Vanilla planifolia

Does anyone have any experience with this vine?

I grow it, but it is slllloooooooooooow growing!

Yep, mine, too...

The woman I got it from is in the deep south, zone 10, and hers did really well and even bloomed. She hand pollinated it, and it set pods, but she is in a really humid, and hot region.

They are a terrestrial(in the ground) orchid, but the roots still rot easily, if the soil isn't REALLY aerated.
-T

I have the variegated form and it is very slow growing too...Inside my house sitting on the bay window on a heating pad to keep the roots warm..during the winter..doesn't like too much water either..picky picky picky..lol..

I grew it when we lived in S.Florida.It was not slow growing there at all.It bloomed frequently and grew all over a grapefruit tree.I didn't hand pollinate and so it never developed pods.I suspect that the pollinaters are not found in the US.

I could try it here since our summers are similar to S.Florida but I would have to take it in in the winter and provide lots of humidity.

Seedpicker What do you do with it in the winter?

Db-Hi
I have a greenhouse that is divided into a larger cold side, so plants can still experience winter, but just not freezing temperatures, and then the other section is a smaller hot "seed room", for seedlings.

I keep the vanillas in the cold side. Most of the floor in there is concrete, but there is a 5x5 foot section of it that is open to the ground. That is where I have my stephanotis, clero. delectum, green jade vines, and the vanillas.

Since vanilla are terrestrial, I have them laid on the ground beneath the other vines.

I tried "planting them" in the soil before, and they rotted. So, now I just lay them on the humid soil, and they seem to prefer to root THEMSELVES. When I do it this way, they form really nice healthy roots. When I try to do it, they don't like it.

Fussy, fussy! lol...

None of mine have not bloomed(I have several different vanillas). I think they are too shaded by the other vines...

I wouldn't know how to pollinate a bloom even if I had one, lol...I've seen lots of material on the fact that they need hand pollination(that is why the spice is so expensive), but I've never seen HOW to do it...
-T

Thanks everyone. I think I've decided against this as an indoor plant. For a brief moment, I got caught up in the idea of making my own vanilla.

Well, don't be too discouraged. You could make your own coffee, pineapple, orange juice, lemon merangue, grow your own ginger root, harvest your own cardamom... And best of all (I haven't done this) Grow a nice Camellia sinensis and make your own tea!
K. James