Vanilla spp.
I don’t know about you, but vanilla seems to me like some kind of magical ingredient.
That distinctive flavor can’t possibly come solely from nature, right? Vanilla pods are grown by elves in an enchanted forest or something, aren’t they?
The truth is that vanilla flavoring comes from vanilla beans or pods, and these grow on orchids.
Plants from the same family – Orchidaceae – as the pretty flowers you find at the grocery store are responsible for the unmistakable flavor of ice cream and the delightful fragrance in candles.
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You don’t need to have magical powers or employ elves to grow your own vanilla beans, though.
If you can grow an ornamental orchid, you can grow the species that produce vanilla beans.
Growing the vanilla orchid itself is pretty easy, it’s producing healthy pods that takes a bit more work. If you can manage it, you’ll be growing the second most valuable spice in the world after saffron.
If you’re ready to make some magic, let’s go! Here are the topics we’ll cover to make you a vanilla orchid expert:
Vanilla orchids aren’t quite as showy as those of moth (Phalaenopsis spp.), calanthe (Calanthe spp.), and cattleya (Cattleya spp.) orchids, but they’re still beautiful.
The genus Vanilla contains dozens of species that grow everywhere in the world wherever the climate is right.
As with most members of the Orchidaceae family, vanilla orchids prefer tropical or subtropical climates.
In the continental US, Vanilla species can only be found growing wild in Florida, where the endangered leafless (V. barbellata), Dillon’s (V. dilloniana), leafy (V. phaeantha), and Mexican vanilla (V. mexicana) grow.
Puerto Rico also has six native species. These are leafless, cone-shaped (V. claviculata), Dillon’s, Poiteau (V. poitaei), pompona (V. pompona), and flat-leaved (V. planifolia).
The most common commercial vanilla species is V. planifolia, which is indigenous to Mexico, Central America, Brazil, and Columbia.
To a lesser degree, V. x tahitensis – a hybrid between V. planifolia and V. odorata – and V. pompona are also cultivated commercially.
Quick Look
Common name(s): Vanilla orchid
Plant type: Evergreen perennial vine
Hardiness (USDA Zone): 9-11 (outdoors)
Native to: Mexico, Central and South America, Southeast Asia
Bloom time / season: Spring
Exposure: Shade, indirect sunlight
Soil type: Loose, rich, loamy
Soil pH: 6.0-7.5, slightly acidic to neutral
Time to maturity: 5+ years
Mature size: 10 ft wide x over 100 ft high
Best uses: Houseplant, edible pods
Taxonomy
Family: Orchidaceae
Subfamily: Vanilloideae
Genus: Vanilla
Species: Barbellata, claviculata, dilloniana, mexicana, phaeantha, planifolia, poitaei, pompona, x tahitensis
Vanilla orchids are all fleshy, perennial vines that can reach up to 200 feet long, though many stay much smaller.
As hemiepiphytes, they grow either directly in the ground or attached to another plant like the epiphytic species.
Or they might do both, with roots in the ground and attached to a tree or shrub with their aerial and terrestrial roots.
The terrestrial roots have root hairs and are responsible for absorbing moisture and nutrients. The aerial roots primarily provide support and are hairless.
The lanceolate or oval leaves are fleshy, alternate, and up to a foot long and three inches wide. They can be bright green, medium green, or variegated with shades of cream.
The plants start blooming right around the beginning of March, but might be as early as February or as late as April, depending on the location and species.
The flowers are yellow, green, cream, or white. These three- to four-inch in diameter flowers open in the morning and are gone by the afternoon on many species.
There can be multiple flowers on each cluster, or raceme, and usually only one opens at a time. This process of flowering can last up to two months.
During flowering, bees, ants, butterflies, hummingbirds, bats, and birds will visit the flowers and ensure pollination takes place.
The flavor and fragrance of the vanilla pods comes from compounds called vanillin, phenolic aldehyde, and anisaldehyde.
Technically, the vanilla “beans” are actually seed capsules and not true beans. But we’ll call them that, anyway.
The majority of vanilla orchids produced commercially are found in Madagascar, but you’ll also find plenty in Mexico, India, Indonesia, and parts of East Africa.
In the US, smaller operations produce vanilla in Hawaii, Florida, and Puerto Rico.
How to Grow
Vanilla orchids require quite specific growing conditions to thrive.
Soil
It all starts with the soil. The vanilla orchid vines want rich, loamy, and well-draining soil.
Either mix your own potting soil using equal parts finely shredded fir or cypress bark and sphagnum moss for container-grown specimens or amend your garden soil with lots of well-rotted compost.
Temperature
Vanilla orchids are sensitive to frost and will be killed by a freeze, so they can only be grown in areas where the temperature rarely drops below freezing.
You can protect plants during rare freezes, or you can grow them in a greenhouse or indoors.
Generally, they are hardy in Zones 10 and 11, and parts of Zone 9.
If you decide to grow your vanilla orchid as a houseplant, be aware that flowering indoors is rare.
You will increase the chances of flowering if you give the plant direct sunlight for a few hours a day, or provide them with supplemental lighting.
Greenhouses are usually bright enough to promote blooming.
Ideally, it will have daytime temperatures between 80 to 85°F and night temps between 60 and 65°F, but any climate between 33 and 90°F is fine.
Light
Just because they like it hot, that doesn’t mean vanilla orchids want direct sunlight, unless they are growing indoors. The vines grow best in bright or dappled shade.
Many commercial growers train the vines up trees known as “tutor trees” in a sort of companion planting system.
The vines are shaded by the tree and have support to keep them off the ground.
Watering
These plants like a lot of water. In their native range, they receive about 60 to 120 inches of rainfall per year.
To put it into context, only the wettest large cities in North America receive the low end of that much rain.
So no matter where you live, you’ll likely be offering your plant regular moisture to keep the soil consistently moist.
Mulch is going to be your best friend. A couple of inches of grass clippings or finely shredded bark will help keep the soil cool and moist.
To complicate matters, vanilla orchids won’t flower if it’s too wet in the two months prior to flowering.
That means you’ll need to lay off the watering just a bit prior to the typical flowering season.
Then, if moisture accumulates on the developing beans, it can lead to rot. So it’s extremely important that you water at the soil level and not on the plant itself.
The vines also need a good amount of humidity, between 40 to 80 percent.
You can learn more about watering orchids in our guide.
Support
You will need some sort of support for the vanilla orchid vine, whether that’s a trellis, a moss pole, a wall, a tree, or something else.
If you are growing your plant indoors, you’ll definitely need to provide it with something to climb.
The reason being that if the vine can’t grow long enough, it won’t flower. Vines need to reach at least six feet before they’ll bloom.
As the plant grows, it will send out long, thick aerial roots that will search for anything they can find to grab onto. I’ve seen them sink themselves into carpet, tuck in behind wall art, and snag staircases.
Pollination
To produce pods, you’ll need to hand-pollinate the vanilla orchid flowers.
If you look closely at a flower, you’ll see five petals and a central lip with a little growth coming out of it at the center of the bloom.
This growth above the lip is known as the column. If you look at it closely, at the tip is the anther, with an anther cap over two pollen sacks known as pollinia.
You can usually just barely see these through the anther cap.
To pollinate the orchid, take a toothpick and pry off the anther cap. The pollinia will come off with the anther cap. Toss the anther cap out and take the toothpick with the pollinia attached to another flower.
You don’t want to pollinate the same flower that you took the pollen from.
Better yet, pollinate a flower from a different plant entirely.
Tilt the column back so you can see just behind the anther and you’ll find the stigma. It’s a little indentation. Insert one or both of the pollinia in the stigma.
Now, you’ve pollinated your orchid!
You have now officially completed what is known as the “marriage” in orchid parlance.
You’ll know your pollination was successful because the flower will fall off in a day or two and the base left behind will begin to swell within a week or two.
Eight to nine months later the pods should form, so you’ll need a bit of patience.
You don’t want to allow more than ten or so beans to develop on one plant or you run the risk of depleting its energy.
If this happens, it can take years for the vine to recover. So pollinate just a dozen flowers or so on each plant or be prepared to pinch off some of the young beans if too many develop.
Fertilizing
Use a balanced, mild, all-purpose fertilizer and dilute it by half or put it in the watering can if you use one.
You want to have a lot of water with your fertilizer because it is important to avoid salt build up in the substrate. Feed once a month starting in spring and stop feeding during the winter.
AgroThrive General Purpose
A product like AgroThrive General Purpose food would be the right NPK balance and strength for vanilla orchids.
Purchase 32 ounces, a gallon, or two-and-a-half gallons at Arbico Organics.
Pruning
As the vanilla orchid vines mature, they can take over the canopy of a tree or grow so tall that you won’t be able to harvest any of the beans.
For that reason, you should keep them trimmed to a manageable height or trained to bring them back down to where you can comfortably reach them.
Use a clean pair of secateurs and cut just above a leaf node.
If you don’t want to toss out those trimmings, feel free to propagate them as we will discuss below.
Or, if you train the vine back down, you can stick the growing tip into the ground. This encourages the plant to send out new shoots and focus on root growth.
Where to Buy
As you can imagine, it’s not easy to find vanilla orchids to grow at home. They are definitely more of a commercial crop. There aren’t very many cultivated varieties out there, either.
Commercial growers have access to some cultivars like ’Hanta’ and there are a few variegated types that are grown as ornamentals.
V. planifolia
Specialty retailers like Wellspring Gardens carry V. planifolia vines. You can buy plants in three-inch pots through their Amazon store.
Propagation
If you really want to try, it’s possible to propagate vanilla from seed unless you are growing one of the hybrid varieties.
But it’s a lengthy and complicated process that not even professional growers typically use, particularly for these species, because the seeds have a lower-than-average germination rate.
If you’re determined to go this route, it’s certainly an exciting adventure and our guide to starting orchids from seed will walk you through all the steps.
Otherwise, cuttings are the way to go.
From Cuttings
This process can be done any time of year, but it’s best to do it when the plant isn’t in bloom or the beans aren’t nearing maturity.
If you have sensitive skin, be sure to wear gloves, as the sap can be irritating to some people. Wash off any sap that comes in contact with your skin.
- Using sterilized pruners, take a 12-inch cutting from a healthy vine. The section should include at least two nodes, which are the raised bumps from which the leaves and aerial roots emerge.
- Remove all but the top one or two leaves, depending on their size.
- Set the cutting in a cool, dark area for two days. This allows the cut end to form a callus before you plant it, which reduces the chances of rot.
- Fill a four-inch pot with soilless potting medium and moisten it. Poke a hole in the center with a pencil, chopstick, or your finger. Push the bottom end of the cutting into the medium with at least one node buried. Firm the soil up around the base.
- Sink a support about an inch away from the cutting. You want something long and sturdy like a 24-inch long dowel. Sink it to the bottom of the growing container and firm the soil up around it. Loosely tie the cutting to the support using twine.
- Place the cutting in an area with bright, indirect light.
- Keep the soil moist at all times. Note that moist doesn’t mean wet – it shouldn’t feel soggy. If you were to squeeze a bit in your hand, no water should squeeze out, but it should stick together.
You should start to see new aerial root and leaf growth within a few weeks. Once you do, that means your cutting has taken and you can reduce water slightly.
Once the cutting has doubled in size, you can transplant it to a permanent container.
Keep in mind that cuttings don’t usually reach maturity enough to flower and fruit for up to five years.
Pests and Disease
Whether you’re growing indoors, in a greenhouse, or out in the garden, there are a few pests and diseases you’ll need to keep an eye out for.
Pests
Indoors, in greenhouses, or in the US, pests aren’t really a huge problem.
Snails will devour the vines, but they’re easily dispatched with a good snail bait or one of our other recommended methods.
Mealybugs and spider mites can also be a problem, especially if you’re growing in a greenhouse or indoors.
You can learn more about orchid pests in our complete guide.
Disease
Since they thrive in the type of environment that fungal pathogens prefer, these plants tend to struggle with fungal issues.
Here are the most common:
Anthracnose
Anthracnose is a fungal disease caused by pathogens in the Colletotrichum genus.
Rather than appearing as a bunch of fungal growths on the plant, when it infects vanilla, it causes small, shrunken, dark spots. These spots can appear anywhere on the plant, from stems to leaves to pods.
The symptoms usually start on new growth, particularly at the growing tip, and if the pods are infected they may drop from the plant.
This disease thrives in warm, humid weather, especially when the vines are in too much shade or are overcrowded.
Treatment involves removing any symptomatic foliage and spraying with an appropriate fungicide as soon as you see symptoms.
Products that contain copper, Bacillus subtilis, hydrogen peroxide, or potassium bicarbonate can all work. Better yet, use a combination, alternating between two different products.
A fungicide that contains Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain D747 is also effective. There are several products on the market that harness this beneficial bacteria.
Monterey Complete Disease Control, which is available at Arbico Organics in 32 ready-to-use, 32-ounce hose end, or eight-ounce, pint, or gallon concentrate sizes, is what I would recommend if your plants are infected.
Monterey Complete Disease Control
Spray as soon as you notice symptoms and repeat as often as the manufacturer recommends. Don’t stop until you haven’t seen any new symptoms develop for at least a month.
Black Rot
Oomycetes in the Phytophthora genus are responsible for root and crown rot in dozens of different plant species.
In vanilla orchids, it causes water-soaked spots that can be green, brown, or black, to appear on the stems, leaves, roots, and pods. When it starts in one area, it rapidly spreads throughout the plant.
If you’d like to experience black rot for yourself, grow several vines very close together in poorly draining soil with heavy shade and let the weeds take over the area around your vines.
Then, overwater, especially on the leaves rather than the soil, and you’ll be in black-rot-ville.
Black rot can be hard to control because once it sets in, it can rapidly kill off the vines.
During times of heavy rain or the moment you start to see symptoms, you should begin a treatment program. There are lots of good organic products on the market that can suppress or stop the disease.
Bacillus subtilis, copper, Streptomyces lydicus WYEC 108, Trichoderma asperellum strain T34, and more.
I’ve found a product called Mycostop, which contains a beneficial bacteria called Streptomyces Strain K61, to be highly effective against this disease.
Mycostop
Grab yourself a five or 25 gram pack from Arbico Organics.
Follow the manufacturer’s directions to mix and apply, and use it right after opening, because it loses effectiveness rapidly after you open the packet.
Fusarium Rot
Fusiarum rot is horrible because it starts at the roots and you don’t know that anything is wrong until the roots are already seriously impacted.
When the pathogen Fusarium batatatis is present, it turns the roots brown and dry. Aboveground, the growing tip dies first, the stems start to crack and split, and the plant will eventually die.
The plant might start sending out new growth from the roots in the struggle to survive.
It’s common when there is too much shade, too much water, or too little water.
If you catch it quickly, treat with the aforementioned Mycostop and prune away infected vines. You can also treat your plants preventatively if you’ve had the problem in your garden before.
Rust
Rust got its name because the spores of the fungal pathogen Uromyces joffrini are orange and can resemble rusting metal.
They appear on the undersides of the leaves, causing the foliage to turn yellow and dry out.
If too many leaves are involved, it can reduce photosynthesis to the point where the plant can’t grow and flower any longer. The vine might even die.
Fortunately, it’s fairly easy to control using a fungicide. Something like Monterey’s Complete Disease Control mentioned above applied every few weeks will work nicely.
Harvesting
Eight to nine months after your pollination efforts, the seed pods will be ready to harvest.
The pods are usually around eight inches long, but don’t take length as an indication of their readiness. Nor should you rely on the fragrance.
If you try taking a whiff of the bean, only to find that it doesn’t smell at all like vanilla, you might think it isn’t ripe. But the beans won’t ever smell the way you expect them to until you cure them.
On the other hand, if you wait too long, the bean will split open along the seam and expose the inner seeds, of which there can be thousands. Once the pod splits, you must use it immediately.
Don’t harvest too early though – if the bean isn’t ripe when you pick it, it’s worthless. It won’t ripen off the vine and an unripe bean is sour and bitter.
The most reliable indicator is when the bean is dark green and the end starts to just turn light green or yellow.
The skin should feel thick and have a slight give, and the seeds inside should feel loose and will move around if you manipulate them.
At this point you can gently lift the bean in the opposite direction it is growing and it will easily detach from the vine.
Preserving
If you thought raising the beans was the time-consuming part, buckle up.
There’s a reason this is such an expensive spice. The process of curing the pods so they look and taste their best is time consuming.
You might have noticed that the beans you’ve harvested look nothing like the shiny, black pods we’re familiar with from the store.
The green pods need to go through a process to soften the cell walls and convert the starches and pectin inside into sugars. The ultimate goal is to turn the glucovanillin to vanillin.
You need to cure the bean pods to complete the process and render them usable.
If you only have a few pods maturing at a time and you want to wait and cure them all at once, place the pods in a sealable bag, press out any air, and set them in the freezer until you’re ready to work.
Killing Step
To start, within a day or two of harvest, put the pods in water heated to between 150 to 170°F for one minute.
Larger pods, which are any over five and a half inches long, might need up to three minutes. You’re looking for the bean to start turning slightly brown but not soft or mushy. It’s a delicate balance.
This is known as the killing step and it stops the pod from maturing any further and starts the breakdown process.
After you have done this, you are ready to move to the next stage of curing, called the sweating stage.
Sweating
Remove the pods from the water and immediately place them in freezer bags, press out the air, and wrap the bags tightly in wool or thick cotton cloth.
Place the cloth-wrapped beans inside an opaque plastic container and seal it tight with a lid. During the day, if it’s warm and dry, put the rolls in the sunshine or other warm area of your home to heat them up.
We want to keep the beans warm to prevent mold from forming. Ideally, the rolls will stay at around 115°F.
If they start to cool too much, you can stick a jug of hot water in the container to add heat.
After a week, open the rolls during the day and leave them in the sun for a few hours or put them in a dehydrator for one hour at 115°F.
Return them to their airtight container at night. Do this for the next few weeks and up to two months.
You’ll know you can stop warming them during the day when they start to smell sweet and they feel plump. You will see longitudinal wrinkles forming.
Drying
When you see this, lay them out on screens or drying sheets during the day in a shady spot for a few hours. Choose a spot with good air circulation and move them indoors if it rains.
You’ll want to roll or rotate them throughout the day to make sure they dry evenly. It’s important for them to dry slowly to improve the vanillin concentration.
At night, put them back in the blankets, minus the plastic bags, in their airtight container to sweat some more.
If, at any point, mold starts to develop, dip the bean back in the hot water as we to begin with in the killing step.
Each bean will dry to the appropriate level on their own schedule, so don’t assume that just because one is done they all will be.
The drying portion of the process can take as little as one week or up to a month.
You’ll know the beans are ready when they have no smooth areas and the skin is wrinkled.
The pods should be almost black in color and when you press them between your finger and thumb it should feel solid, like a piece of dried plum.
If you were to test the moisture content, it would be right around 30 to 40 percent.
It used to be that vanilla producers looked for a fine, white crystal formation on the outside of the bean to indicate its readiness. This is no longer considered an indicator of quality.
Place all of the beans together in a large container to age them for three months. This sealed container should be kept in a cool, dark area.
At this point, they are ready to go. Use them as you see fit. Speaking of…
Cooking Ideas
Whew! We did it! We grew the vines, pollinated the flowers, cured the beans, and now you’re ready to dig in.
I don’t need to tell you that vanilla is a key ingredient in so many desserts it would be impossible to describe them all.
Ice cream, cake, cookies, and cupcakes are all perfect for using the spice. How about trying this old fashioned vanilla wafer and banana pudding from our sister site, Foodal?
Add it to coffee or hot chocolate for a treat.
Don’t forget the savory world. If you haven’t tried chicken in a vanilla cream sauce, you haven’t lived.
Vanilla sauce over duck is a classic French dish. I once had a tomato dish in Seattle that was dressed in vanilla-infused olive oil. It was life changing.
You’re Up for the Challenge!
If you choose to grow them for their ornamental value alone, you’ll be treated to a pretty special treat in the garden.
But if you take it the next step further, you can grow your own vanilla beans, and that’s a pretty impressive feat.
Once you master the art, come and let us know what worked well for you! And share your recipes. If you run into any trouble, we’re here to help with that, too.
Put it all in the comments section below.
And for more information about the magical world of orchids, check out these guides next:
