How to Propagate Vanilla Plant Cuttings

The vanilla plant (Vanilla fragrans, sometimes called Vanilla planifolia), native to Mexico and Central America, is a perennial vine in the orchid family. It is commercially cultivated mainly in Madagascar, where the seed pods are picked while they are green and undergo a lengthy curing process. It propagates readily from cuttings, provided you live in a warm, tropical climate. The vanilla plant, grown from a cutting, takes three to four years to flower.

Pruning shears
Small stake
Plant ties

Instructions

- 1
  Take an 8-inch cutting from the vanilla plant. It can be taken from anywhere on the plant, as long as it is healthy shoot.
- 2
  Remove the leaves from the lower half of the vanilla plant cutting.
- 3
  Plant the vanilla cutting next to, and in the shade of, the parent plant, allowing two leaves or leaf nodes to remain above the surface of the soil.
- 4
  Pound a small stake next to the vanilla orchid cutting and loosely tie the cutting to it with plant ties.
- 5
  Keep the soil moist at all times until the vanilla plant cutting has rooted. You will know this has occurred when there is new foliage.

Vanda Orchid Diseases

Parts of an Orchid

Orchids