Content
- How To Grow Your Own Vanilla - Tips For Pollination And Care
- With the right care for flowering - How it works
- Time window for pollination is open only briefly
- Tips
If you want to grow a vanilla yourself, you have no easy task
How To Grow Your Own Vanilla - Tips For Pollination And Care
In order to breed vanilla pods on your own, you will look in vain for seed in vain. The seeds of a vanilla orchid are unsuitable for this purpose. It is better, you acquire a young plant, which you animate with loving care to blossom and pollinate manually. How the process works is outlined here.
With the right care for flowering - How it works
The vanilla orchid wishes a bright to sunny location all year round with warm temperatures of 18 to 25 degrees Celsius. In addition, a high humidity of 60 to 70 percent is ideal, so a bathroom or spa room is perfect. Spoil the demanding plant with this care, the flowering is not long in coming:
Give your vanilla orchid a climbing aid or place it in a large hanging penny, always with sufficient access to sunlight.
Time window for pollination is open only briefly
Once your vanilla orchid has decided to blossom, a bud opens daily within the inflorescence for a few hours. Take this opportunity for a manual pollination between 6 and 12 o'clock. As a hermaphrodite plant, each flower has female and male organs that are separated only by a membrane. Using a toothpick, pick up the male pollen and transfer it to the underlying female scar.
Over the next 6 to 9 months, the flowers will turn into long, green pods reminiscent of runner beans. In it matures the longed for vanilla. During this time, continue the care program with moderate watering and regular fertilization.
Tips
Vanilla pods are slightly toxic on frequent contact. Similarly, the plant juice contained in flowers and leaves triggers skin irritation, which manifests itself in violent itching. If you breed vanilla in larger quantities, we recommend wearing protective gloves for all care and harvesting work.