Just wondering if any of you gardeners out there have ever attempted to grown a vanilla bean plant. I think I've heard it's in the orchid family. Would it take a tropical environment? Do they grow very large?
A few of our members grow or have grown Vanilla planifolia, you might find some helpful information ..... Vanilla planifolia (Vanilla Orchid, Vanilla Vine) One of them will probably be online in a while to let you know more about their experiences.
Hi there, yes I grow vanilla orchid plants here in Australia, where we live it is subtropical climate, they do like to be warm and do not tolerate frosts .The mother plant of mine is now about 30' up a rough barked tree and flowers every year during spring.They have to be 10' high to flower.I have grown several from cuttings very easily.We do not have the moth here that does the pollinating, so if you want pods you have to hand pollinate,one flower opens each day and stays open only for that day...they hang in clusters.I was told that they could not grow here so of course I did what all real gardeners do and that was to take up the challenge] a cluster of buds ( photo / image / picture from chocolate's Garden ) aerial roots of vanilla plant ( photo / image / picture from chocolate's Garden ) vanilla orchid flowers ( photo / image / picture from chocolate's Garden ) [/img]
Thanks Chocolate for all the great info and photos! Have you also tried to ferment the beans for use in cooking? Perhaps with all the work involved, it explains why the beans are so expensive.
