mk30 on Nostr: It's vanilla bean harvest day! After growing vanilla vines in various places for ...

It's vanilla bean harvest day! After growing vanilla vines in various places for various years and finally getting some flowers in a place I could reach (as opposed to high up in a tree), then hand-pollinating them with the right technique, then waiting for the pods to reach full size over a couple months, then letting the pods ripen on the vine for 9 months, they're finally ready to harvest!

I'll be using this thread to track the rest of the process.

So, how did I know when to harvest? According to this blog post: https://vanillery.com/ripe-green-vanilla-pods/ they are ready to harvest when the bottoms are yellow and just starting to crack. I've included pics below showing my pods this morning when I decided to harvest.

Pic 1: yellow on the bottom
Pic 2: yellow on bottom and just starting to split
Pic 3: further splitting, with seeds visible inside. I smelled this one at the place where it was opening, and it smelled fantastic - like vanilla.

Next steps described in next posts...

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#vanilla #orchids #plants #hawaii #food