Basic Vanilla Info

[Day]

This post began with a an empty bottle of vodka. Ok, not an empty bottle of vodka. 

A nearly empty bottle.

And that was the problem.

In the way that every story spawns from another story, this one begins with driving an extra tall mini-fridge 1,000 miles down the pacific coast of the united states. Upon arriving home and setting it up, I realized my brother left me a few additional (and accidental) gifts inside: a couple dented cans of Coors Light, and a 1/2c of vodka sloshing around the bottom of a 750ml bottle. Thanks bro.

In an ironic turn of events, I'm not currently drinking alcohol. It's just not doing it for me. So with eyes on demoting the Coors to beer bread, I had only to figure out what to do with the vodka. Cue google, and the idea of making my own vanilla extract. Simple enough. Shove a few split vanilla beans in the vodka bottle, shake, leave for 2 months. Easy as pie.

So I went to the grocery store and... wow. Vanilla beans are expensive. As I held up the little bottle from the spice section, I was pretty sure those goons were trying to sell me air. I had to shake the bottle before I realized it did in fact hold a treasure: a single, folded over vanilla bean. For $12.

Well.

The next part of this story is probably familiar to a lot of you... after all, what's the first thing people like us do when we encounter an incredibly expensive edible thing? Wonder if we can grow it ourselves, naturally. So in the interest of sharing my newly gained knowledge, here's what I've learned so far about the logistics of growing vanilla beans, the world's 2nd most expensive spice (after saffron).

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Wikipedia excerpts:

Vanilla is a flavoring derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla [...] Three major species of vanilla currently are grown globally [...] V. planifolia (syn. V. fragrans), grown on Madagascar, Réunion, and other tropical areas along the Indian Ocean; V. tahitensis, grown in the South Pacific; and V. pompona, found in the West Indies, and Central and South America. The majority of the world's vanilla is the V. planifolia species, more commonly known as Bourbon or Madagascar vanilla. Vanillin content of [V. tahitensis, V. pompona] species is much less than V. planifolia.

Vanilla grows as a vine, climbing up an existing tree (also called a tutor), pole, or other support [...] Left alone, it will grow as high as possible on the support, with few flowers [...] growers fold the higher parts of the plant downward [...] This also greatly stimulates flowering.

V. planifolia flowers are hermaphroditic: they carry both male (anther) and female (stigma) organs. However, self-pollination is blocked by a membrane which separates those organs. The flowers can be naturally pollinated by bees of genus Melipona (abeja de monte or mountain bee), by bee genus Eulaema, or by hummingbirds.[...] The only way to produce fruits without the bees is artificial pollination.

Vanilla grows best in a hot, humid climate from sea level to an elevation of 1,500 m. The ideal climate has moderate rainfall, 1,500–3,000 mm, evenly distributed through 10 months of the year. Optimum temperatures for cultivation are 15–30 °C (59–86 °F) during the day and 15–20 °C (59–68 °F) during the night. Ideal humidity is around 80%.

Soils for vanilla cultivation should be loose, with high organic matter content and loamy texture. They must be well drained [...] Soil pH has not been well documented, but some researchers have indicated an optimum soil pH around 5.3. [...] A considerable portion of mulch should be placed in the base of the vine. [...] Three years are required for cuttings to grow enough to produce flowers and subsequent pods.

A healthy vine should produce about 50 to 100 beans per year, but growers are careful to pollinate only five or six flowers from the 20 on each raceme. [...]The fruits require five to six weeks to develop, but around six months to mature. Over-pollination results in diseases and inferior bean quality. A vine remains productive between 12 and 14 years.

To ensure the finest flavor from every fruit, each individual pod must be picked by hand just as it begins to split on the end. Overmatured fruits are likely to split, causing a reduction in market value. Its commercial value is fixed based on the length and appearance of the pod. Several methods exist in the market for curing vanilla; nevertheless, all of them consist of four basic steps: killing, sweating, slow-drying, and conditioning of the beans. ((I haven't quoted any details on this process))

When propagating vanilla orchids from cuttings or harvesting ripe vanilla beans, care must be taken to avoid contact with the sap from the plant's stems. The sap of most species of Vanilla orchid which exudes from cut stems or where beans are harvested can cause moderate to severe dermatitis if it comes in contact with bare skin.

Houzz article excerpts:

The vanilla 'bean' are actually seed pods filled with very fine seeds that are typical of orchids. The seeds lack the food reserves seen in most other plant seeds and require an external source of sugar. In the wild, this is provided by symbiotic fungi. In cultivation, growing an orchid from seed is a task usually reserved for experts and consists of sterile sealed flask flasks and agar jelly.

The pods sold for cooking will not have any viable seeds because of the way the beans are processed. Growing orchids from seed is not impossible at home, in fact I know several people who do. However, it requires sterile technique and a relatively long time to grow to a blooming plant. The vanilla beans most often comes from Vanilla planifolia. This species is relatively common in the orchid trade as a novelty (not meant for home bean production) so they are quite readily available from many orchid vendors or mail order sources.

As a climbing orchid, it puts out lots of roots at each node making it an easy one to propagate by cuttings.

Blog Post excerpts

A mature vanilla orchid vine can grow to 300 feet or greater. However, you can keep your vine to a manageable 20 feet in greenhouse conditions. Training the vine laterally instead of straight up allows you to get more vine in a smaller space. [...] Like all orchids, the leading cause of death indoors is overwatering. [...] Plants seem to flower better once the vining stems have climbed to the top of a structure and then toppled over to dangle in the air.

The blooms are open only one day and need to be hand-pollinated to produce beans. After pollination, the young green pods (beans) grow very fast, reaching 8 to 10 inches long in a few weeks. Pods [...]are ready to harvest in 9-10 months. [...] A three-year-old vanilla orchid will produce green bean-like pods from October through March.

Helpful Gardener post excerpts

The "Bean" is a seed pod that has literally millions of seeds inside. Orchid seeds are evolutionalry minimalists with just a few cells in each seed. In nature they do need to parasitize a fungus in order to grow, but people grow them using sterile tissue culture techniques. Do a search on "orchid flasking" for details

The flowers are only open for a couple of days and the vines can be 100 ft long so they are watched closely. no flowers untill the vine is about 30 ft long.

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So while it's becoming clear that growing an indoor vanilla vine is not the logical way to satisfy my desire for 'cheap' vanilla beans, I wanted to post a thread anyway to deposit everything I've learned in an hour's research. No deep genetics articles here (yet), just basic surface level information. But perhaps it will be useful to someone considering the same endeavor I was.

If anyone has attempted to grown Vanilla orchid, I'd love to hear about your experiences. Or any other information on the topic you may have picked up.

[oxbowfarm]

We've been making vanilla extract ourselves for the last few years, I think we've made it twice. If I recall we buy the vanilla beans at the coop, come two to a little test tube, and I cannot recall the price. Chopped up and added to a liter of vodka and left for 6 mos before using. It ends up being pretty damn economical compared to purchased vanilla extract, and quite strong vanilla, great for flan. Maybe the price fluctuates? I don't remember being bothered by it. Its been a couple of years, and we still have a quarter liter or so of the last batch. Your brothers left over vodka isn't much for making vanilla extract, maybe make some other plant tincture/extract?

[philagardener]

Vanilla prices have skyrocketed recently, so I recently gave making my own a try. A watched bottle ages slowly . . .  :>)

[reed]

My in-laws have family connections that fix us up with nice big fat vanilla beans. We always argue over what is better to use to make extract, vodka or bourbon. My personal preference is vodka, not that I have anything against bourbon, I just prefer the cleaner vanilla flavor. [add] I forgot, for those that like other flavor, rum is pretty good. 

My attempts to grow vanilla from seeds have failed 100% as have all my attempts to grow any orchid from seeds. Orchid seeds aren't like other seeds, I forget the term for it. I just don't have the set up and equipment to deal with it. I think to pull it off, is akin to embryo rescue.

My attempts to keep a vanilla plant alive for more than a few months have also been 100% failures although I'm pretty sure one did try to make a bloom one time before it croaked. I'v kept them alive outside but haven't been able to get one through the shock of coming for winter.

[richardw]

Interesting topic, one ive never thought of before in terms of growing or making it yourself. When you look at the prices of those tinny little bottles of vanilla extract and not fake stuff, is it worth making your own?. Adding up the sums - 5 Tahitian beans NZ52 - enough for one cup of vodka - a 200ml bottle of USSR Vodka 37.5% $11, so about 60 bucks to make your own. Buy a 200ml bottle of organic vanilla extract online from just down the road in Niue is NZ$40 ....i'll pass on that thanks.
Cant even see the point of trying to grow the bean, need to be set up with a climate controlled hothouse.

[oxbowfarm]

Jan 16, 2018 12:43:02 GMT -5 richardw said:

Interesting topic, one ive never thought of before in terms of growing or making it yourself. When you look at the prices of those tinny little bottles of vanilla extract and not fake stuff, is it worth making your own?. Adding up the sums - 5 Tahitian beans NZ52 - enough for one cup of vodka - a 200ml bottle of USSR Vodka 37.5% $11, so about 60 bucks to make your own. Buy a 200ml bottle of organic vanilla extract online from just down the road in Niue is NZ$40 ....i'll pass on that thanks.
Cant even see the point of trying to grow the bean, need to be set up with a climate controlled hothouse.

Wow. Vodka prices like that definitely change the economics, for sure. That much for 200 ml is about half what a LITER of mid-range vodka cost here. I just called my local co-op to get a sense of the current prices, 3 beans cost $17 US, so thats approximately $11.50 USfor two beans plus approx $20 US for the Vodka so call it $32 US to make a liter batch of extract. The co-op charges $8.50 US currently for 4 fluid ounce bottle of organic Vanilla extract which comes to about $72 US per liter. So making it yourself still saves you money here in the US. Making vanilla extract is about the only time I purchase alcohol honestly, its a little bit daunting to go into a liquor store and try and figure out which to buy. I cannot understand why there is such a range of brands of a basic mixture of water and ethanol?

[richardw]

Thats why quite a few people distill there own, buy the flavour you want - gin, vodka etc etc. Prices you pay for a 750mil are about $35+ which is about US$ 28