What's new
  • Please note members who been with us for more than 10 years have been upgraded to "Veteran" status and will receive exclusive benefits. If you wish to find out more about this or support IcMag and get same benefits, check this thread here.
  • Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!

Clarence's Bourbon Vanilla Grow Update and Grow Guide (post #75)

aridbud

automeister
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Love your bean progression, Clarence! Have a friend interested in growing vanilla in a greenhouse. Will read up, send her your info. You're going strictly indoors, near your TV/window (what direction does your window face?)....looks astonishing! Big thumbs up!

Hope you are feeling great!
 

Clarence

FUZZY WUZZY
Veteran
Love your bean progression, Clarence! Have a friend interested in growing vanilla in a greenhouse. Will read up, send her your info. You're going strictly indoors, near your TV/window (what direction does your window face?)....looks astonishing! Big thumbs up!

Hope you are feeling great!

Window is basically south facing. Out of my 3 original cuttings I have the 2 plants u see in the photograph. The other I gifted to a friend. And from them there are 5 cuttings placed in different rooms of the house all in south facing windows. 2 others are at my brothers house. He had them in a conservatory but has moved them to his upstairs landing where they seem to be thriving better. By a large window but not in direct sunlight. None of these secondary cuttings have flowered yet but they've only been growing just over 2 years.
 

aridbud

automeister
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Read where it takes 3-4 years to blossom, and very fragrant when they do, a short time bloom. Excellent, south facing. Maybe this year, Clarence, you'll experience many blooms. Finger crossed for you!
 

belgowiet

Active member
Found one online, quite easy to find at plant stores to my surprise.
And not very expensive!
largest I could find was + - 50 cm - 2 years old.
while at some stores only cuttings were available between May and September.
probably it is because of the flowering period that starts then,
you have any idea?

What do you think of the quality of your own harvested vanilla beans,
versus commercially available variants?
Taste, aroma, texture inside?

Thank you
 

Clarence

FUZZY WUZZY
Veteran
Getting a 2 year old plant to start would be great cuts out a lot of waiting time. I never had that option. But my privilege was getting authentic original cuts straight from La Reunion islands.

I was very happy with my end resulting pods. Just as good maybe better than most you can get in the stores in the UK. I was very happy with the amount of fermented seed matter that I could scrape out. It definitely had a good strong flavour and aroma. I was also able to to reuse the casings multiple times. I have bought pods from Madagascar before. My pods were not quite there in comparison but that's to be expected. I'm sure that climate difference makes a big impact.

As long as the cuttings are one of the 4 types I mentioned in my guide, post #75 page 3 of grow guide, you should be good to go. There are many vanilla orchid varieties but only a few that actually bear fruit.

Cheers C:tiphat:
 
Last edited:

Badfishy1

Active member
Less than 8 hours open. Pollination timing is a major pain in ass, but worth it in the end. I just cut back 30’ of my vine. Totally forgot about your thread or would have sent cuttings out
 

Clarence

FUZZY WUZZY
Veteran
What do you think of the quality of your own harvested vanilla beans,
versus commercially available variants?
Taste, aroma, texture inside?

Thank you

Here's some not so great pics I've dug up of the fermented seeds scraped out of the pod. I used this to make custard. The aroma and flavour were impressive. Better than the average store bought pods. That's that bourbon vanilla yumminess. I seem to remember that I could have used only half the seeds to make my custard recipe at the time. As you can see it's a good size vanilla pod. About 9 inches long.



Cheers C:tiphat:
 
Last edited:

exploziv

pure dynamite
Administrator
Veteran
Looks great but those pics really don't do it any right.
p.s. my vine still hasn't flowered. But grows beautifully.
 
Top