Covanee Journey – Vanilla Cultivation

Vanilla cultivation and processing is all about time, knowledge and the willingness to be patient. Many times, it is greed and the human propensity to speed up a certain part of the process that can ruin a bunch of potentially gourmet grade vanilla beans.

The first step starts with the soil. Vanilla does best in rich humus soil with even draining. Most vanilla cultivation is done in-between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn where the above soil conditions can be found abundantly. High winds or droughts are a detriment to the cultivation as the two conditions may lead to the flowers dropping too early or withering too early for pollination.
Of the two main variations, in Papua New Guinea (PNG) Vanilla planifolia (also known as Vanilla fragrans) does better in elevations over 200 meters but not exceeding 600 meters. Vanilla tahitensis is sturdier and does well in hotter and more humid weathers.

Because the vanilla seeds do not germinate, cuttings are used for replanting. Before planting the vine cuttings, shade trees, sometimes called mother trees, are planted in advance to provide ample shade for the vines. The vines are drooped around the shade trees and tree and the vines are pruned. If the trees are not pruned and the vines left to grow wild, it will grow all the way to the top of the rainforest canopy. However, if the vines are left to climb, they will not flower, thus no harvest can be made. But the biggest factor for pruning is so that the vines are well within human reach for pollination and harvesting.

It takes the vanilla cutting about three to four years until it starts to bear fruit. After six to seven years of producing, the vines are discarded due to low yields. Altogether the vines usually last 10 to 12 years.

When the vines bud, the buds usually will flower within six weeks. There might be over 1000 buds on a vine; however, only 5%-30% of all the buds should be pollinated by hand. The beans are pollinated by hand because there is only one natural pollinator, the bees of genus melipona found only in Mexico, has the ability to pollinate vanilla flowers. However, even in Mexico, commercial vanilla farms will pollinate the vines by hand to control productivity and quality.
The importance of selective pollination process of where only a few of the flowers are pollinated is almost always overlooked as menial. However, a farm’s consistency and bean quality is greatly depended on the said process. First hand experience in Papua New Guinea dictates that with all other factors constant, vines with only 5% of its flowers pollinated will produce much longer beans.
The problem arises when total income per plant is taken into account. Though the 5% pollinated vine will produce top quality vanilla beans with lengths over 20 cm (8 inches), and in many cases beans over 8 inches will fetch much higher prices than the shorter ones, however, the market for these beans are quite wanting. Because the industry standard for gourmet or A grade is at around 14 cm (6 in), unless all of the flowers in the 5% pollinated vines produces 8 inch+ beans, the farmer will probably earn less profit per vine. Even in our case, though most (over 50%) of the beans are over 7 inches and about 15% over 8 inches in length, beans in the 6-7 inch range will outsell and be out of stock much before the 8+ inch beans due to their cheaper price. Therefore in many cases, the cost-benefit of producing super long beans is not prudent.
In most cases, over pollination is the biggest problem. Over pollination causes many a problems such as, short beans, less vanillin content and more seriously, it can cause diseases on the plant. Therefore it is one of the most important requirements along with consistency that we emphasise when we take on a new family group as our producers. In our effort to provide top quality beans, we have asked the farms that are involved with us to only pollinate 20% at the maximum. Thus most of our stock is over 7 inches and many over 8 inches long.

Finally, when the first hint of yellow appears on the pods, the beans are harvested to start the process of curing, which we will discuss in a later post. Also, I will be discussing why length of all things is important to vanilla beans. (Oh why oh why would you every want a longer bean, which costs mucho $$$$?)

Our journey continues.

Cocoa, Vanilla and Coffee

Covan'ee