Vanilla cultivation

The vanilla plant , which can reach fifteen meters in length, is a vine with green, fleshy, cylindrical, branching, knotty stems. They cling by adventitious roots of 2 millimeters in diameter to trees and various supports. The main stem has a diameter of one to two centimeters.

Epiphytic orchid It can only thrive between 10 and 20° North and South latitude and at an altitude of less than 700 meters. The average temperature must oscillate between 21 and 31°C.

The soil must be well drained to avoid asphyxiation of the roots and rich in organic matter , with significant humidity between sun and shade.

The vanilla tree requires support to climb and find shade. In vanilla plantations, small trees are usually planted beforehand, capable of supporting the weight of the vanilla plant later on. These trees are often the Indian pine nut, the coffee tree, the avocado tree, the cashew tree or the mango tree. The term " under crop " is reserved more particularly for Indian plantations which have been able to develop on a significant scale the mixed cultivation of pepper, cashew or coconut trees with vanilla. It should always be noted that India intensive vanilla plantations known as “ undershade ” allowing a higher yield of green vanilla.