Just wondering if vanilla prices are still artifically
inflated because nobody's the wiser.

I'm fairly new to the whole orchid craze but, from what
I've gathered, the lowering costs of orchids is more from
the enhanced cloning/meristemming/whatever they do than
from finding better/easier ways to pollinate.

As far as the vanilla orchid itself, I have two and have
read a bit about it. IIRC, for vanilla to propagate in
the wild, the plant is usually *huge*. Long, at least,
with something like 25 feet being what I recall. It's
a pretty fast growing plant. I bought one a little over
a year ago in a six-inch hanging pot and ended up
moving most of it to a large, shallow pot about six
months ago. I built a cheap tripod thingy to place in
the pot for the plant to be vined around and up and
it's getting more and more difficult to find some place
to twine it already. A small piece that broke off when
I repotted it was placed back in the original six-inch
pot and is in need of repotting already because it's
outgrowing the space.

Another part of the high price for vanilla beans is the
process that is needed for it to be usable. My eyes crossed
about halfway through the discussion of the process so I
can't even begin to recount it, but it seemed so compli-
cated that I decided then and there to just enjoy any
blooms if/when they came and forget about trying to make
use of any beans that show up.

Tracey