While the first vanilla pods of the season are coming in, the first flower buds are also appearing. Some of these spurts of new growth will result in new vines, branching off of the mature vines, but most of these will form the flowering racemes. The early spring is when a lot of new growth occurs, and the vanilla farmer (me) watches with some apprehension as the flowering racemes appear (or not!) determining the size of the new season’s crop. In a week or so, the morning ritual of the hand pollination will begin.
The flowering season of 2014 was light for us, several areas never went to flower, so the 2015 harvest season will be small. One of the things we’ve learned about vanilla is that while it will grow lush and green in the shade, it requires part sun to come to flower. As the forest grows around the vines, they can end up in shade too deep to flower. This year, I cleared branches above and around the forest trellises to let more light in. We’re hoping for a better flowering season this year, and indeed it’s starting strongly.
I moved to the West Palm Beach area in 2016, I bought a vanilla orchid plant hoping to make my yard into a fruit tree and exotic fruit yard rare and fruits that aren’t common of the South Florida area something tasty. So I did not realize the vanilla orchids needs so I handed over to my sister in law she’s a orchid queen she’s got several hundred different orchids. Now it’s April 1st 2024 and we now have three noticable vanilla bloom’s, last year we didn’t notice any bloom’s and found a vanilla bean 10″ long! But only one maybe more but one was found. Finding that one vanilla bean now we are aware to look in early spring for bud bloom’s.
I’m taking pictures of this vanilla orchid’s progress for anybody who wants to see what nature has in-store for this year and forth.
Nice going, I hope you’re pollinating those flowers!