Quote:
Originally Posted by G.W.
I'll take one. Pm OTW
tell us about these vanilla vines...
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What would you like to know?
I'll start here, then you let me know if you want to know anything else.
I wrote an entire art. on this on my facebook page and when they did the conversion it got lost along with other stuff.
I have 7 different types. 5 named and 2 unknowns till they bloom.
There are over 100 different known tyes of Vanilla, 3 are grown for commercial use but mainly Planifolia is the most widely used.
They range from very large leaves up to 8-10 inches to leafless stemmed types, looking like a green rope clammering up a tree (1 is a FL native). They are both epiphitic and terrestrial, but won't bloom grown unrooted to dirt. They are a dappled light vine prefering to climb up trees to a light source but won't tolerate full sun or there leaves touching the ground. One type is said to be self pollinating but most have to be hand pollinated because we just don't have the bee spcifically designed to pollinate this plant, that critter lives in Mexico where most Vanilla types originated. The vanilla flower can range from white on white /white on green/ white on purple and can be single or over bearing up to 50 flowers at a time and only last one day with pollination windows of a few hours in the early morning. It is said they won't tolerate temps below 50 but I really doubt that my elm tree they are growing on that winter a few years back actually kept them that warm when it was so cold for so long. The leaves looked sad to say the least when I uncovered them, crinkled, dehydrated looking and slightly weepy...after the threat was over inbetween cold snaps I would uncover them and let them breath, get some light and bottom water...AND TALK TO THEM (I'm so sorry) within a few weeks the leaves started to lift again and plump back out. It took a few months before they started growing again.
There is more but I don't want to bore you with long winded stuff you may not want to know, I'm happy to do more just let me know.