Vanilla vines flowering finally!

[Cindy Adair]

Up to 17 flowers hand pollinated over the course of the last few days. Orchid vine cuttings planted mostly in 2019.

 

I like the “pollinate vanilla flowers” entry on my to do list for each morning.

I used to stand on a ladder and lean over a  sink in my attached greenhouse in VA to reach the flowers. But often work interfered with the best pollinating time which for me is about 3 hours after dawn.

Dusk is way too late.

Happily I have succeeded in coercing the fast growing orchid vines to bloom within easy reach by continually pulling the vines downwards. 

This is what the bud clusters look like.

These vine is growing in more shade and has only a few buds so far.

 

Today there were 7 open. I think I will have decent pollination but time will tell. 
 

Easy to follow videos online and a toothpick and good glasses make it pretty easy.

Just remove part of the lower lip to clear the view and use the top of a toothpick to push the curtain like flap up and then a finger can gently connect the pollen to the ovary.
 

It sticks a bit when you get the timing right. The flower is also more open and there is a slight pleasant fragrance with optimal timing, not like vanilla though. 
 

I have multiple species and some color variants so hoping for lots of homegrown vanilla beans in the future!

[Cindy Adair]

I have about 25 vanilla beans! Here’s a sample:

[Missi]

AMAZING, Cindy!!! Such fabulous pics. Thank you!!

[Cindy Adair]

Thanks Missi!

Growing vanilla is possible even outside the tropics in a greenhouse as I did in Virginia.
 

If you can grow other orchids you can succeed.

[Silas_Sancona]

New Rock-Dwelling Vanilla sp. discovered in Brazil..

Article: https://blog.pensoft.net/2023/06/12/the-most-beautiful-vanilla-an-unusual-new-species-from-brazils-campos-rupestre/

Short posts from Phyto Keys' Twitter page:

[Cindy Adair]

Very interesting about the new Brazilian vanilla species. Thanks!

I also like the flower photos of the one from Puerto Rico (V. poiteau). I do have a small vine but no blooms yet.

http://www.orchidspecies.com/vanpoitea.htm

 

 

[Silas_Sancona]

8 hours ago, Cindy Adair said:

Very interesting about the new Brazilian vanilla species. Thanks!

I also like the flower photos of the one from Puerto Rico (V. poiteau). I do have a small vine but no blooms yet.

http://www.orchidspecies.com/vanpoitea.htm

 

 

 

Vanilla is a very interesting Orchid Genus, one i did not realize contains upwards of 110 ( ..Now 111?, if the new sp. hasn't been added to iNaturalist's data base yet )

There's supposedly one whose range may extend north to N. Sinaloa, maybe a few coastal spots just north of there on the Sonora side. 


Flowers on all are interesting no doubt, though there are some with flowers that look more like Cattleyas. 

All of these caught my eye. Know i've seen V. pompona starts offered at a couple orchid sales in the past.  Would be interesting to see if there are differences in the flavor of Vanilla produced by them as compared to V. planifolia :

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/809382-Vanilla-perrieri

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/555513-Vanilla-chamissonis

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/418736-Vanilla-madagascariensis

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/595975-Vanilla-roscheri

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/1345102-Vanilla-edwallii

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/170134-Vanilla-pompona

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/1205630-Vanilla-parvifolia

Interestingly, Vanilla is lumped into the same sub-family of Orchids as Pogonia, 2-4 sps which are native to the Eastern U.S.

[Cindy Adair]

About 9 months later I noticed some golden color to the tips of the vanilla beans. 
 

When I tried waiting for more yellow as some articles suggest I began to see splitting showing the tiny black seeds inside along with a surprise of vanilla fragrance. 
 

I opted to start the process of killing them (stopping maturation) initially by putting them in the freezer. Once all 38 were frozen I followed the recommendation to use a thermometer to judge water temperature of about 150 F and put them all in for 2 minutes.

 

Then they went into ziplock bags with the split ones segregated from the rest. 
 

The bags were put on top of a small towel and covered by another towel and into a cooler holding 4 gallon bottles filled with 115 F hot water. 

I left the cooler closed as directed but when opened yesterday the water bottles felt room temperature.

I took them out of the bags and into my new compact dehydrator set at 115 F for one hour. There is a fan running to aid in the slow drying process after the initial sweat. 

 

I like the way the look deep brown already. 
 

Since my cooler with hot water bottles was a failure, I am trying putting the two bags of beans into their plastic bags and then their towel blankets on top of the dehydrator set at 115 F avoiding the vents and setting the timer for 24 hours. 
 

Much easier than the cooler idea. 
 

I am told I repeat the daily sweat and dehydrator use for 18 days total before the next process starts. 
 

Meanwhile my Tahitian hybrid vanilla is blooming so everyday at 10 am my phone alarm reminds me to go pollinate! 2-5 per day so far. 

 

I still have lots of vanilla vines yet to start blooming but enjoying the trials so far.

Please share your experiences growing, pollinating, processing or using vanilla beans.

[happypalms]

Pretty good growing there Cindy I have one plant in my greenhouse in the subtropics temperature as low as 2 degrees Celsius still waiting for it to flower though how long did you have to wait for flowers 

[Cindy Adair]

I planted small vines beginning 4 years ago.
 

Many are now at the top of tree ferns and I should pull them partially down since impossible to reach flowers up there to pollinate or even admire. 
 

The Tahitian hybrid probably hasn’t been in the ground but 2 1/2 years. 

I did get flowers inside my Virginia greenhouse too after about 4 years of allowing it to attach itself to the greenhouse wall. 

[metalfan]

I am so jealous!!!!!!!!!!

[John hovancsek]

So amazing 

[Cindy Adair]

This really is not a hard plant to grow in a greenhouse if you are not in the tropics. 

Just give it something to climb even 3 feet tall and basic orchid culture. 

Today I took a group photo of the unsplit beans just before doing the daily switch from 1 hour out of the ziplock bag into the dehydrator. 
 

I can see the linear wrinkles beginning to develop now. 
 

The photo is on a dinner plate for scale.
 

[happypalms]

4 hours ago, Cindy Adair said:

This really is not a hard plant to grow in a greenhouse if you are not in the tropics. 

Just give it something to climb even 3 feet tall and basic orchid culture. 

Today I took a group photo of the unsplit beans just before doing the daily switch from 1 hour out of the ziplock bag into the dehydrator. 
 

I can see the linear wrinkles beginning to develop now. 
 

The photo is on a dinner plate for scale.
 

Love the plate 

[Cindy Adair]

6 hours ago, happypalms said:

Love the plate 

Thanks!

I collected these plates very inexpensively (into settings for 10) from a variety of Virginia thrift stores over years before bringing them to Puerto Rico for my everyday use. 

Not tired of them yet.