The most commonly used species are madero negro ( Gliricida sepium) and poro ( Erythrina sp.). A two meter long post, 8 to 10 cm in diameter with a few smaller bifurcating branches is ideal. Support species are most often planted as a living post or cerca viva. The selection, planting, and management of the support species is nearly as important as the care of the vanilla vine itself. The primary shade for vanilla crops will come from the support species that they grow on. These can be pruned in the rainy season and allowed to grow out during the dry season. Short term shade species might include pigeon pea ( Cajanus cajan), bananas ( Musa sp.), and Mexican sunflower ( Tithonia diversifolia). If you will be establishing vanilla while also establishing shade trees, it is important to provide short term shade species as well. If your rainy season is distinct (three or more months) enough dry season shade is very important. If your rainy season is short (less than one month), strive for more sunlight. Consider a location with existing shade cover that is either very high in elevation, letting in more light from the sides, or can be pruned to achieve the optimal sun/shade ratio. Vanilla is similar to cacao and black pepper in that desires around a 50% sun to shade ratio. A well cared for vanilla plantation at Villa Vanilla outside of Quepos, Costa Rica A 1.5 m spacing along a row would be a minimum as it is still important that you can move around each plant. On a homestead scale, vanilla can be planted closer. This leaves ample space to walk around each individual plant and quickly assess the flowering situation. On a commercial scale vanilla is typically spaced on a grid of 2.5 m x 2.5 m. Be sure to keep the cuttings out of the sun. The cuttings are very hardy and can survive in a shady moist place for many weeks until you are ready to plant them. The longer the cutting the faster it will produce flowers.īe sure to take cuttings only from healthy plants that appears free from disease and don’t take too much from any one plant, as it will set back any future flowering by at least one year. A cutting from a mature plant, with 12 to 24 nodes or 1 to 1.5 meters long, is all that is needed to start a young vine of your own. It is native to the lowland forests, where it thrives as an understory vine that climbs its way toward the canopy. 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. The vanilla orchid ( Vanilla planifolia) is one of the world’s most interesting plants.
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