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Originally Posted by D_&_T
been checking into a vanilla orchid, any tricks to growing them?
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Vanilla planifolia or more commonly known as Madagascar-Bourbon Vanilla is Vary easy to grow no direct sunlight high humidity keep most not wet most grow them in a bath room they clime and get vary long 100 ft (you can clip to keep under control) takes 3 years to flower theirs a trick for pollinating them must be done by hand
in the wild it was thought to be by a Mexican Bee Melipona (possibly extinct)but now we know Euglossine bees, and perhaps by long-billed hummingbirds. The common fast-flying Euglossa viridissima is one probable pollinator;
Eulaema cingulata is also suspected.
a 12-year-old French-owned slave by the name of Edmond Albius, who lived on Īle Bourbon, discovered the plant could be hand pollinated in the 1840s
you have approx 6hr to do the polination Beens take approx 9 months to ripen
after beens are mature harvest dip in boiling water for 15 seconds place in ventilated wooden box open box ever morning close every night for 7 to 9 months use as you see fit incidentally the flower and been have no vanilla sent at all the sent comes from a complexes set of chemicals that develop in the curing process
this is why the culinary industry has decided to use artificial Vanilla
but! the real stuff is the best the fake stuff comes from an extraction from a certain pine tree which i do not recall the name of although Vanilla comes from Mexico its is grown world wide but the main countries of production are in Malaysia and Madagascar the hand pollinating takes grate amounts of time which is quite labor intensive making it fairly unprofitable in most western countries after 2004 it has become the second most exspesiv spice in the world do to a hurricane that wiped out the majority of the plantations in the producing regions of the world
if any one wants a more in depth report on Vanilla planifolia id be more then happy to give a longer out line but for now i didn't want to boar any one