two Vanilla species in progress

Nicely done, Brian!

 

Very cool.

 

*drool*, very nicely done!

 

Fascinating! Can't wait to see the blooms!

Just curious -- how big are the plants?

 

Great pics. Are you pollinating the planifolia. Let me know if you need help. This is my 2nd year. It's not as easy as it looks.

 

These are some lessons I learned with pollinating vanilla pompona. I have had better success in pollinating recently by digging out the pollen with the tip of a toothpick and directly applying it to the stigma. Simply mashing the pollen to the stigma like the youtube clips has had little success. Also be gentle with the column, do not pinch/crush or bend it as the pollen has to travel down this part. These are some of the mistakes I've made and I made them many times before I figured out what I was doing. Check out this link for flower anatomy.

http://miosjournal.org/journal/2009/05/VanillaPlanifolia.html

 

One more thing, when I bought the pompona I was told it was a planifolia. I did not find out it was a pompona until I got a 'bean' as the flowers and leaves can look similiar.

 

I used a toothpick to pollinate my V. aphylla, set a pod but it blasted after 4 weeks. DRAT!!

 

That's pretty sweet.

 

"is it just me or are these taking forever?"

It's just you. I want that ruler.

 

Dale, do you need to borrow a coupla bucks so you can get yourself a new ruler? Just let me know, I got ya covered!

 

"Dale, do you need to borrow a coupla bucks so you can get yourself a new ruler?"

Yes, please. Thank you.