The vanilla orchid (vanilla planifolia) is one of the world’s most interesting plants. Of the nearly 35,000 species of orchid, the second largest botanical family of plants, vanilla is the only species that produces an edible fruit. True vanilla is a sought-after product, usually the second most expensive spice in the world. It is cultivated for its long narrow seedpods, also known as vanilla bean, from which vanilla essence is extracted.
The Vanilla Vine with Mature Pods
Vanilla (Vanilla spp.) is the only fragrant orchid grown commercially anywhere in the world. It is the most important flavoring agent used in the food, beverage, soft drink, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and tobacco industries. In Seychelles, like elsewhere in the tropics, the humid heat and the soil of coastal plateaus are eminently propitious for its propagation.
A little bit of History
Vanilla was discovered in the early sixteenth century in South America by the Spanish conquerors. The Aztecs mostly used vanilla to flavour cocoa beverages. In 1733 vanilla plants were taken to England and were then lost. In the seventeenth century, European imported the vanilla beans and was immediately a success: it was then used to flavour chocolate, candy and tobacco.
At the beginning of the 19th century, it was re-introduced and grown in the gardens of the notable botanist Charles Greville at Paddington. Greville supplied cuttings to the Botanical Garden in Paris. It is possible that vanilla plantations of Réunion, Mauritius and Madagascar originated from a single cutting of 1 to 2 meters that was introduced into Réunion Island in 1822, from the Botanical Garden in Paris. Unfortunately, the attempt to cultivate the precious vanilla proved impossible on these islands. This was because of the absence of natural pollination performed by bees found only in Mexico .
Artificial pollination
The first artificial pollination of the vanilla was performed in 1836 at the botanical garden of Liège by Charles Morren, and then in 1837 by the French Neumann, but it is in 1841 that a young slave, Edmond Albius, invented the process still used today. It was in 1848 that saw the development of its culture in Réunion Island (then better known under the name of “Ile Bourbon”)
Edmond Albius
The contribution of Edmond Albius
In the middle of the nineteenth century, scientists discovered that the vanilla needs an outside fertilizing agent, in this case, bees of the Melipona or Euglossines species. At the same time on Bourbon Island (Réunion Island), Ferreol Beaumont Bellier, began the cultivation of the vanilla plant in the area of Sainte-Suzanne. In 1841, a young slave, Edmond Albius, orphaned and raised like a son by Mr. Beaumont Bellier who introduced him to botany, is at the origin of the discovery that will revolutionize the cultivation of vanilla.
Just lightly press the flower by lifting the movable wall that separates the stamens from the stigma. This discovery will enable the development of the cultivation of vanilla from the island of Réunion, which will be the first world vanilla exporter. The cultivation of vanilla; the fertilization techniques of vanilla flowers; the techniques of drying and fermentation of vanilla beans practiced by the Aztecs, all of these methods were later introduced to other Indian Ocean islands from Réunion Island. It was introduced first the Seychelles, then Madagascar and Comoros.
Vanilla Introduced in Seychelles
It was in 1868 that vanilla arrived in Seychelles. It was one of the first agricultural industries of the islands and was gradually to become a source of colonial revenue in the Indian Ocean and the basis of much private wealth. Every estate owner allocated a few acres of land to the cultivation of vanilla in anticipation of substantial profits.
Vanilla Production took off
Indeed, vanilla was a source of fortune for most property owners who until then had been earning revenue solely from the coconut industry. Almost nine years after its belated introduction into Seychelles, the first batch of vanilla was exported abroad: 60 kilos at SR 1,195.00. A puny amount it might seem but not when one considers that it requires one thousand green pods to get three kilos of cured vanilla. Thus, the harvest for the year of 1877 was around 48,000 green pods. Impressive for an incipient industry of that epoch.
Vanilla Plantation spread to other islands
As demand for vanilla increased, cultivation throughout Seychelles intensified, estate plantations expanded and employed more workers. An acre of land accommodated 1,5000 to 2000 vanilla vines with each vine producing an average of 80 pods.
A Vanilla Plantation on La Digue
Besides the main island of Mahé, vanilleries were created on Praslin, La Digue and Silhouette. Women and children were employed to do the delicate task of pollinating the flowers. A worker pollinated about 1,000 to 1,500 flowers each day earning 7 cents per day. An estate labourer earned 12 rupees per month whereas women who were employed for curing the pods were paid 9 rupees per month. For packet (bundle) tying, women earned SR 2 per 100 bundles of 50 pods each. A good vanillery produced for up to 12 years. On Praslin and on La Digue schoolchildren were employed as ‘birdscarers’ during flowering season to frighten away the bulbul bird, locally known as merl, which was a constant nuisance to hillsides plantations.
Vanilla Vines Growing on Bars- an unpopular system
Indeed, vanilla cultivation proved to be a veritable windfall for the agricultural economy of the Seychelles. Between 1893 and 1903, the harvest was 454,379 kilos – more vanilla than all the other British Colonies put together.
Cascade Estate (Vanilla) Mahe. Two years & 5 months after planting. (21 Feb. 1914.)
Some vanilla production statistics
Production and profit increased with each successive harvest. In 1878, 147 kilos at SR 2,950, in 1880, 1,713 kilos at SR 22,8777. The end of the nineteenth century , 41,835 kilos (over 40 tons) of vanilla was exported at SR 1,338,720 culminated in a veritable ‘fin de siècle’ bonanza for the vanilla industry of Seychelles. The average price per kilo of vanilla was SR 32.00. That was 1899 and the number of inhabitants stood at around 17,000. That same year the number of coconuts harvested was 983,418, which brought in SR 19, 667.00.
In 1901 the largest quantity of vanilla ever exported in one single year came to 71,899 kilos but the vagaries of the competitive spice market and fluctuation in prices resulted in a value of SR 1,108,792. Yet this did not mar the period of prosperity for the vanilla growers. In 1907, 70 tons were exported.
Seychelles Rubber & Coconut Estates, Ltd. Cascade Estate, Mahe. Vanilla bearing 2 years & 5 months after planting. (21 Feb. 1914).
A success story!
By the turn of the century Seychelles was exporting more vanilla than all other British colonies put together, and the countries of the world were continuously discovering new uses for the flavour and aroma of this exotic spice. In fact, vanilla had become the most sought-after flavouring agent. Many Europeans had discovered the distinctive taste of vanilla for the first time in 1837 when a Birmingham chemist Alfred Bird had invented custard powder in response to his wife’s plea for a dish that did not contain eggs. He used vanilla extract as a flavouring agent and it immediately appealed to the public’s taste which was later indulged by vanilla ice cream, that seemingly most mundane of all desserts!
The warning
In 1903 Seychelles got its first governor, Ernest Bickham Sweet- Escott. He arrived at a time when the vanilla industry was at its peak of productivity and the paramount source of revenue for the British protectorate islands. He bewildered and baffled plantation owners when he judiciously cautioned them against relying entirely on vanilla cultivation and neglecting other agricultural crops.
The Decline
His foresight and prudence were well founded. In Europe scientists in laboratories were frantically searching for a cheaper alternative to pure vanilla: synthetic vanilla. It was consternation and disappointment for planters who by the end of the 1920’s almost found themselves faced with an over-stocked market and a falling off in demand. A kilo of vanilla had dropped to SR 5.00.
Between 1960 – 1964, which was the time when vanilla growers were ceasing production for the export market because of the cheaper synthetic vanillin that most countries were buying, a total of 21,972 tons of vanilla were exported for the value of Rs 1,103,399.
Between 1966 and 1970 the relatively meagre amount of 8,191 kilos were exported for the value of Rs 295,000.
My Exposure to the production of Vanilla
I hold fond memories of time spent early morning before going to school, whereby I took immense pleasure pollinating the newly opened flowers of the vanilla creeper and comimg back after school to collect and prepare the pods for curing. I grew up with one of my aunties who has a property at Praslin Island and this is where I got exposed to many farming skills including the planting and harvesting of vanilla. I will try my best below to describe how we went about managing the vanilla plantation we had on the property:
Location
Our plantation was located in the flat land, or plateau, under the tall coconut tree plantation, at the back of the main house. In those days, it was wise to have your vanilla plantation close to the house as a security against theft that was rife then. The coconut trees provided the primary shade that was required for healthy vanilla vines. Further shade was provided by the live support/post that that the vines grew on. This support is called titer or tutor
Planting of the tutor– titer
Vanilla is an epiphyte. An epiphyte is a plant that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, or from debris accumulating around it. In the case of the vanilla, this plant it grows on is known as a tutor tree. We planted the tutor trees/live posts one year before the vanilla plants were to be transplanted. Planting in advance gave the posts the chance to root in before the vines grow to a significant weight. The posts were about two meters tall and 6 to 8 cm in diameter with a few smaller bifurcating branches.
Vanilla Plantation on La Digue Island Showing the Tutor Plants and Coconut Husk Mulch
The Selection of Tutor Plant
The selection, planting, and management of the tutor tree was nearly as important as the care of the vanilla vine itself. The two main trees that were used as tutor trees were the Moringa oleifera, known locally as ‘bred moroum’ , and the Gliricidium sepium , locally known as ‘pericilia’. The ‘pericilia’ was prefered because it grows quickly from a cut staff and has fungicidal properties to protect the vanilla. It is a tree that do not grow too large, but gives moderate foliage without ever losing all its leaves at once. It has plenty of branches from 2 to 3 meters from the ground, affording forks enough to train the vines through.
There was no hard and fast rule laid down as to the distance the vine should be kept apart. However, to minimise the possible of spreading disease we planted the live posts about 2 meters apart. This also allowed enough space for us to circulate around the posts to pollinate the flowers and to remove weeds.
There were incidences that, after the first year in the field, some tutors were found to be too weak and we provided additional support by planting a second tutor next to the first.
Propagation
Vanilla is an easy plant to propagate. We initially bought cuttings from other planters in the village and as time went by, we produced our own cuttings from mature plants. The cuttings were about 12 to 24 nodes or 1 to 1.5 meters long. The longer the cutting the faster it will produce flowers.
Planting
We planted the cuttings once the tutors were established and usually at the beginning of the rainy season which is around October to April. We would bury a few nodes horizontally at the base of the vine under an ample pile of woody mulch. The mulch was mainly made up of rotten leaves, grass and coconut husks, mixed with some cow manure. We tied the rest of the vine to the living post or if long enough draped over the branches. Tying parts of the vine, around nodes, to the live post encourages aerial roots to form and connects to the support post.
The material we used for these ties was a fiber called lakord vacoa made from leaves of the pandanus tree. These ties rot in about a year, by which time the plants had developed tendril-like roots enough to steady themselves. The cuttings needed little or no attention for some months, but we always had a schedule to manage them as will be discussed later on.
Mulching
Soon after the vines have been established in the field and tied to their respective tutors, we applied a layer of coconut husk ( labour koko) around each plant in a diameter of 1 to 1.5 meters. The coconut husk raises the vanilla roots off of the ground and retains moisture during the dry season. Less husk material was used during the first year of growth, but was then increased as the plants sent out increasingly more roots. The coconut husks were placed with their interiors facing toward the soil. A layer of leaf mulch no more than 10 cm thick was then be applied on top of the coconut husk.
The coconut husk lasted one to two years before completely decomposing. The leaf mulch was applied twice a year, depending on availability and rate of decomposition. This was accommplished by raking fallen, dry leaves from the surrounding area directly onto the base of each vanilla plant or by importing dry leaves from other areas of the farm.
Because the roots of vanilla are very susceptible to disturbance, all our domestic animals, especially chicken were kept away from the plantation.
Weed Control
We maintained the layer of mulch around each vanilla plant free of weeds by hand weeding. Weed control between rows was carried out utilizing a machete (gran kouto). Care was taken not to damage the exposed roots. No pesticide was used. Any grass clippings that resulted from the between row weeding were applied as mulch to the vanilla but only after they had completely dried.
Guiding
Once per week we would walk the plantation and check for any vines that were trying to climb high, run along the ground or reaching for other plants. These vines were tucked back toward the living posts or draped around the branches of the post. The idea was to slowly create a figure eight with the vine, draping it back over itself. Vanilla plants won’t flower well if they only climb upwards and if they do, the flowers will be out of reach.
Pruning
We pruned the living posts once or twice a year. Pruning allowed us to manage sunlight and shade during the rainy and dry seasons, to provide mulch for the vanilla plants, and to eliminate tall branches that the vanilla wanted to climb.
Watering
We did not have to water the plantation. This task would have been impossible anyway because there were too many plants to water. We had only watering cans and no hoses then! We relied on the shade and mulch to keep the vines from drying out.
Fertility
The vanilla vine gets most of its nutrients from the mulch layer around the base of the support tree. As an epiphyte it also takes in nutrients from the air. We occasionally applied high quality compost but avoided applying animal manure because the high nitrogen content encourages vegetative growth over flowering.
Pollination
The key to vanilla is successful pollination of the flower.
The vanilla Flower
The flowers typically appear during the drier times of year which is during the Southeast Monsoon and are triggered by the lack of rainfall. Flowers take some six weeks to develop from the moment they burst through the buds to their time of opening. This period, however, varies in length with the weather, continuous dryness retarding and moderate showers hastening their development when once started. They form in clusters, called raceme, of around 15-20 flowers, with only one flower opening each day. The flowers open for no more than 8 hours and are best pollinated early in the morning. If the pollination was successful, the flower will dry up but remain attached to the vine; if it was not successful the flower would fall off within 24 hours.
A Raceme of Vanilla Flower
This isn’t a major problem however since each raceme will produce up to fifteen to twenty flowers for pollination. To insure large beans and avoid stressing the plant with too large a crop, we pollinated only 6 to 8 flowers on each raceme. The smaller flowers that open later in the flowering season were left unpollinated. A mature vanilla plant will produce numerous racemes during the flowering season.
A vanilla Flower Ready for Pollination
Which Flowers to pollinate?
In selecting flowers to pollinate or fertilise, we chose those which sprang from the lower part and from the sides of the raceme, from which position they grow straighter pods than those coming out on top. Straight pods were of better value that curved ones.
The Flower Structure
The vanilla flowers are hermaphroditic, and this means they contain both female and male parts. Because of a specific tissue in the flower that actually covers the stem (called the rostellum), the flower is unable to self-pollinate. Another factor to consider is that the pollen on a vanilla orchid is incredibly tough to access. As such, your everyday honeybee cannot reach the pollen. Only the steadfast and persistent Melipona Bee can actually reach the pollen so as to consistently bring about fertilization. Because we do not have these bees in Seychelles all vanilla flowers had to be hand pollinated.
Longitudinal Section of a Vanilla Flower
How did we pollinate the flowers?
Pollination is a straightforward process once mastered. The goal is to push together the anther (male part of the flower) and the stigma (female). In between these reproductive organs there is a small flap, called the rostellum. All we had as tool was a thorn from an orange tree or pikan zoranz. The method that we used was to hold thorn between our thumb and first finger of our dominant hand and poke it into the side of the flower, lift the rostellum forward, and use your other hand to press the anther back onto the stigma, transfering the pollen.
The Albius Method for Vanilla Pollination
Sometime in order to facilitate this process, we would gently tear open the bottom of the flower to provide improved visibility of the minute task. The torn part of the flower was kept and counted as a record of the number of flowers pollinated. It sounds complicated, but it is a simple process that can be picked up quickly. Sometimes we would pollinate over a hundred flowers per hour. On most plantations this task was reserved for children, like me, and women because men were found to be too rough with the flowers!
Branding and anti-theft marker
Once the pods were mature we would brand or tatoo them. In order to ensure that the pods were not stolen, we used a system that was popular then. We had an anti-theft marker which was like a enlarged pencil, one end of which was flat and in which a series of sharp gramophone needles were embedded with the pointed tips facing out. Each plantation owner had one and they all had different number of needles with different configuration. This was registered officially. We would prick each bean one or two months before harvesting to mark them so that if stollen, the needdle marks would identify where they were obtained from. The branding did not affect the quality of the pods.
Harvest
Vanilla pods, also called beans (though not beans at all), are ready about nine months after pollination. They are ready to harvest when the tip starts turning yellow. Once mature beans were identified, we hand-picked each one gently to avoid splitting the bean open prematurely. Any beans with splits or blemishes are set aside. Only perfect, unblemished beans made it to the curing process.
Mature Vanilla Pods
The beans were carefully cut from the stem using a sharp knife. At this phase they are green and odorless. We would plunge them in cold water, thoroughly rinse them and then dry them with an absorbant cloth.
The Preliminary Sorting
Once all pods were cleaned we would sort them roughly into four classes: long; medium; short, and split. The length of a pod ranges for 6 to 9 inches, with 9 inches being regarded as a higher quality that a 6 inch. Buyers were very particular in this respect.
Curing the Pods
Some very large planations had curing houses but we did not have a large plantation that waranted a curing house. We used the next best process which is the blanching process.
Blanching
We would boil water in a half barrell and place a batch of about 400 pods in a bamboo basket and plunge them into hot water for ten seconds; this was repeated twice, the dips being increased to twelve and fifteen seconds respectively, with intervals of half a minute between each two. The pods are blanched in order to stop their vegetative growth, remove dirt, and activate enzymes that contribute to the flavor and color of the final product.
Sweating
After the third dip, when most of the water has drained off the pods, we would wipe the pods individually and immediately place them in a wooden box or barrel lined with blankets, and closely covered up with the same material. Each class was blanched seperately but all were placed in the same box for curing , for the more pods there are together the better heat is retained.
Vanilla Beans Drying in the Sun
The pods were allowed to sweat and by the following morning they would have changed to chocolate color, and were then ready to be spread on the drying racks and placed in the sun. The racks had a thick cloth at the bottom and the pods were spread one level high. The pods were exposed to the sun for about three hours every day and then covered with a think blanket and taken out of the sun and allowed to sweat . The alternate drying the pods in the sun and sweating them lasted for about for 10-14 days until the pods turn a deep brown.
Final Curing
Next, the pods were stored in closed boxes for many weeks to permit the full development of the desired aroma and flavour. At the end of the curing process the pods are usually long, fleshy, supple, very dark brown to black in colour, somewhat oily in appearance, strongly aromatic and free from scars and blemishes.They will be by then one third if their original weight because of dehydration.
Last sorting
All vanilla pods now referred to a vanilla beans were then sorted by quality, based on how moist they are and how long they are, after which they are stored in rough bundles and stored for as long as six months. The bundling made it easier for us to examine the beans once or twice a week in order to remove the molded ones. We found out that inspecting the beans in bundles was quicker than when they are loose. Moreover, it also made the ultimate accurate measuring easier. At the end of the six months we made the final sorting and prepared the final bundles ready for sale.
Cured Vanilla Beans Being Prepared for Bundling
Final Bundling
Bundle tying is something of an art. All bundles had 50 pods and we selected 14 to 16 of the shapeliest pods in each 50 for the outside; the rest were tied up as a core, being kept in position with a few turns of the fiber cord, while the chosen are carefully placed round them. The bundle was tied in either three places, near each end and in the middle, or in two places, about 3 cm or more from the ends, according to the length of bundle. The core-holding string was pulled out before the final tie was fixed. Two-tie bundes were boxed as they are. With those of three ties some buyers prefered that the end cords be removed before packing, to enable them to examine the bundles inside and see if the contents were of uniform quality.
A Bundle of Cured Vanilla
Karl St. Ange Vanilla Producer and Agent
One well-known Vanilla Producer and Agent in the early 1960’s was Mr. Karl St. Ange from La Digue. Apart from producing his own vanilla, he would travel to Praslin in his long pirogue to source prepared vanilla. He used to buy vanilla from us at Grand Anse because we were known for the superior quality vanilla that we produced.
Mr. Karl St. Ange , with hat on, in his pirogue leaving Praslin- Photo courtesy Alain St. Ange
Find below a copy of a letter sent from The Tropical Products Institute of London to the Seychelles Producers Association prasing the qualitu of Mr St. Ange’s vanilla.
Photo Courtesy Alain St. Ange
Below are some official reports about our vanilla industry in late 1890s:
In the Annual Report for 1896 (Colonial Reports Annual, N0. 214, 1897), by the Administrator Mr. H. Cockburn Stewart has this to say:
“The vanilla crop of last year is the largest that has ever been grown in Seychelles- 63,000 lbs. The price ruling during the year on the London and Paris Markets have also been most favorable, and the value of the crop has been declared at Rs. 936,000.00”. The large output of vanilla has given a fresh impetus to its cultivation and a very large quantity has been planted during the year.
When the country is opened up by means of roads, as will shortly be the case, many acres of vanilla land will no doubt be taken up which at present are uncultivated owing to difficulty of transport.
In one district alone, the Mare aux Cochons, to which a new road will be opened, there are about 5,000 acres of virgin soil well suited to vanilla.
The cultivation of vanilla only dates back to about 20 years ago and is only now beginning to be thoroughly understood.
The Mexican system of allowing the vines to grow under trees nearly wild is almost universally adopted at present and is a decided improvement on the old system of training the vines on artificial supports. I trust that the new mode of cultivating will go far to ensure regular crops. Nothing pays better than vanilla. Its production costs the planter Rs. 3 per pound, and as prices vary form Rs. 8 to Rs. 16 per pound, a net profit of from Rs. 5 to Rs. 13 is the result. This year the average price was Rs. 15 the pound. The yield may be taken to be 200lbs. an acre.
Taking therefore an average of Sr. 10, an acre of vanilla should produce Rs.2,000.
Most of the land in Seychelles is in the hands of private owners, and it is difficult to estimate its cost, but it may be taken that land can be bought at from Rs. 100 to Rs.200 the acre. It has been stated that landowners are reluctant to part with their land, but I do not apprehend much difficulty on this score provided that purchasers are prepared to pay ready money. There is some land belonging to the Government well adapted for vanilla cultivation which can be leased for periods varying from 9 to 21 years. Seychelles is unfortunately almost a terra incognita, for I cannot help thinking that if the scores of young Englishmen who leave mother country year after year for other lands knew of it, they would give the preference to an English colony which offers advantages not to be met with elsewhere for the investment of a small capital of say, £1,000.”
______________________________________
Information regarding our vanilla industry published in the Kew Bulletin, 1897.
Colonial Ocffice to Royal Garden Kew
The director
Royal Gardens, Kew
Sir, Downing Street, December 6, 1897
I am directed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to transmit to you, for your information, the enclosed copy of a dispatch from the Administrator of the Seychelles Islands, forwarding a specimen of vanilla, grown on one of the estates in those islands.
I am etc..
H Bertram Cox
———————————————-
[Enclosure]
Administrator of the Seychelles to the Colonial Office
Government House Seychelles
October 16, 1897
SIR,
I have the honour to inform you that I have forwarded to you by this mail a specimen of vanilla, which was given to me by Mr. D’Emmerez, owner of Amitié Estate, Praslin, and which is one of the finest samples of vanilla I have seen.
I went through the estate when lately at Praslin, and was much struck by its appearance and that of the neighbouring estate “Côte d’Or”, which last year produced about £5,000 worth of vanilla.
Some of the Seychelles vanilla sent home last year was pronounced by experts to be the finest ever seen on the London market, and the bundle I am sending will show how well the preparation of vanilla is now understood in the Dependency.
(Signed)
H. Cockburn Stewart
Adminstrator
The Right Honourable
J. Chamberlain , M.P.
___________
Royal Gardens, Kew to Colonial Office
SIR, Royal Gardens , Kew, December 28, 1897
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of December 6, transmitting a sample of vanilla grown in the Seychelles. I now enclose, for the information of the Secretary of State, a commercial report upon it.
(Signed)
W.T Thidelton-Dyer
—————–
H. Bertram Cox Esq.
Downing Street, S.W.
[Enclosure]
Report by Mr. A.C.Meyjes, of the Chemist and Druggist, on a sample of vanilla grown in the Seychelles, and received through the Colonial Office, December 7, 1897.
“ The pod you have sent is an unusually fine and long one. Vanilla of this character would probably realise about 26s. or 27s. per lb. gross in London market at the present time. From that figure must be deducted certain trade allowances, brokerage, etc., amounting altogether to about 10 percent. But you friends should be careful to tie the vanilla together in bundles containing pods all of the length, or at least not varying more than ½ inch, because pods are paid by length as well as appearance. And further, I am afraid that the prices of vanilla are on the decline. They have been unusually high this year, and after Christmas the trade demand is apt to drop. Moreover, vanilla-growing must have been a very profitable business during the past few seasons and the unusual result, viz, over-production is sure to follow. Strange to say, vanillin (the coal-tar product) has never been so cheap as now. The consumption of vanilla pods, however, is increasing every year and is likely to do so for a long time.”
Sources
The Secret of Vanilla: Tony Mathiot
Vanillla Culture as practiced in the Seychelles Islands: By S. J. Galbraith.
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