What is best growing medium for vanilla?
 

Hi - my wife and I just got back from a bike ride during which we stumbled upon a Hawaiian festival. One vendor lady had all sorts of plants associated with Hawaii, including @ 8" tall cuttings of vanilla pompona. We just had to get one for our collection ;)! The plant is potted in what looks like peat moss. I asked the lady if it should be in bark instead and she said that is also possible. I know some of you have vanilla plants and actually got them to bloom (e.g. Suzanne - cb977) - so can you tell me what potting medium you use? And the obvious additional question: has anyone managed to get vanilla beans from the flowers on an indoor plant?

Many Thanks!

I'm thinking any kind of pole mount. They do ramble all over the place, just as vines do.

If you live in a mild climate where it doesn't get too cold or snow, maybe a large tree would work best.

If you intend to grow in a greenhouse or outdoor enclosure, pick a spot, stick it on a pole mount and let it grow where ever it wants to, they are vining plants after all.

Wow - seems like many of you are also interested in the answer but no real suggestions - I thought a lot more of you had a specimen of vanilla.

Phillip - thanks! - I will definitely grow mine on an osmunda (or similar) pole. I'm in San Diego -close to you - but grow all my orchids in a small greenhouse. My main question is about what to root the original plant in the pot - I don't feel too good about the peat it's in now and the woman that sold it to us didn't seem to know that much about orchids (the vanilla plant was the only "orchid" she was selling). Bit the again, I don't know anything about growing a vanilla plant...

My planifolia (?) was potted in a mixture of lava rock, sand, vermiculite, perlite, and bark. It is doing okay. I recieved a few free at an OS meeting that were going to be tossed and just attached them to my shelve posts over towel. They did well that way. I have many other plants and by not having a pot, they ended up under the 'canopy' which they really liked. The roots stayed nice. Now that they are outside, they are under the orchid shelves where they will have filtered light and humidity. I might unpot the other and put it with these. This fall, I might just put them among the other plants, loose. It stays very humid in the little jungle.

My planifolia is kept inside in semi-hydro because of the low humidity in the house. I've had is a bit under a year and the poor thing had nearly no roots. It is making many roots that I can see threw the plastic pot, but nothing else.
Or it really likes it but had not enough rots and is doing these with a vengeance, or it doesn't like it at all and is dint it's best to survive... only time will tell!
Good luck with yours!

I have a very large pompona(sold to me as planifolia). The cuttings have really taken off in a half and half mixture of compost(from my pile in my back yard) and fir bark chips(or old bark that you discard when you repot your orchids). THe like a clay pot so that they can dry out between waterings. I water 2-3 x/wk with rain water collected in a rain barrel and one of those waterings has 1 tbsp/gal of 20-20-20. I was able to bloom, pollinate, harvest and make vanilla last year. It wore me out. You can see my posts.

I have a 30 years old planifolia and used almost all that time half compost, half bark and bits of expanded polystyrene. It works fine for about 4-5 years then you should repot as you can be exposed to a winter watering accident with a pot all composted, a vanilla not doing much and too much water as it needs less when not conquering the world. :evil:

This year, I've changed the medium and it's now half "orchid terrestrial compost that kills phals sold in garden centers" that is a mix of half rotten bark, coco, compost, fine for cymbidiums, 4/10th of cork bits, 1/10th perlite. I've added good bark on top just to cover. It's a very springy medium, like a forest soil. And the Vanilla just thrives. :)

I've never understood those trying to go all epiphyte with vanillas as they LOVE water when growing (that is 9-10 months a year in Paris), humidity all year long and grow from the ground in real life. They should be ok with (semi)hydroponics but I've never met an example save here.

A word on the pot and supporting structure. I use like at least a friend with a vanilla, a pot with a water reserve, it's does wonders in Europe. And we both have a bamboo tripod to support (friend's one broke even once). :rofl:

Hope this helps.

My Vanilla finally bloomed this year. I've been using a terracotta pot and African Violet Mix since day one. It started out as an 8 inch cutting. It's grown outdoors in a shadehouse. Sunlight is filtered by a slat roof and a 4 inch trellis on the South side. One side of the plant faces West and that was unfiltered and a little too bright. I remedied that by shielding the vanilla with a large Vanda. My Vanilla is currently growing around a makeshift teepee totem. Before that I used a graduated series of trellises to accomodate her growth. It's potted with all the past trellises because it was impossible to remove them without risking the health of the plant. I mist my Vanilla at least twice a day during Summer, leaves and stems and I make an effort to keep the medium damp. After a Google seach I ran across a videofrom a Mexican nursery that grows them commercially. They had their vanilla plants planted shallow, in a pile of leaf debris. I had never used leaves, but I thought I'd give it a try. I raked the neighbors oak leaves from my yard and deposited some on top of the potting medium. It's been a few months since I made that move and so far, so good with 7 new branches...as opposed to 2 last year.