3/28/2023 0 Comments Vanilla orchid![]() It wants a minimum of 3000 mm of rainfall, or can be irrigated on a small scale, and is rarely grown commercially above an elevation of 600 meters. The vine can support an extended dry season of up to three months. Vanilla thrives in the tropical lowlands, both on the Caribbean and pacific slopes of Costa Rica. Henry Karczynski giving a tour of his vanilla plantation. Thank you all for your support in helping our plants flourish. As well, Jorge Salazar of La Iguana Chocolate, and Leon Couturier and Sam Olvera, former Rancho Mastatal apprentices, have been instrumental in co-cultivating our vanilla knowledge. It has been put together with vanilla mentorship from Henry Karczynski of Villa Vanilla and Peter Kring of Finca La Isla. The following is a detailed guide for getting a few plants established and thriving on your tropical homestead. These five plants will likely out produce the 50 and at less work. On the homestead scale, it is much better to have five plants that you give exquisite care than 50 plants that receive marginal care. Keep this in mind if you expect to grow vanilla as a commercial crop. A powerful contingent of middle men are often accused of driving up prices by hoarding supplies. Like all commodities, the supply and demand of vanilla is subject to many factors outside of simply how much vanilla is produced each year. There is a lot of interest in vanilla at the moment due to apparent global shortages and an extreme j ump in crop prices. However considering the common alternative, synthetic vanilla, which is derived from a combination of wood pulp and coal tar, and is found in a huge amount of processed food, a little hand pollination is worthwhile. Hand pollination sounds like a lot of work. Yet vanilla is a particular plant requiring special care, in particular during pollination where every flower must be hand pollinated. Native to Mexico and Central America, the vanilla vine is well suited for any tropical homestead. True vanilla is a sought after product, usually the second most expensive spice in the world, yet we associate the word vanilla with plain, boring, and commonplace. Of the nearly 35,000 species of orchid, the second largest botanical family of plants, vanilla is the only species that produces an edible fruit. We sell single rooted cuttings that vary in length.The vanilla orchid ( Vanilla planifolia) is one of the world’s most interesting plants. The photo is of a mature plant with several cuttings is a 6" pot. Once cured, they can be placed in alcohol for 6 to 12 months to create the extract. You can hand pollinate the flowers and after a few months have a seed pod which can be cured. ![]() ![]() The flowers last one day, but can blossom more than once from the same inflorescence. ![]() You can run the growths up and down a 6 foot trellis for best control without taking up too much space. It is difficult to say when they will flower, but on average this species needs to be well over 10 feet in length to bloom. Provide high light, and fertilize as you would any other orchid. ![]() Allow the medium to just approach dryness, but don't allow it to dry out completely. They are intermediate to hot-growing, and develop rapidly in a peat, or sphagnum moss-based mix. The roots will grab onto and curl around anything they touch, especially if you have good humidity. They can grow for indefinite lengths (some specimen reaching several hundred feet) and many will control their growth using a trellis or any kind of wooden structure. The planifolia species is the most commonly used Vanilla in flavoring. Vanilla's one-of-a-kind culinary qualities owe to the complexity of the numerous chemical compounds inherent in it. Native to Mexico and Central America, Vanilla has been among the world's most important plants - among spices, it is second only to saffron in value. ![]()
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