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.