Seed viability in Vanilla?
 

A very generous friend shared a few Vanilla seed capsules with me. Her goal was to make Vanilla, but I want to try to germinate them. The capsules already smell like vanilla, and they were turning brown. Are the seeds still viable, or contaminated beyond salvage?

I sliced them open and scraped out the seed (along with a sticky brown paste.) I smeared this into a thin layer on a piece of filter paper to dry over silica. I figured if there was any hope, drying the seeds fully would be step one. Anybody have any experience with this situation? Any germination info for this genus?

Thanks,

Royal

Anybody?

:bump:

I don't know the answer but think its a very good question. The availabilty of Vanilla Albomarginata is very limited. I am not an orchid professional by any stretch of the imagination but think it's due to the fact that vanillas are propagated from cuttings rather than seeds and the Albomarginatas are very slow growing. If you can find one that produces seed pods you could greatly increase your supply of these beautiful plants.

Royal
Did you get any germination?

No, I'm pretty sure they were stored too long without drying first and damaged by the moisture.

The fact that the pods were brown probably meant they were too far gone for seed flasking purposes. I just tried flasking some seed from a pod picked from the vine and should know whether it germinates in a few weeks/months. The pods should be green with the tips just starting to turn yellow.

It sounds like your pods may have already gone through the curing process?

if you bought a vanilla bean from the store, chances are that it's not going to work. here's why:

The beans are firstly self-pollinated. Most likely (I may be wrong here) the seeds would be sterile anyway! After the beans are picked off of the vine (green), they undergo a curing process wherein they are heated to stop any growth, probably killing the beans and seeds. then they sweat and dry for about 3 months or so.

Sounds like an interesting experiment, though! If you could get some to actually grow, that would be pretty amazing..... :)

Hope that helps!

David

Royal I was interested in flasking vanilla pods and did some reading on the subject. As I can understand, in nature the pod turns brown on the vine and the seeds turn crystalized before they open. So your seeds maybe OK. You should be able to flask them like any other orchid. Like other orchids' seeds, vanilla seed will not germinate without the presence of certain mycorrhizal fungi. Since the plant is easily propagated by cuttings, it is by far the chosen method. Give it try, the re-plate's on me. LOL

Depending on the variety, the pod will either split open on the vine or remain closed and turn brown. Vanilla planifolia will split open if left alone. I agree, cuttings are by far easier to propagate, but the self pollinated pods will produce viable seed when flasked. Why take the easy road when you can do it the hard way...:evil:

Exactly :lol: