Vanilla (fragrant herb) spice plants, containing aromatic volatile oils, antioxidants, bactericides, not only can drive flies, landscaping, air purification, beautification of the living room, but also widely used in beauty, bathing, food and medicine. Representative plants are lavender, rosemary, thyme, patchouli and so on.

Vanilla planting techniques

1 Sowing

Sowing time: vanilla is mostly herbaceous plants, to spring and fall sowing is the main, different vanilla plants will vary.

2 Water and fertilizer management

Vanilla plants in the growth of the first and middle of the water requirements are more, potting about 3 d to water once.

Vanilla on the fertilizer requirements are not high, in its rapid growth in the spring (March - May), can be watered monthly 1% Trim granular compound fertilizer solution, pay attention to too much nitrogen fertilizer prone to cause prolongation, insufficient fertilizer will make the elongation of the internode leaves become smaller, quality and yield decline.

3 plant management

For herbaceous plants, vanilla plant management is based on centering, through timely centering can better promote branching, increase the amount of branches and leaves. Generally in the seed germination, after the true leaves grow four or five leaves, we have to carry out centering. Vanilla plants hurt the top of the branch through centering, but also wake up the lower part of the original dormant buds began to grow out, easy to have more branches, grow more dense, plant shape is more beautiful, but also through centering to control the height to prevent the collapse. However, it should be noted that too much centering will cause the branches and leaves to be too lush, so that the lower leaves can not receive enough sunlight, which will cause the plant to grow poorly.

4 Harvesting

Harvesting is usually done around 10am on a sunny day. This is the time when the sun dries up the water on the leaves, the temperature is not too high, and the flavor of the vanilla is the strongest. You can cut off the ground part or 3/4 of the ground part, leaving about 1/4 of the plant to grow. For good spices, it is best to harvest them before they bloom. If you want to have a longer harvesting period, you should control reproductive growth and reduce flowering. After each harvest, it is important to supplement the herb plant with N fertilizer or Trim Foliar Fertilizer to allow the herb plant to grow back.

Harvested herbs, you can use it frozen, or soaked in olive oil, cooking can be used directly. The most convenient way is to dry it. In Fujian, where it is more humid, you need to pay special attention to how to keep dry.

5 Pest Control

Harvesting of vanilla plants is mostly for stems, leaves and flowers, and all of them are related to food, so it is best not to use any pesticides, but if you find any pests, you must deal with them as soon as possible. In fact, vanilla plants because of their own unique flavor, in the daily maintenance of good water and fertilizer management and ventilation measures, pests and diseases are not easy to occur.