinkles, no bugs, no spots...just this water. :eek:

Never had this on mine in 30 years…

It can't be some sort of condensation occurring at night?

Btw, mine is on a bamboo tripod, it's ok until they reach about 20m… I've never been longer than 15m, but a friend had hers 20 meters long and the tripod broke. :D

The only way to keep it healthy with living aerial roots without making the loops in a good environment is to have the plant either in the tropics, or in a glasshouse. Anyway, the looping makes it manageable.

I've built it into a schedule now. After sunset, I use a cone of kleenex to remove the water. I have avoided smelling or touching it directly because it may be sap as you stated before. I'm still quite confounded as to what this fluid is and why this fluid accumulates.

The plant has now been inside for over a month and doing wonderfully growing three more leaves since the picture. It may be long enough to send down to the bottom of that double wood trellis in preparation for the vine to loop up yet again.
It is my earnest hope that she flowers soon as having such a massive vine with so many wafter roots and a spaghetti tangle of aerial roots seems a bit of a waste. Maybe when she gets outside in the Florida SUN and HEAT something floral may occur.

The variegated panifolia is also growing larger leaves and has reached a height of 1 meter (if I straightened out all of its turns up the same trellis).

My variegated planifolia exudes a clear watery substance which also leaves a chalky looking residue. I thought it was hard water too.
It's called guttation - look it up as my brain is still too sleepy to explain clearly.

Root pressure? BRILLIANT! That feeds right in to the height playing a role. I wonder why it's only the tip? Is there open vasculature that allows for this to leak? Does anyone feel that the looping, terrestrial roots, and pressures have some coefficient in the height the plant thinks it has reached and therefore whether or not to flower? The guttate idea got me thinking.

Well, my planifolia (or the others) have still not delighted me with this, but I only found today it had a 1 meter branch growing in hiding in the middle of my nearby Geranium rosat… Thinking I wouldn't see it. tsss :))