Vanilla vine maintenance

The outside temperature today was very cold and windy, two-degrees Fahrenheit with a windchill factor of -17 F. Walking to the University of Minnesota Conservatory Greenhouse from the parking lot - about a half mile away - was bracing to say the least. So today, it was an added pleasure to work in the relative warmth of the tropical rainforest room at the Conservatory.

Vanilla blossom

I arrived at the greenhouse to find all of the staff busy and engaged in various activities. On the whiteboard were listed several tasks available for the choosing. I saw one of the tasks was to clean the aquatic plants in the tropical rainforest room. I thought it would complement similar work I did a couple weeks ago in one of the adjacent rooms.

Aquatic plants in the tropical cloud forest room

Many of the plants in the aquatic tank are currently dormant for the winter. They had wilted leaves and stems from last season's growth. The dead material is a source of rot and fungal overgrowth that might spread to the live parts of the plants.

While I stood assessing the condition of the plants in the tanks, Coordinator A... came along to guide my work. At his suggestion, I removed each plant from the tank one at a time pruning out dead leaves and stems. I also removed excess floating vegetation on the water surface.

A large vanilla vine overhangs one of the two tanks in this room. The vanilla plant is shade-loving and naturally grows in the understory of tropical forests of South America. This particular plant in our Conservatory is being stressed by its sunny unfiltered location (the leaves are turning yellow and dropping off at the top of the vine). The plan is to redirect the vine to grow lower down on its trellis, away from the ceiling. Today, the plant had a single orchid-shaped flower, mostly white with magenta streaks around the rim. For the flower to produce a vanilla pod, it would require pollen from male plant, The Conservatory has only this one female plant, there will be no vanilla beans produced unfortunately.

After I finished working on the aquatic plants, I had time to prune and clean several climbing vines on another bench in the same tropical rainforest room. In particular there was a Stephanotis vine which looked fairly vigorous, but many of the leaves were yellowed and coated with sooty mold. I brought a tall ladder to reach all the leaves. As suggested by Coordinator A... I sprayed the affected leaves with dilute soapy water, let it sit a few minutes, then used a sharp spray of warm (tempered) tap water from a hose. We'll keep fingers crossed this Stephanotis vine begins to look as healthy as another plant growing in the workroom where it more isolated with less pest pressure from other plants.

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Rebuilding the support for vanilla vines

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