Lisa and I had an incredible day of pollinating yesterday! We’re pretty sure we’ve never had so many flowers going off before. She and I pollinated 682 flowers, taking us nearly 2 hours to complete the day’s pollination.
Vanilla Flowering Variability
The number of flowers we get each year varies a lot. Like any farmer, we’ve got theories and some experience to explain the variability in the flowering of the vines.
The 2017 flowering season was big: we had many days of over 100 flowers getting pollinated, and several that approached yesterday’s totals.
The 2018 flowering season (the beans from which we are curing now) was much smaller, and at this point it looks like the crop will be a bit more than half of what we got the previous year.
The winter and spring of 2018 was stormy and wet, and the lead theory is that the cloudy, wet weather not only suppressed budding and flowering, but also affected pollination rates. We saw a lot of failed pollination that year and it’s possible the constant wetness may have interfered with what is normally a pretty sure-fire operation (90% success is typical).
This Year’s Differences
This winter/spring is by contrast much drier and sunnier, but there are other factors in play this year that may have increased the number of flowers we got.
First, this year we have Freddy, a new helper on the land, who has a knowledge of Korean Natural Farming (among many other things). He has been applying compost teas and other preparations, and the effect on everything we are growing here has been profound. Freddy is our new secret weapon, a man who is passionate about plants and hot sauce. He fits right in.
Second, I learned that vanilla farmers will often do a major prune of the new growing tips just before the first buds appear in order to stimulate bud growth. It’s not uncommon to apply a little stress to some plants to encourage flowering. It’s maybe a little voodoo, but I tried it and I certainly can’t say it hurt the production of flower buds!
So, it looks like we are in for a big year for the 2020 harvest!
Good news. My name is Stephen from Uganda A vanilla farmer. I need to know how i could induce flower production with out chemicals.
what are these practices? How does Mr Freddy do it to have all these flowers?
I need to help fellow farmers here.
Thank you
Hi Stephen,
Good to hear from a fellow vanilla farmer! I have heard that more farmers are planting vanilla in west Africa, this is good.
We use only natural methods here, so getting the vanilla to flower is a matter of giving the plants the right conditions and hoping for the best. Last season we had very few flowers, so that is just how it goes sometimes.
Specifically, the three things that I know are important to getting the plants to flower:
1. Light: the light levels must be high enough to promote vigorous growth. We have found that growing vanilla under a tree is usually too dark (depends in the kind of tree), and the plants never flower. We are currently using shade cloth of 64%, but started with shade cloth of 50% and that worked very well. If you don’t use a shade house, make sure that the vanilla is getting plenty of light, but not a lot of hot sun.
2. Feeder roots: the vanilla vine must have part of its length close to the ground so feeder roots can form. Feeder roots require a lot of mulch, they do not grow into the soil, but they should be moist and shaded from the sun under a thick layer of mulch. You can tell the feeder roots because they have a hairy appearance. This is how the plant gets extra moisture and nutrients, which it needs to flower and produce pods.
3. Time: it takes 3 years for the flowers to appear, sometimes even 4 years. The vines grow continuously, so the part of the vine that is old enough should produce flowers. The flowers appear at a specific time of year, this will depend on your locality, other vanilla farmers in your region should be able to tell you when the flowers normally appear.
Another practice that you can try once you have those three things covered is to prune the vines just before flowering season. What we do is prune off the last 1–2 meters of the growing tips. Not all of them, but most of them. How much you cut depends on how fast they are growing and how many new growing tips you have. The plant will then put energy into flowering instead of putting on length. Be very careful what you cut, the older parts of the vine and their roots must not be cut.
I hope this helps, and good luck. I would like to hear how it goes for you.
–Roland
Once a gain its my pleasure writing to you. My name is Mbusa Stephen from Uganda. first and fore most, I dearly and kindly appreciate for your previous advise and its doing wonders on my farm. Thank you very much.
however, I am inquiring on what causes arbotion of flowers after pollination?
you find that, out of five flowers pollinated, only 2–3 get fertilized but the rest falls off.
thank you
Regards. Mbusa Stephen
Hi Stephen,
You can’t expect 100% success with the pollination, but there are a few things that in my experience can help increase the success.
First, if the flowers are wet, pollination is less successful, so try to avoid pollinating just after or during rain. If it can’t be avoided, you can take extra care that the pollen is deposited on the receptor, but expect a lower success rate.
Second, pollination should take place after the flowers are fully open in the morning and before they start to close around noon. If you have to open the petals of the flower to pollinate it, it probably won’t work.
Third, don’t “rub” the pollen into the receptor, just some gentle pressure that doesn’t crush the column works better. The receptor cells are easily damaged, and the pollen won’t be taken in if that happens.
I think a good pollination rate is between 80% and 90% so you’re not doing too bad.
Also, take care not to over-pollinate, you will get many small beans if you pollinate too many flowers.
Good luck!
Hello Mr. Roland, once again its my pleasure writing to you. i applied what you advised me it has worked wonders at my farm.
However, some farmers are complaining of their young vanilla dropping before pollination.
when they cut it, magots are seen in side.
do you thing these could be fruit flies?
have you gone through the same scenario over there?
hope to read from you.
Thank you
Thank you for your direction. Be blessed.
Hey Mr am also glad to talk to you any one to help me at my farm flowers do fall even before fertilisation period flowers fall when they have just appeared I need help
I don’t know what causes this, but there are a couple of things to look at.
Check the feeder roots, these are the long roots that go to the surface of the soil. They must have a moist, protected place to grow. The plants may not be getting enough moisture.
Also, the flower buds are very delicate, easy to break off. They can be broken by animals or people hitting them, or may be even strong wind. Make sure the vines are tied down if they can be moved by the wind.
Dear Roland
My name is Alex and I’m starting to farm Vanilla in Sri Lanka.
This is the first pollination season for us and I’ve been getting the hang of pollinating the vanilla. it took a few flowers but I’ve started to be more successful with the pollination.
I do have an issue which I am experiencing that I cannot seem to find answers to. Once I’ve successfully pollinated a pod it begins to grow and the flower usually stays attached for a week or so. But several of my successfully pollinated pods grow for a certain period and the flower suddenly falls off, leaving only a small vanilla bean. Its almost like a delayed failed pollination attempt but the pods do grow.
Do you know what may be causing this? Perhaps not enough nutrients?
Any help or advice with this matter is greatly appreciated.
Kind Regards
Alex
Some pods will fail to grow large, this is normal. One of the things we do to help prevent that is avoid over-pollinating the raceme. This means that we generally only pollinate 7 to 9 beans on the raceme, and overall you should only successfully pollinate about 75% of the flowers. This is to avoid overloading the plant which can lead to a lot of small pods.
Dear Roland,
May I ask you whether there is a difference between the flowering and fruiting behaviours and also vanilla pod quality of the variegated vanilla versus the non-variegated one which is the default in commercial plantations?
Ask you this because some sources say to avoid planting certain variegated variety of Vanilla, because beans are very much less, and not fragrant at all due to absence of vanillin , taste and smell absent. They say that variegated vanilla has a harder time to flower and fruit, and more inferior quality beans. They say variegated vanilla is usually more for ornamental purposes.
Is it really true that variegated vanilla will either not flower, flower less, or produce poorer quality beans with much reduced vanillin ?
Thanks,
Vincent
I have a little experience with variegated vanilla, and I would agree with what you’re heard. The vine I have rarely flowers. I did not pollinate and cure the beans to see how they would turn out, so I can’t comment on that, but you wouldn’t want to waste your time growing a vine that may be reluctant to flower. There is a huge time investment in growing vanilla for pods, takes about 4 years for the plants to mature.
I am surprised by your mention- that even your non-variegated vanilla itself rarely flowers , let alone your variegated one. I presume you grow both types.
I heard the other “wild” vanilla species like vanilla aphylla and vanilla griffithii flower much more easily (even without stress) than vanilla planifolia. Someone should look into hybridising them to see if we can produce a hybrid vanilla species that can flower more readily and still retain the vanillin content in the beans.
As for vanilla planifolia, it will , according to what I’ve heard, flower when stressed. So, there must be stress of some form applied to the plant.
Thanks,
I know about stressing the plaint to induce flowering, but we don’t do that here. The main reason vanilla producers do this is to get year-round vanilla production. We’ve never had a problem getting our plants to flower.
I do have a single variegated vanilla plant, someone gave it to me as a gift, but it is not part of our vanilla production operation.
Actually I compared one variegated versus one non-variegated growth rates (of similar stem thickness and under same conditions ) and I found that my variegated one grows on average one new leaf per week, whereas the non-variegated fully-green grows on average one new leaf every 2 weeks.
Since my variegated vanilla grows at a rate of one new leaf per week thus does not seem affected by the variegation so far , my hypothesis is that the chlorophyll pigments were redistributed across the leaf to be concentrated in areas that detect stronger light intensity , and less in areas where there’s lower light intensity captured , hence it is an adaptability feature of the plant .
This helps the plant to synthesise and allocate its chlorophyll pigments in the most efficient and productive manner , to the best of places, hence a highly uneven distribution of pigments across the leaf blade that changes according to stimuli .
[[However, it is important to note that this may not apply to all variegated vanilla planifolia plants. ]]
The variegation that involves white variegated parts will not be able to “gain and lose chlorophyll pigments ” , or in more accurate terms “redistribute chlorophyll pigments around the leaf in response to stimuli “.
However , yellowish-style variegation like in my plant will be able to “gain and lose chlorophyll pigments ” , or in more accurate terms “redistribute chlorophyll pigments around the leaf in response to stimuli “. So yellowish variegation is actually as good as , if not better than fully-green leaves as compared to white-coloured variegation which is worse off for the plant . In other words , yellowish variegation is an adaptation trait of the plant , whereas whitish variegation is less desirable for the plant , and is more of an artificial selection by humans .
What might be your hypothesis ?
Cheers,
Sorry! My hypothesis Should be The other way around —the chlorophyll pigments were redistributed across the leaf to be concentrated in areas that detect lower light intensity (like more shaded conditions) , and less in areas where there’s higher light intensity captured (because there is a limit to how much light can be captured and utilised by the plant —excess light energy cannot be stored like unlike a man-made solar-capture system) , hence it is an adaptability feature of the plant .
When put under shadier conditions, the variegated vanilla leaves turned darker green and the greenish pigment became more pronounced throughout the leaf.
Yes, this is very interesting. Vanilla plants are definitely darker in lower light conditions. I would say the sample size we’re talking about (I have just one variegated vine) could lead to misleading results, so maybe there isn’t much difference at all. Variegation is due to the presence of a virus in the plant, which was presumably introduced by a vanilla breeder to produce a decorative vine. This would not have been with vanilla pod production in mind.
Anyway, it would be interesting to hear how your cine does over time. When my variegated vine produced pods, they were solid green…I was hoping they would be variegated as well!
Thanks for your sharing Roland! Next time your one and only variegated vine produces pods again; could you please share with me your smell and taste assessment of the fragrance level of the pods produced by it, versus the pods produced by a natively non-variegated vine when you assess them in parallel ? — if there is any notable difference? I am not sure if the virus incorporation that induced the variegation has any notable effect on the pod quality (of fragrance, vanillin level etc). This would be an interesting study to observe. I am not sure whether this virus incorporation has any unintended /unforeseen secondary effects on vanilla pod quality and/or quantity .
Thanks a lot.
Cheers!
Mosaic virus introduced to the vanilla cause white spots of variegation. But my type of variegation is tints of yellow interspersed with the green parts , yellow mainly at the centre of the leaf and heavily green towards the outer edges and sides of the leaf (not sure if it’s same as yours) , you could call it somewhat a mild variegation. Maybe 30% yellowish, 70% greenish (my opinion). (Wish I could share with you a photo. )
Correct?
Thanks!
Also, if for a start, you could share with me the frequency of blooms for the variegated one that you have versus the other natively non-variegated ones , what might be the rough ratio (of differences) you have observed? Is the variegated one markedly much slower in blooming , longer to mature to flower, and flowers a lot less at once than the non-variegated ones? E.g flowers on average once every year or once every few years for the variegated specimen versus flowering bi-annually for the non-variegated ones?
Thanks for your sharing!
Hi Vincent,
This is interesting stuff, I’m not sure how much of value I can add to this, I just have the one variegated vine, and it’s not in our main production areas. The whole time I’ve had it, it’s flowered once, so we may not see it flower this year. Happy to share my casual observations about this vine, but it’s really not possible to do any kind of comparison since it’s growing in an area that has a lot of regular green vines…I wouldn’t be able to tease out the data on production rates since I can’t separate out the individual plants.
Nice…“The whole time I’ve had it, it’s flowered once, so we may not see it flower this year” . Did you mean, from the time of maturity, your variegated vine so far flowered only once in a span of a few years so far?
What about your other regular green non-variegated vines? Do they flower without fail once every year?
After all, both variegated and non-variegated vines have been subject to the same growing conditions.
Thanks Roland!
A google search says that vanilla planifolia typically flowers once a year for a month of two. So I was wondering whether your casual observation of your variegated vine so far may indicate an anomaly (to this general published guideline) , for the variegated vine — since you mentioned that you may not see it flower this whole calendar year.
Cheers! And may you have a very happy new year ahead!
Vincent
This is my second year growing vanilla. I’m in Kuranda Australia.
We have had an extremely wet year and I have found that this year there are a massive amount of flowers and flower buds on most of my plants.
A lot of the flowers I have pollinated have simply dropped off after a day or two. I’m not sure what to do?
Continue pollinating and hope more will take or cut off or remove excess flower buds or be more selective on how many I pollinate each morning and hope I end up with at least a half decent crop at the end of the season?
I’m finding it very frustrating to see all my hard work just drop to the ground.
Congratulations on the strong flowering! I certainly know the feeling of seeing the flower just drop off.
If the flower drops off after a day or so, that means the pollination was unsuccessful. Make sure you understand exactly what needs to happen to complete the pollination of the flower. Maybe even take some time to review video of the pollination to make sure you have it right.
If you’re sure you’re pollinating the flower correctly, what I would offer for tips on success: be careful not to crush the flower when putting the pollinia in contact with the style. It should just touch it, no pressure is needed, too much pressure will damage the style and prevent pollination. It’s best to pollinate just after the flower opens (usually mid-morning for us), it can still work after the flower has closed, but it’s less likely to succeed.
Very rainy conditions can affect pollination, if the flower is dripping wet, it doesn’t work as well.
If the pollination is successful, the flower will wilt and turn brown, but stay attached to the bean for a couple of weeks. You can usually tell the next day if it was successful.
I would not recommend you cut flowers off, keep pollinating and only begin to skip pollinating once you’re sure the raceme has 5 — 9 successfully pollinated flowers. Removing flowers won’t improve pollination or fruit development.
Good luck!