• Vanilla is adapted to a wide range of soil types rich in humus and having good drainage.
• Vanilla thrives well in humid tropical climate with an annual rainfall of 200-300 cm from almost sea level to 1500 feet above MSL.
• A warm humid climate with temperature ranging from 21 to 32°C is ideal for the plant.
• The rainfall should be well distributed for a period of 9 months and there should be a dry period of 3 months for flowering.
• In India, parts of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, North Eastern region and Andaman and Nicobar Islands are suitable for vanilla cultivation.
• Clay soils and water logged areas are not suitable for the plant.

When cultivation of vanilla is taken up in virgin areas, the land need to be cleared by cutting all shrubs and unwanted trees. Vanilla can also be cultivated in open and non-virgin lands by providing adequate shade plants. The cleared land should be prepared by two rounds of ploughing or digging followed by levelling. It is advisable to incorporate green leaves and top forest soil in the cleared land. A gentle slope is ideal for cultivation of vanilla.

Vanilla is usually propagated by stem cuttings. Cuttings of 60-120 cm long can be selected as planting material for direct planting in the field. Cuttings less than 60 cm should not be used directly for planting. Such cuttings have to be rooted and raised in the nursery before planting. The stem cuttings after collection should be washed thoroughly and given a dip in Bordeaux mixture 1% or copper oxychloride 2 g/l for killing pathogenic fungi, if any.

Then the cuttings are stored in a cool shaded place for 2-3 days for partial loss of moisture, a process which enhances rooting. The cuttings can also be stored upto 10 days if required and can withstand long distance transportation. Plants raised from mature lengthy cuttings come to flowering early. Tissue cultured plantlets can also be utilized for planting. However, sufficiently grown up plantlets should be used.

Vanilla can be raised either as a monocrop or as intercrop in coconut and arecanut gardens. It is usually trained on trellies or on low branching, rough barked trees like Glyricidia maculata, Plumaria alba, Jack (Artocarpus heterophyllus), Erythrina spp., etc. or on dead standards. In some places arecanut is also used for trailing vanilla. The standards have to be planted well in advance at a spacing of 1.2-1.5 m within rows and 2.5-3.0 m between rows. Approximately 1600 to 2000 standards can be accommodated in a hectare. If dead standards are used, shade should be provided to the vines initially by planting banana or suitable plants. The vanilla plants after trailing to a height of 1.5 –2.0 m should be allowed to trail horizontally on poles/trellies tied to trees or coiled around the branches so as to facilitate hand pollination and harvesting. Flowering will not occur as long as the vines climb upward.

The shade trees should be regularly pruned to maintain a light shade. It is advisable to give an umbrella shape for the supporting trees to provide better shade and protection to the vines. The pruned leaves and branches can be applied as mulch.

Planting of cuttings should be taken up preferably during September/November. The cuttings are planted in shallow pits, filled with humus and mulch, raised above the soil surface to avoid water stagnation. The cuttings should be planted with two nodes below the soil surface and at the rate of two cuttings per standard. It is advisable to provide adequate shade to the newly planted cuttings. A thick mulch of leaves should be provided immediately after planting. The cuttings sprout within 4-8 weeks.

Inter-cultivation is not generally recommended. However, occasional slashing of weeds is beneficial. Care should be taken not to disturb or damage the roots during cultural operations since they are mainly confined to the surface layer of the soil. Regular mulching combined with irrigation during summer increases growth and yield.

Vanilla usually starts flowering in the third year of planting; however, it depends on the size of the original cutting used for planting. Maximum production of flowers occurs during the 7-8th year. Vanilla flowers during December to February and each flower lasts for only a day. Pinching off the top 7.5 to 10.0 cm of the vine, 6-8 months before the flowering season encourages flower production. Similarly, pruning off the older branches which fruited previous year also encourages flower production. The flowers are borne in axillary racemes and each inflorescence consists of 15-20 flowers. The flowers are to be artificially pollinated (hand pollination) for fruit set.

Since the flowers last for a day only pollination must be done on the same day. Usually only about 6-8 first flowers in an inflorescence are pollinated. The remaining flower buds are nipped off. About 10-12 inflorescences may be pollinated in a vine. In hand pollination method, a pin or needle or small piece of pointed wood or a tooth pick is ideal to apply pollen on the stigma of the flower. The pollen of the vanilla flower is produced in a mass called pollinia, and is covered by hood or anther cap. The stigma is protected with a lip known as ‘rostellum’ or ‘labellum’.

For pollination, the stamen cap is removed by a needle exposing the pollinia. Then the flap like rostellum is pushed up and the pollinia are brought into contact with the stigma. The ideal time for pollination is 6 am to 1 pm. An efficient worker can pollinate 100-150 flowers a day.