Vanilla Loves Humidity

I was reading up on how much cacao trees were selling for since I talked with my boss about what to do with the trees that are growing in the office and I said I sold one and gave others away to people who wanted them.  He asked how much I sold one for (about $25).  I remember looking it up before and seeing ranges anywhere from $45 to nearly $200 for larger trees.  When I looked again the range has dropped a little but still sits in the $30 to $140 range.  Some of the places are currently out of trees and some close for winter.  Any way you look at it though I'm sitting on a couple thousand dollars worth of trees in various stages of growth.

To the topic of this thread though, in among all this cacao growing I have several vanilla orchid vines.  We've had a humidifier for a while now and with summer coming up it isn't needed at home so I took it up to work to humidify the orchids.  They totally love the extra humidity!  Which is what got me on to talking about cacao in the first place.  I was reading that someone insisted cacao wanted a humid environment.  I have not found this to be the case at all.  Some trees really do love the humidity.  The typical office ficus is one such tree and will actually grow roots on its branches to soak up the extra moisture.  These vanilla orchids too love humidity and in only a week the roots along the vines have exploded with new growth.  Leaves are poking up in new locations too, taking advantage of the extra moisture.  It doesn't hurt that I've clumped the vines in a central location just over where the humidifier is pointing.  Occasionally I can see whisps of vapor coming through although I have kept it turned down so it doesn't waste water. Dripping off of the leaves to the floor doesn't help anything.

The vanilla as well has greatly increased and I could probably make cuttings and have 3-4 times as many plants as I started with.  Not worth nearly thousands but a couple hundred or so.  The real value in a vanilla orchid though is of course the vanilla beans.  A well cared for vanilla bean can be worth many times over the cost of the vine which can easily produce 50 beans a year on a healthy vine. Say you have 20 vines and you're looking at $10,000 in beans rather than paying that at the grocery store.  I already have people wanting beans for commercial bakeries when they start producing.  Vanilla is one of those products that has more demand than supply and all you can do it try to grow more.

Hygrometers (Humidity Meter)

Apparently I should have waited longer to see how humid it was getting.  The water wickers have been there for over a week but the hygrometer I just put there a few hours earlier.  Checking it later that day it had gotten to a little over 60% now it's a whopping 70%.  No wonder the orchids like it there.  It' a very localized humidity but that's exactly what they need.  Of course I'll need to change them out every week so they don't grow mold but that's a small price to pay to keep these babies happy.  I do think I'll be adding a third though. Although 70% is on the high side of normal, it's on the low side of what orchids prefer. 85% would be a sweet percent to be able to get to and really get these guys comfortable.

The humidity is still creeping up.  It says 71 now.