Vanilla Orchid isn't growing well/losing leaves and no real root growth
 

Hi there! I received a Vanilla orchid as a gift for Christmas. It was meant to have live roots when I got it. However, it only had one aerial root that is maybe a quarter inch long that survived (all others were DOA). My cutting is about 3 feet long. At first I did not have it in a medium that drained well so the leaves rapidly turned leathery dropped. I now have it in a better draining medium but my poor guy only has 2 leaves left and they are only barely hanging in there. It looks like it is wanting to grow some roots. It keeps getting little buds that are 2 - 3mm that look nice and green like roots. However, after a bit of time they stop growing and turn brownish and look a little bark like. Has any one else had this issue? Or some one steer me in the direction of some info I can read about this that is reliable? Every time I try and search I cannot find any one who has had this problem.

Vanillas climb up trees in humid environments and produce aerial roots that stay green by getting humidity from the air and are watered when it rains by the water that runs down the trunk and branches of the tree.

I am not certain of your location but if you live somewhere tropical or very warm, this can be planted outside. If you live somewhere cold (like I do), you can spray the roots every day with distilled or rain water. Your post can also be wrapped with a material that retains some moisture and gives the roots something to grow into.

I keep a spray bottle near my Vanilla and spritz the roots every day.

Good luck!

Unfortunately, I live in an apartment in a city so I cannot plant outside. I just looked it up any way and I believe I am in zone 6b?? My tap is hard though my phalaenopsis don't seem to mind, so it never occured to me to use distilled! I feel silly for that now. Do you think that could be the reason the roots seamingly stop growing a a few milimeters long? I will also try wrapping my post! Thank you for that info. Do you have a recommended material with which to do so?

Definitely agree with leafmite. If humidity is pretty good, and temperature range is good, these vanilla orchids will thrive ------ and won't stop growing even if we wanted them to! They'll actually get very long and even out of control, unless we give them a post or trellis to stay on.

Check the humidity in the growing area. If humidity stays low for long periods of time, then that sort of root drying can happen.

A humidifier could help, but make sure there's some air-movement - to avoid mold/fungus growing on walls or the plant etc.

That could be an indicator of low humidity. If you wrap a pole that would help give the roots a nice damp humid environment to grow in to. I’ve seen people make totems out wood, pvc pipe, and even long skinny blocks of styrofoam. You can just wrap the totems with New Zealand sphagnum moss and secure it with fishing line, then strap the vines to the whole thing

Is there any sort of til of thumb when picking a pole size? Right now my guy is still using the one he came with. Which is fairly narrow and perhaps a touch too short.

I really don't know. I am told that they grew many types of Vanilla at Akron University's greenhouse by making loops out of chicken wire and wrapping the vine around that way. Indoors, that is rather unpractical.
I grow mine with my other houseplants and orchids on a shelf and I do not have much space. I tried a burlap-wrapped styrofoam wreath but, unbeknownst to me, the post securing the wreath pulled out of the pot and fell from the shelf, taking the roots out of the pot and the vine suffered (so, I am not recommending that any longer). I am starting over with a cutting and a coir-wrapped post I found on Amazon. I bought a set of four posts and as the vine expands, I can just add posts for height. So far, so good.

The posts I bought:

Robot Check

My apologies to OP for going slightly off topic, Leafmite's post prompted me to present the following tangent, since I was recently gifted a vanilla orchid... my #8 hahahah. Unsure if it'll root, but, if it does, here are a couple ideas I had for helping the vine grow:

1. something similar to a dragon-fruit post, except a bit shorter (3ft?), and, the top portion would be a long, narrow rectangle. The idea is that the orchid grows up short, and you just wrap it horizontally on top/side of the structure. You can do this indefinitely.. you'll get layers. Like an ogre. I won't take credit for this, I saw something similar on some forum a while back and it's stuck with me.

2. Four strong, skinny posts, 6-8ft tall, from a square with sides of 12-18 inches. Purchase nylon medical gauze netting, and fill with washed coconut coir fibers, moss, or anything else fluffy with moisture properties, then wrap/tie this up and around all the four poles in a light helical manner. Train the orchid to grow up it. Additionally, you can do it a bit at a time, always add more. In fact, the posts could be connecting kind (I have a bunch of these aluminum poles from conference banner popups).

Both would have a foundation in a in a bucket/pot/etc on casters to allow one to move it, since they don't really need much rooting space.

Thoughts?

At the moment, my vanilla orchids are just getting longer and longer, and all I have been doing is to just manually coil them up like a rope heheheh. But soon, I think I will put them under a tree or something and allow them to climb.

Snake basket! :biggrin:

SP, easy where you live, in the tropics. Rmhenry4q, where do you live? And by the way, WELCOME!

hahaha! Nice description kv.

I only took this photo this morning ------ my cat was initially sitting on the foam box, and sitting on my vanilla orchids (coiled around in a circular pattern). And then, after she finished cleaning ------ she then lay down on my vanilla orchids!!!!! Fortunately she's not super heavy, and the vanilla orchids were undamaged after she finished napping (2 hours or so later!!!!!).

Thank you for the welcome! For whatever reason I did not get a notice that so many people have replied! I really appreciate all the help. I am in Virginia. However, I am new to this state so I am not yet used to weather conditions here. Since my last comment I have wrapped the stake in Sphagnum Moss. But I will likely get aomething better once I know be will make it. I am pleased to say however, that when I pulled the stake put of the pot there was one root in the dirt that looked about an inch long! Other than that one root, I have not seen any growth on the plant. Hopefully having the take wrapped will help. How fast do these guys typically grow?

---------- Post added at 09:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:35 AM ----------


Right now I keep my vine infront of a sliding glass door as there is nice indirect sun that comes in from there. I typically keep my appartment about 74 degrees. Is that too cold for it?

---------- Post added at 11:02 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:40 AM ----------


Right now I keep my vine infront of a sliding glass door as there is nice indirect sun that comes in from there. I typically keep my appartment about 74 degrees. Is that too cold for it?

---------- Post added at 11:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:02 AM ----------

I'll have to look up what a dragon fruit post looks like. What I am imagioning is a structure "П" shaped? But I like thw ideas! Additionally I never would have thought to ensure there were casters under him. At this moment my vine is fairly straight. Is it possible to gently train it to wrap as is? Or is that something that can only be done with new growth?

-side note, I thought ogres prefered to be compared to onions 😄-

Think of it like a T, except the top part is a square or rectangle that is parallel to the ground. I've seen circles and ovals, too! You could also use a table or four-post setup, etc.

I plan to use casters, because I am keeping it outside, however, I have read they do not like temperatures below 55F, which happens here in the winter. So I'd like to move it back inside.

Unsure how to answer the questions about training the vine, I don't have much hands-on experience with this plant - mine came in two, short segments which have limited flexibility.

:D

That temperature is actually good for it. So no problems there.

I grow mine in New Jersey so not very different from you.

I made this support from some old patio furniture. It sits in a sunny corner over winter. I thumb tacked some plastic on the walls an it sits in a plastic storage bin I picked up at IKEA that, it was for storing shoes under your bed. I water with a pump sprayer every 2-3 days. I also hang other plant off the slats so I can spray everything and not get water everywhere

It goes outside in summer which is when it puts out most of its growth. As it grows I bend the vines back down to the bottom or wrap them around the outside. Once it gets going it can easily grow 5’ or more in a few months so plan ahead.

I have noticed that if the roots don’t make contact with sometime by the time they get 3 -4” they stop growing. They are also very brittle and snap easy if you try to move them. When I first got mine I made a tripod but used slats that were flat and wide. Rotate the plant often and it will wrap it’s self around the poles trying to get to the sunlight.

Check this out ------ interesting concept! Possibly overkill ----- but a pretty good video to watch.

Video Link

James, that is F'ing awesome!!!!!



I do my vanilla a few ways and one is weird but might work.

I went to Marshalls but i imagine any of the second market retail stores would have them (are they open now?) and i bought a large glass jug, huge actually, for about $20, they have a lot of sizes and shapes so i choose one with a large enough opening to get my large hands in.


i put about a cm of gravel on the bottom, then an inch of sand and then 2-3" of top soil. i put in a few sticks before filling so they would be embedded and then i added an aloe and a vanilla.

I started this in November since i had three small cuttings (two nodes, maybe 6") i wanted to experiment with...

it is super happy there and it just rambles and roams around....the watering is easy, i add a cup or so every other day or when i don't see any liquid in the lower part of the sand.

i have moved it around to find the happiest location and it is in bright shade on the patio now but it was pretty happy inside in my front hall next to the window as well...the hole is no bigger than 8" so it is pretty enclosed relative to the mass of the dirt

pics to follow shortly

side view

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...69185cd_4k.jpgVanilla by J Solo, on Flickr


the really happy one

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...af4e510_4k.jpgVanilla by J Solo, on Flickr

the slower growing one

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...485f9cf_4k.jpgVanilla by J Solo, on Flickr

and the whole thing for perspective
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b7a0c73_4k.jpgVanilla by J Solo, on Flickr


vanilla will eventually overgrow this "tank" but i figure i can wind it up for years and then ad a tower LOL

Thank you DC,

I’ve been very into terrariums lately, have one large and one mini currently and 2 more waiting to be set up.

Your set up is cool but I don’t think you have years, they get really big fast.

There is a good webinar on the AOS web site about growing vanilla. I don’t recall if it was open to the public or members only. I think their webinar archive alone is worth the cost of membership.

I've been to a vanilla plantation and they had them wound vertically on an arm extending from a heavy duty post. I mean meters and meters and meters of vine.

In the mean time, maybe a tree fern totem?

UPDATE
 

So about 11 days ago I posted that I wrapped my post in sphagnum moss and at the time I saw I had a root growing in the dirt. Here are some updated photos, I have been spraying it every day or every other day (I cannot keep track of days any longer so it hasn't been consistent.) Today I was poking around in the dirt for 2 reasons. 1 to see how damp the dirt was and 2 to investigate the area around the bottom of the vine as it looked oddly nice compared to the rest of the vine. So I have another root growing well into the dirt! But since I last posted the leaves started to turn and die again. I honestly am thoroughly confused. I have never had a plant simultaneously die and grow like this. The bottom is nice and plump and the rest of the vine is a little wrinkly. Any ideas/advise?

If the bottom remains healthy, it will start again from one of the lower nodes. I have had Vanilla get too cold (and die back) and even eaten by some unknown critter and sprout again from the lower nodes. Good luck!

Thank you for that bit of into! I am glad there is still hope for my little guy! Should ot be cut back some so the plant isn't wasting energy on dying parts, or is it better to just wait and see what happens? I am leaning towards waiting myself so that I do not accidentally introduce a bacteria/fungus or what have you to it.

I am not sure. I tend to wait until things dry up and turn brown before cutting unless there is an active fungus issue that prompts a hasty removal.

My vanilla cuttings finally show roots, very exciting :) That prompted me to revisit this thread to review how others have handled the vine length so I can be prepared. Following additional research, I came across this video, pretty simple idea. What do you all think is that straw/grass looking material in the fence tube thingies? No habla fronch. :p
YouTube

Keep in mind vanilla is a high-temperature, high-humidity plant. It may sulk for more than a year without making any growth at all if it is unhappy. When it is happy, in high temperatures and high humidity, it can grow more than a meter a week.

It is easier to root if you take cuttings and put them in a glass of water.