Weeding and intercropping

• Vanilla cannot withstand even the slightest root disturbance. Hence remove weeds from the plant base by hand weeding and use them as mulch.
• Being closely planted, no intercrops are raised in a pure plantation of vanilla.
• But vanilla can be planted as an intercrop in coffee, coconut, arecanut etc.

Watering

• A lower plant water potential result in induction of flowering and a higher potential encourages vegetative growth.
• sprinkler irrigation is ideal for promotion of vine growth since it provides a favourable microclimate for absorption of moisture through leaves besides supplementing soil moisture.
• Drip irrigation is also suited to vanilla irrigation.
• As far as possible, flooding should be avoided, as vanilla cannot withstand water logging.

Shade Management

• The thumb rule is that vanilla requires about 50 % shade.
• The lopping of branches of living support is very important to regulate shade.
• The support trees, especially glyricidia, should be lopped in May and November to initiate growth of new side branches for trailing of vines.
• Flowering and quality of beans are highly influenced by the degrees of shade to which the vines are exposed.

Trailing of vines

• The growth of plants should be limited up to about 150 cm height.
• This is mainly to facilitate easy manual pollination.
• The vines are normally grown coiled around the lower branches of support trees and allowed to hang down or allowed to grow on the horizontal supports.