Vanilla Bean Orchid – Vanilla planifolia

$25.00

The Vanilla Bean has pods that are green and abo…

100 in stock

SKU: 0664P Category: Tags: , ,
Plant family: Orchidaceae
Plant origin: Madagascar
Fruit description: The Vanilla Bean has pods that are green and about 15cm long. Each Vanilla Bean is produced from a pollinated flower which takes about 9 months until the beans are mature. The beans produced by the Vanilla Bean orchid can be harvested and used as vanilla flavour in cooking, cakes, milk products and confectionery.
Flowers: Vanilla Bean Orchids have yellow-green orchid flowers which appear in clusters in Spring and Summer, and each only lasts a day. They are about 5cm in diameter. They look like a yellowish trumpet emerging from a leafy green star. When the plant is mature, it produces hundreds of flowers under excellent growing conditions.
Growing conditions: The Vanilla Bean Orchid is a climbing orchid plant. It likes a warm climate, grown in afternoon shade. Let the plant dry out over Winter by bringing it under cover or by reducing watering. It needs support as it grows to a few metres in length or height. The plant will not flower until it stops growing but commercial growers prune the plant to induce flowering. Prune it to the height you can reach the beans from. It can be grown on a tree for support as it would in its natural habitat. It is an epiphyte, which uses another plant for support, and to draw nutrients from through its aerial roots.
Uses: The processed Vanilla Beans or an extract from the beans are used in desserts, cakes, cream, ice-cream, confectionery, coffee, chocolate and perfume production. The perfume is used to impart a sweet, distinct aroma. Processing involves curing, where the bean ferments and dries out. It takes 6 months. The bean is put into hot water, then wrapped in dark cloth and allowed to sweat then dry for a couple of hours in the sun. The bean is ready when it is dark brown, with a white crystalline bloom on it, which is vanillin, the exquisite flavour of vanilla. It then has a gorgeous aroma. When the bean is cured, it can be stored. Aging can enhance the aroma and flavour. The whole bean can be used in cooking, or the seeds can be scraped out, to flavour ice-cream, sugar, custards, or the flavour can be extracted into alcohol to preserve it. Vanilla sugar, made by leaving a cured Vanilla Bean in a jar of sugar, gives lovely vanilla flavour to desserts and baking.
Medicinal uses:
Pollination requirements: Vanilla Bean Orchid flowers are pollinated by a Melipona bee which is only found in Madagascar, and by a hummingbird native to Mexico. In all other locations Vanilla Bean Orchid flowers must be hand-pollinated the flower the morning it opens, as each flower only lasts one day. Use a dry paint brush to touch the pollen from the Male part of the flower, to the Female part inside the flower. Holding the flower closed with a tiny peg also pollinates each flower. If the flower is not pollinated, it falls off.
Harvest time Harvest the Vanilla Bean when the tip turns yellow and begins to split. It will not smell like vanilla until it is cured.
Plant relatives
Special features: Vanilla is the second most expensive spice in the world, the most expensive is saffron. Vanilla Bean Orchid is the only orchid that produces an edible product.
Grown by method: Cutting Grown Pot size: 100mm
Plant growing Height and Width for pots or in the ground planting: Grows to 2.5 metres long if Planted in a Pot. Grows 3 metres long if Planted in the Ground.
Shipping plant pot or planter bag size: 100mm
 

Description

The Vanilla Bean has pods that are green and about 15cm long. Each Vanilla Bean is produced from a pollinated flower which takes about 9 months until the beans are mature. The beans produced by the Vanilla Bean orchid can be harvested and used as vanilla flavour in cooking, cakes, milk products and confectionery.