Hi all,
My 18 feet long vanilla planifolia vines go up to only 4/5 feet high! There's how I do that:-
Wrap about 10 to 15 turns of stiff galvanised wire (3 mm) around a piece of 8 inch diam plactic pipe. Pull the wire out from onto the pipe and you get something like a stacked coiled spring. Extend this spring uniformly to the desired length, and you are done.
Screw one end of your extended coil into a 8/8.5 inch pot and train your vanilla vine along and around the wire. I usually keep the vine in place with soft pigtail wire or pipe cleaners and fill the void inside the spring with coconut fibre for additional anchorage for the axial roots.
10 turns around an 8 inch pipe will grow a vine up to 20 feet, nicely and uniformly stacked to a height of 4 feet... No need to look up ... or climb the pole to pollinate!
Hope you find interesting.
)
Jean Pierre Adrien
Linear Mode
